Here’s Some of What FSC Offers to Members

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) is the trade association for the adult entertainment industry. Our mission is to lead, protect and support the growth and development of the adult entertainment community. As such we are often the watchdog for the industry, on the forefront of protecting the industry through lobbying and litigation efforts. Many of you are familiar with our recent work on 2257, CalOSHA and .XXX. FSC takes its role as industry watchdog very seriously and we are relentless in our efforts to protect the industry from oppressive regulations.

However, we at FSC are also mindful that there are a number of other factors that impact the success of adult businesses. Our industry is made up of a number of businesses large and small and as your trade association we also look to ways to increase your net result of operations by finding ways for our members to cut expenses and increase revenues.

FSC Anti-piracy Action Program (FSCAPAP)

APAP’s state-of-the-art technology incorporates audio/video fingerprinting and meta-data. This state-of-theart software offers the most comprehensive and effective technology available to track, take down and document infringements of your content. FSC has negotiated group pricing for its members for a fraction of what the tracking technology normally costs. Moreover, FSC has approached a number of previously offending tubesites to work with FSC to block uploads of pirated content. Utilizing APAP technology, our program not only blocks stolen content from being uploaded, but also through monetization realizes a potential new revenue stream for content providers and distributors.

Human Resources Consultation

Many adult industry businesses are too small to warrant a staff human resource (HR) position. Yet no matter the size, HR issues creep up in any and all business settings. FSC has negotiated with Neda Ghazanfarpour of HR Monster, LLC to offer discounts to FSC members for HR consultations and services. NEDA is an accomplished attorney and HR specialist highly recommended within the adult entertainment industry.

Health Insurance Discounts

Recently, FSC was approached by a number of studios because they had seen their health insurance premiums skyrocket this year. As an association we are working to obtain insurance rates at a lower rate for members. Individual companies will still have complete control over the type of plans they offer but FSC members will benefit from a group discount.

Freight Discounts

FSC is working with shipping companies to offer discounts to FSC members that could save thousands of dollars annually for FSC member companies. Again, negotiating as a group, FSC is able to get more favorable rates for many of our member than they can get on their own.

These are but just a few of the member benefits offered by FSC. For more information or to become a member contact Joanne Cachapero, joanne@freespeechcoalition.com or call the office at (818) 348-9373.

For the past 30 years FSC has not raised its membership dues, making an FSC membership the best investment an adult business can make in today’s economy. With these discounts and other protections offered by FSC, you can’t afford not to be a member. As your trade association FSC not only watches your back, we watch your bottom line. – dd

FSC Anti-Piracy Program Adds Slutload, Takes Down Bootlegger

Ventura Content, parent company of Pink Visual, this week reached a settlement with AFIC, Inc., operators of tubesite Slutload.com, in a copyright infringement suit filed in December. One of the conditions of the settlement requires Slutload.com to participate in Free Speech Coalition’s Anti-Piracy Action Program (FSC-APAP), bringing the total number of participating tubesites to twelve.

“Slutload.com is a significant addition to our program,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said. “Special thanks go out to Pink Visual for the work they have done to combat piracy and for endorsing FSC-APAP through their actions.”

Slutload.com will begin utilizing FSC-APAP’s Mediawise technology in order to comply with the terms of the settlement. The list of tubesites already using Mediawise includes ExtremeTube.com, KeezMovies.com, PornHub.com, SpankWire.com, Tube8.com, Xtube.com, Xvideos.com, XNXX.com, TNAflix.com, Empflix.com, and XHamster.com.

Mediawise technology allows fingerprinted digital content to be detected by the tubesites, prior to being uploaded. At that point, APAP tubesite operators prevent the illegal content from being posted and, instead, post an approved trailer or truncated version of the scene. Users who view the content are offered an option to purchase the original content and a link to the content producer’s retail website. If a purchase is made, this effectively creates a rev-share affiliation for the tube site and the content producer, and a new stream of revenue for both parties.

