Morality in Media Calls for Federal Involvement in XXX Porn Domain

Stuart Lawley, chief executive of ICM Registry, Inc. (AP Images/J. Pat Carter)

News
that the first hard-core porn company is now in business on the XXX
domain caused Morality in Media Tuesday to call for an investigation
of ICM Registry, the company behind the XXX domain, for possible
violations of federal laws prohibiting distribution of hard-core
obscene Internet pornography.

“Title
18 United States Code Sections 1462 and 1465 prohibit distribution of
hard-core, obscene Internet pornography. Yet, isn’t that the purpose
of the XXX domain?” asked Patrick A. Trueman, president of Morality
in Media and former chief of the U.S. Department of Justice Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section, Criminal Division in Washington,
D.C.

“Further,
Title 18 U.S. C. Section 2 prohibits aiding and abetting a federal
crime and title 18 U.S.C. 371 prohibits a conspiracy to commit a
federal crime. The U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder should review
the activities of ICM Registry in relation to these federal  criminal
laws immediately,” said Trueman.

“The
establishment of a .xxx domain will do nothing but increase the
spread of Internet porn,” said Trueman. “In fact, ICM has
recently indicated that they have nearly one million ‘expressions
of interest’ for new XXX sites. Yet not one porn company has
announced plans to close its .com site to relocate to the XXX
domain,” Trueman  said.

Pornography
is causing grave social costs, which are documented at
www.PornHarms.com.

“Will
Attorney General Holder stand by and watch this pandemic of harm
continue to spiral when he has laws at his disposal that can be
enforced against this destructive material? We take this opportunity
to urge him to vigorously enforce federal obscenity laws against
major online commercial distributors of hard-core adult pornography
and those who aid and abet its distribution,” said Trueman.

“If
Attorney General Holder won’t investigate ICM Registry now, we will
press the next attorney general to do so,” said Trueman. “This
issue will never go away for ICM Registry or for Internet
pornographers who attempt to hide their criminal activities behind
the .xxx domain.”

Morality
in Media, Inc., is the leading national organization focused on
opposing pornography and indecency through public education and the
application of the law. MIM is leading The War on Illegal
Pornography, a coalition of more than 100 national and state groups
whose goal is to stop the distribution of illegal pornography.