Porn and Jobs: Unlikely Parallels

 Last week, ICANN, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, formally approved the formation of a separate domain extension for porn sites: .XXX. Wired Magazine reported on it and the decision has of course sparked outrage from both sides of the argument.

If you are interested in online recruiting, this story may instead spark Déjà vu. The agreement to formalize the XXX domain extension and the ensuing discussion is very similar to the debate about the .jobs extension. If you have not been following the story, the .jobs extension has been proposed to house thousands of job sites specific to geography, industry, or other filter (for example, ny.jobs, software.jobs).

Both transactions involve a very similar knot of intertwined forces and interests, involving regulatory agents, non-profits, for-profits, domain holders, and individual interests. For instance, ICM (behind .XXX) writes “ICM Registry is the company behind the .xxx registry. ICM Registry is a financially stable and completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult entertainment industry. As a registry operator, ICM Registry will provide management, supporting infrastructure and back-end functionality…

The International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR) is the sponsoring organization. IFFOR is a non-profit entity that will serve as the policy-making body for the .xxx extension. IFFOR is and will remain independent from ICM Registry and will have its own board of directors representing all stakeholders, including child safety representatives, members of the free speech community and adult entertainment industry leaders.”

Does this sound vaguely familiar? ICANN recently issued notice of breach of agreement to Employ Media and SHRM, stating: “Employ Media and SHRM failed to establish any meaningful restrictions on what types of people or entities may register second-level domain names within the .JOBS TLD.  By not establishing any meaningful restrictions on who may register second level registrations in the .JOBS TLD, Employ Media put in operation a TLD where anyone can register names, thus defeating the purpose for which the sponsored TLD came into existence.”

You can see that both the porn and jobs extensions are mired in controversy and complications. Both agreements are highly complex and involve multiple levels of powerful for-profit and non-profit organizations.

Because the web seems to be mostly used for porn, jobs, and shopping, these are important decisions. But if you do try to research the issues to form your own opinion, you might want to complete your Juris Doctorate and pick up some aspirin first. It’s enough to make your head spin.