“The tubesites are completing the process of fingerprinting their back catalogs and almost all of the studios have fingerprinted their entire libraries. Weekly we have studios and tubesites approaching us to join our program,” Duke explained. “Because of this industry-wide coordinated effort, 2011 promises to be the year the adult industry started to make a significant impact in the fight against piracy.”

FSC-APAP also partnered with content protection firm Porn Guardian in February. At the end of March, Porn Guardian succeeded in stopping an Atlanta-based bootlegger from selling illegally replicated copies of adult DVDs on online retail website EBay.

“Copyrighted full-length feature films from several major studios were being offered,” said Porn Guardian partner Peter Phinney. “Hothouse Entertainment first found the listings and brought them to our attention. We did some due diligence to verify that this was not an authorized reseller; then, we registered almost 30 complaints with eBay on behalf of Hot House, Raging Stallion Studios, Falcon, Lucas Entertainment, and Channel 1 Releasing.”

The seller packed up his operation and fled as soon as he was notified of the first complaint via email. His eBay Profile now reads, “no longer a registered user,” and “this seller currently has no items for sale.” It is estimated that this pirate, who was located in Lawrenceville, GA, had sold almost 1,000 bootleg DVD’s from his electronic storefront.

“We’re overjoyed with this result,” Hot House Entertainment President Steven Scarborough said. “Thanks Porn Guardian and thanks eBay for taking this guy out.”

Content providers currently participating in the FSC-APAP program include Wicked Pictures, Girlfriends Films, Adam and Eve, Hustler/LFP, New Sensations, Digital Playground, AEBN, Vince Voyeur, Severe Society Films, Titan Media, Channel 1 Releasing, Bel Ami, Hot House Entertainment, Kristen Bjorn Productions, Raging Stallion Studios, Falcon Studios, Hot Desert Knights, Factory Video, Corbin Fisher, Bear Films, Pacific Sun Entertainment, Treasure Island Media, and OCCash.

“With Vobile’s Mediawise technology addressing the tubesites, and Porn Guardian’s program addressing P2P, cyberlockers and Torrents, FSC-APAP is a truly comprehensive, industry-wide approach to fighting piracy,” said Duke.

For more information about the FSC’s Anti-Piracy Action Program, please contact (818) 348-9373 or diane@freespeechcoalition.com, or please visit FSCAPAP.com.

(Illustration: The Capture of the Pirate Blackbeard, 1718, by Jean Leon Gerome Ferris, 1920)

Now What? Video of .XXX Seminar at Phoenix Forum

Well, here it is – the much anticipated video of the “.XXX – Now What?” seminar that was presented at webmaster trade conference The Phoenix Forum, on April 2. As you’ll see, the discussion was “lively,” to say the least – or down right hostile, especially after ICM Registry’s Vaughn Liley seemed unable to adequately answer questions posed by a packed house of adult webmasters.

The confusion expressed over .XXX and its IFFOR regulatory board’s policies and bylaws by webmasters and ICM’s representatives is remarkable, considering the nearly decade-long push by ICM to get the “sponsored” Top Level Domain approved by domain regulator ICANN.

It also is important to note that The Phoenix Forum is a long-established, well-attended adult online trade conference – with reported record attendance this year – it should be assumed that the majority of U.S. adult online business owners were either at the conference or had company representatives there. If the hostility and confusion expressed at this seminar represents the opinions of a cross-section of the U.S. adult online community, how is it possible for ICM Registry to claim that the .XXX domain is supported by this community?

Clearly, the concerns over online ghetto-ization, censorship, unnecessary fees, potential regulatory issues, cyber-squatting, payment processing, and trademark infringement – just to name a few – are hugely threatening to all adult online businesses.

Forty-four minutes into the video, Liley refers to the mainstream media reports following the approval of .XXX on March 18 at the ICANN 40 Conference in San Francisco, and specifically, the reports on the Indian government’s announcement that they will be the first to block the .XXX domain. Liley implies that the media coverage .XXX has received will lead to increased traffic for webmasters (combined with a marketing campaign financed by ICM). But what he fails to elaborate on is that much of the news following the approval of .XXX was negative – at best, referring to .XXX as “unnecessary” with many media analysts implying that the domain scheme amounts to nothing more than a money grab (FSC has links to many articles stating as such in publications like Forbes, Bloomberg, Huffington Post, etc.).

