Set to Approve .XXX Domain Friday — ICANN Board

.XXX to get green light, but the value to ICM registry has wilted.

Ex-ICANN staffer Kieren McCarthy is reporting that ICANN’s general counsel has spilled the beans on .xxx, saying ICANN will approve the fresh top level domain name tomorrow during its board meeting.

Make no mistake, this is a monumental moment for ICANN. If it were up to the organization it would have let .xxx die years ago. But an independent review panel found ICANN erred. And, despite having final authority, the board is ready to accept the panel’s finding.

But it also means something for fresh TLDs. Many fresh TLD applicants are in favor of .xxx being approved. Not since they give a damn regarding .xxx, but since it gives them a higher likelihood of being able to eventually introduce their own planned TLDs.

So it’s a victory for process and a victory for fresh TLD supporters. But what regarding ICM Registry, which will run .xxx (following jumping through a couple more hoops)? It’s bittersweet at best. It has waited a long time and spent inordinate amounts of money to get to this point. It kind of reminds me of Telnic, which waited nearly a decade to launch .tel. From the time it came up with the idea to when it released the domain name, the world of internet communications changed rapidly thanks to social networking. That all but killed the potential of the domain.

I don’t know much regarding the online adult world, but The Domains author Michael Berkens does. And he thinks ICM Registry may have missed the boat. The world of adult entertainment has changed drastically since .xxx was first proposed. The economics aren’t nearly as rosy.

So, like .tel, the eventual approval to run .xxx may have come to late to make it a viable business. (No pun intended.)