My colleague David Kramer has been blogging about the gTLD process announced by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  But ICANN is making other waves this month with the approval of .xxx as the "progressive new home for adult entertainment online".

The new domain will be administered, managed, and supported by ICM Registry, which says it is a "completely independent entity with no affiliation, current or historic, with the adult entertainment industry."

The .xxx TLD was first proposed in 2000 by ICM Registry and resubmitted in 2004, but it faced strong opposition from politicians and conservative groups. ICANN’s board of directors ultimately rejected .xxx in 2006, concerned that the TLD might make ICANN responsible for enforcing laws and regulations over Internet porn. However, supporters of the domain brought it back for consideration in 2007 and again in 2010. After many years of debate, on March 18 2011, ICANN's board approved the execution of the registry agreement for the .xxx top level domain.

CM Registry has argued that the .xxx domain is beneficial to the public, because it indicates a clear signal that the domain contains pornography.  Others argue that the creation of a top-level domain for adult-themed sites may not have the impact on internet security some hope.

The domains will be limited to the adult industry, and ICM says adult sites that already own .com TLDs will be able to reserve their .xxx domains early so that they can "protect their brand names and intellectual property rights within .xxx."