Later in the video, around 1:39, Liley is questioned about the potential for ICM to spider content on .XXX sites (and .coms that are linked to .XXX addresses) and other authentication verification procedures. His reply prompts catcalls of “liar” and “criminal” from the audience.

The panel was moderated by Wasteland.com founder Colin Rowntree. Representatives for pro-.XXX interests were ICM Liley and GEC Media’s Gregory Dumas. Representing the anti-.XXX side were Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas, FSC Board member and journalist Tom Hymes and FSC Board Chair and attorney Jeffrey Douglas. Mikandi’s Chris Lewicki, Wildline’s Chris Miller and CCBill’s Ron Caldwell also sat on the panel.

We suggest that you use headphones to listen to this video, due to the poor acoustics of the seminar venue.

Special thanks to videographer and adult webmaster Lloyd Brown for recording this important event, as well as Colin Rowntree for making this video available.

All adult businesses have an online presence at this point, so this is an important issue for the whole industry, from online content providers to adult online retail sites to payment processors; we encourage you to watch and judge for yourself.

In related news: ICANN and ICM Registry finalized the contract for the .XXX domain on April Fool’s Day. How appropriate.

FSC’s advice to adult online businesses? Stay .COM – just say “NO” to .XXX – jc

Webmasters Show Lack of Support for .XXX at Phoenix Forum

ICANN and ICM Registry finalized the contract for the .XXX “sponsored” top level domain on April 1; the news was announced on ICANN’s blog in a  post by ICANN general counsel John Jeffrey.

At the same time, popular adult webmaster trade show Phoenix Forum was taking place in Tempe, AZ. A seminar was schedule at the show for April 2, titled “.XXX – Now What?” With reported record attendance at the show, many longtime, established webmasters and adult online business owners were present and attended the seminar.

In its original announcement, no representatives of ICM Registry were scheduled to appear on the .XXX panel. But after some last minute speaker-juggling, ICM’s Vaughn Liley and GEC Media’s Greg Dumas agreed to speak on the panel, on behalf of .XXX.

That’s when the real Q&A started. To kick off the seminar, the floor was opened to questions from the audience, many of which were anxious to know about ICM’s policies and bylaws for .XXX and its IFFOR regulatory committee. This article from XBIZ.com illustrates what followed after Liley was unable to satisfactorily answer several audience members’ questions.

Though Liley attempted to appease the audience with “shout-out” answers to some questions, the article says that he “would have been better off putting his hand in a fishbowl full of piranhas.”

FSC Executive Director also was in attendance at the .XXX seminar and pointed out to Liley several inconsistencies in his answers regarding ICM’s bylaws. The reaction of the assembled adult webmasters and online business owners was no surprise to FSC.

“It was clear at this seminar that adult industry professionals have had enough with ICM’s smoke and mirrors approach to the truth.  ICM has seriously underestimate the adult entertainment industry’s ability to recognize a bad deal when they see it,” said Duke. “I’m going to have to agree with Greg Dumas when he said… ‘Just don’t buy it!’”

(Photo: Courtesy of the Smithsonian)

FSC Launches Anti-.XXX Campaign: .XXX, A Bad Investment — Just Say NO!

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) announced today that it is launching an anti – .XXX campaign and urges adult online businesses to not buy into the newly-approved .XXX sTLD.

“Collectively, adult businesses understand that .ICM’s .XXX is bad for the adult entertainment industry. FSC is launching this campaign thus continuing its effort to rid the industry of this hazard. We are encouraging adult businesses to Just Say ‘NO’ to .XXX,” FSC Executive Director Diane Duke said.

“But FSC acknowledges and respects that, when push comes to shove, businesses need to do what they think is best for their company,” Duke added. “That is why adult companies need to know the implications of purchasing .XXX domain names and why buying .XXX could be the worst investment they’ll ever make.”

