.XXX: Diane Duke’s Update from Cartagena

It’s 1am on Sunday Morning… Do you know where your trade association is?

On Sunday, December 5, at 1am Free Speech Coalition Executive Director Diane Duke and FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas took off from LAX to arrive in Cartagena, Columbia 14 hours later — our goal, to do everything within our power to block ICM’s proposed .XXX sponsored top level domain. Both Jeffrey and I have been grabbing ICANN Board members and GAC members (Government Advisory Council) giving them information packets or one-page information sheets briefly describing our concerns.

Some of the ICANN Board members have admitted that they are unhappy with the idea of moving forward believing that ICM does not have the support of the sponsorship community but they feel obligated to approve the application anyway due to a flawed process. From what we have witnessed, there exists a great deal of conflict between the ICANN Board and the GAC (Government Advisory Council).

The GAC has opposed ICM’s proposal in the past and we are hoping that they will continue to oppose. There is a joint meeting between the GAC and the ICANN Board this afternoon and we expect a great deal will be revealed then. We will keep you posted as the meeting progresses.

Special thanks to those of you who helped fund this trip — we won’t let you down. – dd