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By Philip White (EUNN) London - Adult Web site operators welcomed the rejection of .xxx domains by the board of ICANN, which oversees the issuance of itnernational domain names. ICANN's board turned down a longstanding proposal to set up a .xxx domain for pornographic material by a 9 to 5 vote. Meanwhile, the European Commission said the the United States intervened in ICANN's decision, saying Washington used its veto power on the board to influence the Internet registrations. While details of ICANN's board vote was not made public, it was said that Internet icans, Paul Twomey from Australia and Vint Cerf, now a Google epmolyee, voted against the .xxx domains. Viviane Reding, the EU information society commissioner, was shocked by ICANN's decision. Her spokesperson told reporters, "We see here a clear case of political interference in ICANN." Australia's Towney called Reidng's accusations "unfounded", saying that the UK, Denmark, Sweden, Brazil and Australia had all comlpained about .xxx domains. The Australian government backed up its claim on Thursday in a statement welcoming the decision by ICANN to block the estbalishment of a .xxx domain.
"This is a positive outcome that has prevented the craetion of a domain that could have acted as a haven for illegal and offensive content," Senator Helena Coonan, Australia's minister for communications, said. The riff between the United States and Eurpoean Union goes back to a meeting in Tunis in November, when the US refused to give up control of the domain name system and ties to the US Department of Commerce, despite otehr countries objections.
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