To help explain the potential pitfalls of the new .XXX sTLD, FSC has developed a list of bullet points highlighting some of the most serious issues for adult online businesses, and why they should avoid .XXX altogether:

• .XXX costs at least 10 times what your .coms cost (recent numbers thrown out are $70-$75/per domain name).
• Just 5 days after .XXX passed, India blocked .XXX with the promise of more countries like Australia, Germany to follow — instantly de-valuing your costly .XXX domain names.
• sTLDs have a proven history of failure — even ones that are not blocked by entire countries and have their industry’s support ( .Travel anyone???).
• High traffic websites will be leery of linking to your site, fearful of themselves being blocked or having dead links in blocking countries.
• All registrants of .XXX must agree to third-party automated monitoring of their sites for compliance of IFFOR policies — AND you will have to purchase your domain name before you even know what those policies are.
• Aliases (.XXX and .com going to the same site) require that related .coms adhere to IFFOR policies.
• IFFOR Policies will be determined by a council hand-picked by a Board chaired by ICM’s CEO Stuart Lawley-NOT the industry .XXX is supposed to represent. Moreover, ICM Registry has ultimate veto power over policy development.
• Businesses who register with .XXX make their alias .coms an easier target for censorship and blocking — do you really want to put your .coms at risk?
• Do the math — it doesn’t add up. Even if ICM’s claims of new consumers who “trust” .XXX ring true, for a company like Kink.com, which as approximately 10,000 domain names, it would have to bring in a three quarters of a million dollars in new revenues annually — JUST TO BREAK EVEN!

Regulatory organization ICANN approved ICM Registry’s application for the .XXX domain last Friday, despite protests from its own Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC), the U.S. Dept. of Commerce, and strong opposition from leading adult industry businesses.

FSC will continue to keep its members updated on this important issue. As the adult industry trade association, FSC will continue to support the better business interests of all adult businesses, and will lead the opposition to .XXX domains because we believe that buying into the .XXX online ghetto is harmful to the adult industry and for individual adult business. The .XXX domain will serve only to fragment the Internet, make adult online businesses an easy target for anti-adult filtering and censorship, and also make it easier for under-age users to access adult material online.

For more information on how you can participate in and support FSC’s opposition to .XXX, contact (818) 348-9373 or diane@freespeechcoalition.com.

(Photo: Some rights reserved by Fotogail)

Press Conference at ICANN 40: Adult Industry Leaders Voice their Opposition to .XXX

In San Francisco, at last week’s ICANN 40 Conference, FSC staged a “No to .XXX” protest outside the Westin-St. Francis Hotel, which was followed by a press conference at the nearby Chancellor Hotel. Industry leaders including Evil Angel’s John Stagliano, Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas, Kink.com’s Peter Acworth, Girlfriends Films’ Dan O’Connell, Wasteland.com’s Colin Rowntree, YNOT’s Connor Young, Adult Webmaster Empire’s Douglas Richter, attorneys Paul Cambria and Allan Gelbard, and FSC Board members and attorneys Jeffrey Douglas and Reed Lee, all spoke to media in attendance.

In this video (part one of two), each speaker makes clear their complete opposition to the .XXX sTLD proposed by ICM Registry. These same industry leaders stood before the ICANN Board of Directors later that day, and repeated their objections to approval of the new domain. Listen, as they explain in their own words, why they DO NOT support the .XXX online ghetto for adult online businesses.

Unfortunately, the next morning, the ICANN Board decided to ignore their objections, the advice of the GAC committee and the Dept of Commerce, as well as objections from several of its own members – and .XXX was given approval on a 9-3 vote, with four abstentions.

Special thanks to director Michael Whiteacre, for generously donating his time to shoot and edit this video. (Mr. Whiteacre also is the director of FSC’s anti-piracy PSAs, which are now over 750,000 views on YouTube. Visit our YouTube page at FSC APAP). – jc

Media Comments on ICANN’s Approval of .XXX (or Who’s Idea Was This Anyway?)

FSC has returned from San Francisco where, last week, we protested the now-approved .XXX sTLD and brought the adult industry’s concerns in front of the ICANN Board, prior to ICANN’s decision on Friday. Despite ongoing opposition reaching back to 2007, as well as our best efforts to demonstrate the adult industry’s complete lack of support for the “sponsored TLD,” the ICANN Board voted 9-3 to approve (with four abstentions, including ICANN CEO Rod Beckstrom).

