Washington, D.C. – (September 8, 2011) – Morality in Media (MIM) today urged Congress to pass a criminal statute preventing the unauthorized registration of a name on the XXX domain that is registered elsewhere. MIM also renewed its call for a criminal investigationof ICM Registry, the company behind the XXX domain, for possible violations of federal laws prohibiting distribution of hard-core obscene Internet pornography.Starting today, registered owners of domain names must buy protection by paying hundreds, perhaps thousands of dollars to ICM Registry, or the company will allow cybersquatters to register names on the XXX domain that they do not rightfully own.“Nearly every company in the world, every blogger, and the holders of any domain name must fear that the ICM Registry will allow their good name to be trashed on the XXX domain unless they pay this ‘protection money’ to ICM Registry and its affiliated registrars,” said Patrick A Trueman, Morality in Media’s president.
“Congress must address this outrage. It should be against federal criminal law for anyone to register a name on this porn domain that is registered on another domain without authorization of the owner of the other domain name,” said Trueman. “Both the person registering the name and the registrar, ICM Registry and its affiliate registrars, should be subject to this law. Without such law, ICM Registry and its affiliated registrars will be enriched to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars in this protection scam,” he said.
Morality in Media also renewed its call for U. S. Attorney General Eric Holder to immediately investigate the activities of ICM Registry in relation to federal criminal laws. “U.S law is clear in Title 18 United States Code, Sections 1462 and 1465, that distribution of hard-core, obscene Internet pornography is prohibited. Yet, isn’t that the purpose of ICM’s XXX domain – to facilitate the distribution of such material?” asked Trueman a 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 such as obscenity distribution and Title 18 U. S.C. 371 prohibits a conspiracy to commit a federal crime. Attorney General Holder should act now,” he concluded. “Why should the ICM Registry, a possible criminal enterprise, be allowed to hold hostage the good names of countless millions with the threat of an association with pornography?” said Trueman.