Will .xxx HELP our industry?

[desslock]

In a perfect world, a TLD similar to .XXX would make the filtering of adult content very effective, and would be a "free trade" domain that was protected by the First Amendment, and there would be no interference from anyone attempting to police our content.

That's a classic straw man right there. We could apply that to any speech, and conclude that because of our imperfect world, it's ok to restrict it.

In the marketplace of ideas, there will be bad ideas, or offensive ideas. And they will live or die under such spontaneous conditions, not because the government passes a law about it.

But as far as the alleged "ghettoization of porn" is concerned, I'm of the solid belief that we SHOULD be kept in one place together, where access by children is prevented. .XXX is a great idea that, unfortunately, is being disastrously executed by a company that seems to have its own interests in mind, rather than those of an industry that wants to be responsible, but is rarely looked upon as being so.

Well who are you or I to decide what this "proper place" should be? (it's a fair question) I think the Internet has effectively done a very good job at self organization. Why do you think the government would "organize" it better? And better for whom?

Maybe political websites should be in another special "appropriate" place, or religious sites, or how about sites that promulgate cigarette smoking? We could suggest that talking about cigarette smoking hurts those impressionable kids too... and who could possibly be against the children?

To me, this is exactly along the lines of the weirdly intentioned "Net Neutrality" law. Everyone here seethes over how terrible the federal government is in regulating communications and the media. So why the hell should the same government be deemed better at organizing the Internet and portioning out its use? In both cases, it hopelessly politicizes the Internet, ultimately making it a less of a place for new ideas, innovation and business.

I just don't get it.... but then I'm an old libertarian at heart.

Steve