Controversy has raged over the .XXX domain since 2005, when the Bush Administration wrote in a letter to ICANN, “The Department of Commerce has received nearly 6,000 letters and e-mails [about .XXX] from individuals expressing concern about the impact of pornography on families and children.”

Flash forward to March 17, 2011: The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) read this statement to the ICANN Board the morning before the domain was approved:

“There is no active support of the GAC for the introduction of the .XXX top-level domain.

“While there are members which neither endorse nor oppose the introduction of the .XXX top-level domain, others are emphatically opposed from a public policy perspective to the introduction of a .XXX top-level domain.

“Furthermore, the GAC would like to inform the ICANN board that an introduction of a .XXX top-level domain into the root might lead to steps taken by some governments to prohibit access to this TLD.

“The GAC, therefore, calls the board’s attention to concerns expressed by experts that such steps bear a potential risk or threat to the universal resolvability and stability of the domain name system.

“Moreover, the GAC does not consider the information provided by the board to have answered the GAC concerns as to whether the ICM application meets the sponsorship criteria.

“The GAC further shares concerns expressed by others that with the revised proposed ICANN/ICM Registry agreement, the corporation could be moving towards assuming an ongoing management and oversight role regarding internet content, which could be inconsistent with its technical mandate.

“The GAC looks forward to the board clarifying the basis for its Dec. 10, 2010, decision regarding .XXX.

“The GAC expects that this would include a response to the substantial objections received from the community and reference to ICANN’s role as a public benefit corporation.”

That was GAC making itself clear on the .XXX issue; however, the Obama Administration didn’t issue a statement until after the domain had been approved.

“We are disappointed that ICANN ignored the clear advice of governments worldwide, including the U.S,” said Asst Secretary of Commerce Larry Strickland. “This decision goes against the global public interest, and it will open the door to more Internet blocking by governments and undermine the stability and security of the Internet.”

Both before and after the vote, media outlets analyzed the motivation behind ICANN’s decision in favor of ICM’s long held-up proposal, and who would benefit from the Internet’s first content-based domain.

“Since the regular domains will still be in place, one has to wonder if the committee’s claim it will protect children was accurate and not also motivated by the added revenue the new domain will generate,” said SearchEngineWatch.com.

“Parents would be able to block the entire domain from being accessed, as opposed to tracking adult content using a .com site – but few people really know how to do that and would need to be shown. So that argument is not strong.

“Google could filter using the domain but one has to wonder if they would,” the story concluded.

Perhaps, for the first time in the history of the world, Republican and Democratic administrations, right-wing religious moral activists and the adult industry stood on common ground – they all opposed the creation of .XXX.

Here’s what the Christian Post said about the ICANN’s approval:

“Type ‘porn’ in Google and you get over half a billion results.

“But expect the number of pornography websites to explode now that ICANN has approved the .xxx domain – essentially creating a red light district on the Internet…

“‘I think this is a dumb decision and just adds more porn to the web and makes the web once again known for porn,’ Craig Gross, co-founder of XXXChurch.com, a ministry which helps people overcome their addiction to pornography, wrote Saturday.”

ICM Registry, .XXX’s sponsor, tweeted on Thursday that it had reached nearly 300,000 pre-registrations for urls. With potential for generating millions of dollars in fees to adult webmasters, it seemed that many of those in support of .XXX would benefit from reselling domain names. It also was clear that a great many of those had been defensive pre-registrations by adult online business in an effort to protect their brands and prevent squatting – but it remained unclear if those defensive pre-registrations could be counted as a show of support.

Veteran ICANN insider Steve DelBiano, director of the NetChoice Coalition, tried to explain ICANN’s decision on CNET.com, “… the board was in a difficult position: if they rejected Lawley’s proposal for .xxx, they’d face a lawsuit, yet someone else would surely bid for it during the next round of applications expected later this year.”

In any case, .XXX addresses are anticipated to start rolling out in the third quarter of the year, despite the opposition.

