While everyone involved in ICANN topics is gearing up to fly to Brussels for the 38th ICANN meeting, the travelers are joined by the Free Speech Coalition‘s (FSC, trade organization of the adult industry) Executive Director Diane Duke and FSC Board Vice President Tom Hyme. The two are attending the ICANN meeting to lobby against a potential approval of the .XXX sTLD by ICANN’s board.

“I am honored to be going to Brussels with Diane,” said Hymes, who traveled to Wellington in 2005 for the same purpose. “The fact that so much time has gone by has done nothing to diminish the dangers posed by dot XXX. Yes, it should never have been resurrected from the dead in the first place, but it was and now we need to be there, reminding the ICANN Board and staff at every turn that dot XXX has no industry support, and also that the last thing in the world they want to be is the ultimate arbiter of a policy-setting IFFOR (International Foundation for Online Responsibility). Believe me, that scenario would be hell on earth for ICANN.”

Diane had already spoken against the release of the .XXX sTLD at the 2007 ICANN meeting in Lisbon, Portugal, where the ICANN board rejected the application by ICM registry. ICM had then asked ICANN to have an independent review panel look over the decision. The review panel concluded that ICANN should not have rejected the application after first approving it. The decision was tabled again, but delayed at the 37th ICANN meeting in Nairobi, Kenya earlier this year in order to ask the public for additional comments.

Conservative oriented organizations have been speaking out against introducing a .XXX extension as well as the adult industry.

[via AVN]