The long running dispute over whether the .xxx suffix should be allowed is expected to come to a head tomorrow with indications that the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) will get its wish granted
If approved it will be good news for not only the pornographic industry, but it could also signal a change for the online gaming industry that may decide to adopt the .gam suffix – something we reported last summer.
At the heart of the debate is one side that thinks there should be no artificial or political limits on domain names. Whereas on the other side of the fence are government representatives who believe they’ll be held responsible for ICANN’s actions.
ICANN was criticized earlier this week by Larry Strickling, assistant secretary for communications and information at the Commerce Department and administrator of NTIA, who said, “ICANN needs to do more to engage governments, by providing them a meaningful opportunity to participate and be heard inside of ICANN.”
If approved it will greatly expand the Internet so that just about any suffix goes. This would mean .gam that we mentioned earlier would be a possibility. This is, however, unlikely to affect many in the gaming industry as they’ll just stick with .com. I mean if your site has a .com web address what would the real advantage be of having .gam instead? Maybe as well as .com, but it’s unlikely you’ll see a huge improvement from changing over.
According to Poltico.com if the move is approved .xxx could be up and running by the summer.
