Nod for .XXX Porn Ghetto

Half of all online-video consumption is related to porn, said Ian Maude, a media analyst at Enders Analysis in London, citing figures from market researcher ComScore.

“It's obviously incredibly popular on the Internet,” he said. “The question would be how to drive traffic to .xxx, as the porn sites don't want to be in .xxx unless it's comprehensive.” Who Decides?

Should Lawley's bid pass at an ICANN board meeting in December, the new domain would go into use from 2011. He expects to eventually log between 3 million and 5 million registrations and become the preferred domain for the industry.

Not everyone wants it to be.

“We need to be concerned with what will follow the implementation of this domain,” said Steven Hirsch, founder of Los Angeles-based Vivid Entertainment. “Will all adult .coms be mandated into the .xxx corral and if not, what makes some exempt but not all?”

The Free Speech Coalition, the adult industry's trade association with more than 1,000 members, says .xxx could make the porn industry a target for “anti-adult industry extremists.”

“At a time when the adult entertainment industry is hard- hit by the recession and copyright infringement, there is no expendable income to invest in defensive registrations,” said Diane Duke, the group's executive director.

'Hoopla'

Marc Bell, the owner of Penthouse magazine and AdultFriendFinder.com, which claims to be the largest online sex community, isn't convinced .xxx would translate into a loss of business.

“There's a lot of hoopla right now, but at the end of the day it's a matter of delivering content that people want,” he said. “Ebay.com or Amazon.com has something you want so you'd go to them no matter where they went.”