NetworkWorld.com described what adult webmasters will be subjected to by ICM Registry and its regulatory IFFOR Board if they choose a .XXX url:

“Anyone who wants to register a .xxx domain will first have to go through an application process that’s approved by the International Foundation for Online Responsibility. This procedure is intended to ensure that .xxx domains don’t engage in fraud, child pornography and other practices. At the same time, having a domain set aside specifically for adult websites would make it easier for users to block such sites from their browsing experience.”

Overall, media comments after the ICANN resolution were mixed, and many seemed disparaging.

TechCrunch.com called the new domain addresses “.XXX brothels,”  and Wired.com called .XXX an online “red light district.”

Wired’s story pointed out that adult webmasters will have the privilege of paying to preserve their brand and intellectual property: “… The domains will be limited to the adult industry, and ICM says adult sites that already own .com TLDs will be able to reserve their .XXX domains early so that they can ‘protect their brand names and intellectual property rights within .XXX.'”

Not to mention the censorship issue; those .XXX addresses will also make it easier for whole countries to block adult online businesses – and Germany, Australia, Thailand and China have already stated that they would be likely to do just that.

Gothamist.com noted that while ICM claims that .XXX will make it “… easier to filter out inappropriate content… ‘some [ICANN] board members viewed as a dangerous step toward censorship.'”

TheNewsChronicle.com declared simply, “It might now be easier to block NSFW sites!”

FSC will continue to advise its members and the adult industry on developments with .XXX, and once we get back in the office tomorrow, news will be forthcoming. We would like to thank all industry members that follow @FSCArmy and retweeted our messages during the conference. Despite the unfavorable decision, your voices were heard loud and clear.

We also would like to take a moment to thank the industry leaders that attended the ICANN meeting on Thursday to voice their opposition, including Evil Angel’s John Stagliano, Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas, Kink.com’s Peter Acworth, Wasteland.com’s Colin Rowntree, YNOT’s Connor Young, Adult Webmaster Empire’s Douglas Richter, Girlfriends Films’ Dan O’Connell, attorneys Paul Cambria and Allan Gelbard, attorneys and FSC Board members Jeffrey Douglas and Reed Lee, FSC Board President Sid Grief – also the industry professionals from Kink.com and NakedSword.com that joined in the protest rally, as well as performers Jiz Lee and Kara Price.

FSC Board member and Evil Angel General Manager Christian Mann was unable to join us in San Francisco, but said to XBIZ.com, “I’m not surprised as we knew we were facing pressure from forces with resources, money and questionable agendas. I realize that on the surface, the issues are complex which makes it harder to get people outside of the industry to understand the inherent risks.

“I had hoped that ICANN board members would have known better than to go along with this flawed plan. I was wrong about that. I also know that it’s too soon to see the fallout and whether or not there is still a challenge to be made.

“There are many battles yet to be fought and the FSC remains the trade association for any company or individual in the adult entertainment business,” he added.

We thank you all, for your support. – jc

(Illustration: Osmar Schindler, David and Goliath, 1888)

ICANN Approves .XXX sTLD

The ICANN Board voted today to proceed with ICM’s .XXX sTLD despite the advocacy of the Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and a wide range of adult industry leaders. This decision represents the first time the ICANN Board has disregarded advice from its Government Advisory Committee (GAC).

Ira Magaziner, one of the founders responsible for creating ICANN under the Clinton administration, Vint Cerf, the past Chair of the ICANN Board, Larry Strickling, the Under Secretary for the U.S. Department of Commerce and former US President Bill Clinton all spoke of the absolute necessity of the ICANN Board listening to its Government Advisory Committee, but apparently the advice fell on deaf ears.

“Of course we are disappointed but we are not surprised by the ICANN Board’s decision.  As voiced in concerns by speakers at this very conference, the ICANN Board has dangerously undervalued the input from governments worldwide,” said FSC Executive Director Diane Duke. “Worse, they have disregarded overwhelming outpouring of opposition from the adult entertainment industry – the supposed sponsorship community – dismissing the interests of free speech on the Internet.”

