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Ken Turchi
IU Maurer School of Law
kturchi@indiana.edu
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James Boyd
Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research
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Last modified: Wednesday, June 22, 2011

IU Maurer School of Law professor named to oversight council for online adult content

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 22, 2011

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- A professor at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law has been appointed to the policy council for a new organization advocating responsible business practices in the online adult entertainment community.

Professor Fred H. Cate is one of four founding members named to the policy council of the International Foundation for Online Responsibility (IFFOR). IFFOR is an independent nonprofit body created by ICM Registry, the organization responsible for the new .xxx top level domain (TLD), which opens to trademark owners under a sunrise launch period in September 2011.

The council will be tasked with developing policies for responsible business practices and conduct within the online adult entertainment community. This includes making adult content less accessible to children online and protecting the privacy and security of consenting adult consumers of online adult entertainment goods and services. IFFOR will receive funding from ICM at a rate of $10 per domain registration per year.

"I am honored by this appointment and look forward to advising IFFOR in its important work," Cate said. "IFFOR is unique in the history of the Internet in that it will for the first time impose security and privacy requirements on all registrants. Anyone with an .xxx domain will have their sites continuously scanned for child pornography and offenders will be reported to law enforcement; material will also be scanned for viruses and other malicious code; and registration and payment systems will have to meet both security and privacy standards.

"Under IFFOR's guidance, the .xxx domain could become the safest place on the Internet and a model for other domains, while also helping parents protect their children from exposure to sexually explicit material," Cate concluded.

Cate is a Distinguished Professor and C. Ben Dutton Professor of Law at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. He is also director of the Indiana University Center for Applied Cybersecurity Research and a director of the university's Center for Law, Ethics, and Applied Research (CLEAR) in Health Information. Cate specializes in privacy, security and other information law issues and appears regularly before Congress, government agencies, and professional and industry groups on these matters.