The new .xxx net domain is producing fear of censorship. What kind of censorship? The kind that forces obscenity to declare itself as obscene. The xxx net domain is supposed to be voluntary, but some fear that sites will eventually be forced to go there. Link. Excerpt:
This question of how to categorise sexual websites was picked up by Lauren Weinstein, a well-known net privacy campaigner.
Also in a letter published on the IP mailing list, Mr Weinstein said "the existence of dot-ex-ex-ex is likely to create a political and litigious firestorm."
He predicted that the setting up of the domain would bring about attempts to shoe-horn all sexual sites into the .xxx domain and provoke huge rows about just what counts as an "adult" site.
Although some outright porn sites will be happy to move to the .xxx domain, others that only have some "adult" content on their pages could be much more reluctant.
Mr Weinstein said the religious right in the US might be motivated to make any site with any "adult" content move to the .xxx domain.
If .xxx becomes mandatory, we agree that there is a risk that racy-yet-not-pornographic sites could be forced to go there. But that's no reason to abandon .xxx. Each case will have to be decided on its merits (or demerits). We do the same thing with movies.
The fears of censorship in the West have grown quite morbid, if you ask us. There are reasons for it. We don't have time to explore them right now, but think of the drunk guy who wrongly and with a touch of paranoia accuses people of thinking him drunk, and you might get an idea of what we're thinking.