While the industry must assume that second-level .XXX domain names will be sold, the battle is not over. Under ICANN’s bylaws there are review procedures available to affected parties including GAC itself.

“Until now we have been forced to work within the constraints of the ICANN process. FSC is now free to explore all options and we intend to do just that with input from, and in the interest of, our members,” FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas said. “We will help the industry fully understand the risks and ramifications of participating in .XXX .
Douglas went on to comment that, “As regrettable as the vote was, the involvement of FSC and industry leaders in this process has and will continue to provide a positive face of the adult entertainment community to  leaders of the online community worldwide.”

In the coming days and weeks FSC will provide information about .XXX and alternatives for the adult entertainment industry.

 

Adult Industry Leaders Travel to San Francisco for March 17 Rally, Press Conference in Opposition to .XXX

FSC also has organized a Twitter campaign for those who cannot make the rally

Internet regulator ICANN is holding a conference March 14-18 at the Westin-St. Francis Hotel, in San Francisco’s Union Square. The proposed .XXX sTLD is scheduled to be discussed and an abbreviated public commentary period will be held 4-6 p.m. Thursday. Former President Clinton is scheduled to deliver a keynote speech during a gala event on Wednesday.

Free Speech Coalition (FSC) and industry representatives also will be gathering in San Francisco on Thursday, when they will stage a protest rally and press conference in opposition to ICM Registry’s application to run a.XXX sTLD. Representatives will also attempt to address the ICANN Board during Thursday’s public comment period.

As the adult industry trade association, FSC has fought against .XXX for more than seven years, consistently arguing that, if approved, .XXX domains will cost adult website operators millions annually in unnecessary fees; will make adult websites easier to block by governments and other anti-adult entities; and could needlessly fragment the Internet.

Industry members are encouraged to participate in the protest rally, which will take place on the sidewalk outside the Westin-St. Francis Hotel from 12:30-2 p.m. on Thursday, March 17. Those who wish to participate in the rally should contact FSC at (818) 348-9373, or joanne@freespeechcoalition.com. Instructions and directions will be provided.

Immediately following the rally, FSC will hold a press conference with industry leaders, including Evil Angel founder John Stagliano, Pink Visual President Allison Vivas, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth, industry attorney Paul Cambria, online publication YNOT President Connor Young, Wasteland.com founder Collin Rowntree, FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas and FSC Executive Director Diane Duke.

The press conference will take place at 2 p.m., at the Chancellor Hotel, located at 433 Powell St, one-half block from the Westin-St. Francis Hotel. Media interested in attending should contact joanne@freespeechcoalition.com or call (818) 348-9373.

Though a majority of the adult industry’s largest companies have sent letters to ICANN expressing their opposition to the .XXX sTLD, efforts to quash the proposed “sponsored” Top Level Domain have not persuaded the ICANN Board to reject ICM’s proposal. The Governmental Advisory Committee (GAC) that consults with ICANN also has expressed its disapproval of .XXX.

In a letter sent to ICANN, John Stagliano said:

“.XXX is supposed to be approved, accepted, or whatever, by the “community” of people already in the adult community. As the owner of Evil Angel, an adult producer and distributor, and a defender of our right to exist since 1983, I do not support this. I would support it only if there were different criteria for the creation of this entity, that would allow anyone to open a dot porn, or whatever that would compete with .XXX. The effect now is to create a monopoly for one company in this area. The adult community has invested in how it is structured now. It is unfair to us all to add an additional expense to our business without competition for the services that this new business, .xxx, would provide.”

Pink Visual’s Allison Vivas explained why it is so crucial for to attend the San Francisco ICANN meeting to express opposition to .XXX:

“Right now we feel that it is important for Pink Visual to raise its voice in this controversial matter at the ICANN conference, because we can’t imagine showing support for any for-profit entity whose business model and business practices are not yet defined, and which hasn’t demonstrated a proven ability to benefit our industry,” she said.

“We are unconvinced that a business model that charges roughly six times market price for the product is a fair and beneficial business model for the industry,” Vivas added. “On day-to-day business matters we don’t retain the services of vendors without having an understanding of what those vendors can actually do for our company; why would we throw in behind the establishment of a top-level domain about which we have the same question?”

