We Did What?" The Bush Administration Blocked a Sexually Oriented Domain Extension Just to Appeal Ultra-Rights

I think most of us - the sane among us, I mean - would agree that it would be nice if you could stick adult-oriented schlock in its own domain extension so we wouldn't accidentally go to a really raunchy site.

But not the Bushies. We have to pretend everything is 1950s Nice and Prissy.

From eWeek, with a nod to Raw Story for the pointer:

Newly released e-mails allege U.S. government officials pressured a leading Internet authority into voting against creating a kind of red-light district for adult Web sites.

The apparent involvement of the U.S. Department of Commerce, President Bush's chief political operative Karl Rove and others is significant. If true, it means the U.S. government violated terms of a complicated arrangement it has with ICANN, the Internet authority that voted 9-5 last week not to OK the .xxx proposal.

Click here to read more about how ICANN has come under this kind of fire before.

What ICM Registry wants is permission to distribute Web addresses that end in .xxx to be used exclusively by adult entertainment sites.

The proposal won support from the Wired Safety & Wired Kids, the Internet Content & Ratings Association and other child safety groups because of the way it's expected to make it easier for authorities and parents to police the Internet.

Detractors say it just makes it that much easier to find porn. ICANN voted it down 9-5, after seemingly being on track to approve of the effort.

Since the ICANN vote, ICM Registry has made public e-mails, here in PDF form, between members of the Department of Commerce, various other branches of the federal government and ICANN. The company had asked for the communications earlier under a Freedom of Information Act request.

After discovering many of the emails had been redacted, ICM on May 19 asked a judge in Washington, D.C., to force the Department of Commerce to fill in the blanks.