FSC’s Duke described the years-long efforts to prevent .XXX from being approved:

“Over the past seven years, we have tried to communicate the adult industry’s opposition to .XXX at every opportunity, using every means and forum available. We have participated in public comment periods, letter writing, conversations with stakeholders, and testimony at ICANN’s public meetings,” Duke said, adding, “All three of the world’s only existing adult-trade-associations have issued statements in opposition to .XXX.

“Although we appreciate the GAC’s responsiveness to our concerns, it is clear that the ICANN board of directors has not heard us,” Duke continued. “We hope that Thursday’s rally will raise the volume, enabling ICANN to get the message, once and for all, that ICM’s .XXX application does not have the required support of the sponsored community.”

Industry members who would like to express their opposition but cannot attend the rally in San Francisco can participate in a “We Don’t Want .XXX” Twitter campaign that FSC will stage throughout Wednesday and Thursday, March 16-17. Please follow @FSCArmy.

For more information about .XXX, contact the FSC office with the information given, or visit the FSC Blog (www.fscblogger.wordpress.com) to read a five-part series entitled, “What’s Wrong with .XXX?”

Rally in opposition to .XXX sTLD

Who: Members of the adult entertainment industry
When: Thursday, March 17 from 12:30-2 p.m.
Where: Sidewalk outside the Westin-St. Francis Hotel, San Francisco

FSC Press Conference

Who: Adult entertainment industry leaders including Evil Angel founder John Stagliano, Pink Visual President Allison Vivas, Kink.com founder Peter Acworth, industry attorney Paul Cambria, online publication YNOT President Connor Young, Wasteland.com founder Collin Rowntree, FSC Board Chair Jeffrey Douglas and FSC Executive Director Diane Duke
When: Thurs., March 17 at 2 p.m.
Where: Chancellor Hotel, 433 Powell Street, San Francisco

How You Can Fight .XXX on Twitter, in San Francisco

An article posted on The Register.co.uk this week is titled “PrOn Stars to demo .XXX.” It was written by Kevin Murphy and, at first, we assumed that Mr. Murphy was just a bad speller. Turns out that he seems to have used a common trick and purposely misspelled “porn,” in order to prevent his article from being filtered out by computers using anti-porn security software.

Or maybe his editors decided to do it – in any case, it proves how easily the word “porn” can be filtered to block out any adult-related material.

Now, imagine what might happen if you were required to have a .XXX domain address. How much easier would it be to block every online adult business?

That’s just one example of the potential harm .XXX will do to the adult industry. FSC and industry representatives are traveling to the ICANN Conference in San Francisco this week to voice opposition to the proposed .XXX “sponsored” Top Level Domain.

In fact, Mr. Murphy’s article announces the protest rally that FSC will stage at the ICANN Conference

The rally will be held on Thursday, March 17, in front of the Westin-St. Francis Hotel located in Union Square, in San Francisco. The rally will begin at 12:30 pm; industry members are encourage to join us in our effort to send ICANN a message – that adult online business owners do not want to pay millions in fees; find their websites easier to block; and have one company – Internet registrar ICM and its CEO Stuart Lawley – regulating more than 25 percent of websites on the Internet.

If you are an industry member and cannot join us in San Francisco, FSC will be launching a Twitter campaign, which will go on throughout Wednesday and Thursday. Please, follow us @FSCArmy and RT our tweets on those days.

The posts that have appeared here on the blog since March 1, feature the five-part series, “What’s Wrong with .XXX?” Written by FSC Executive Director Diane Duke; they outline the issues behind .XXX, which FSC has opposed for more than seven years.

.XXX is scheduled to be discussed at the ICANN Conference, and it is possible that ICANN will hand down its final decision. We need YOU to help make sure that adult online businesses are not forced into the .XXX ghetto.

For more information on events in San Francisco, or .XXX, please contact FSC at (818) 348-9373, or joanne@freespeechcoalition.com.

(Drawing: Courtesy of Pearson Scott Foresman)