A move to give the pornosphere its own domain suffix -- .xxx -- has not been received well in some quarters.

An excerpt from the Beeb story:

The plan to create the .xxx domain received its blessing from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) earlier this week. The decision was a surprise because the idea has been floated and roundly rejected several times over the last five years.

Writing in his blog and in an open letter to Dave Farber's well-known mailing list, Karl Auerbach took Icann to task for its decision.

The existence of dot-ex-ex-ex is likely to create a political and litigious firestorm Lauren Weinstein, net privacy campaigner

Icann reluctance to approve the setting up of new net domains was creating an "artificial scarcity" said Mr Auerbach.

In light of this, Mr Auerbach said Icann should concentrate on socially constructive domains first rather than pandering to pornographers.

In his blog he asked: "Why should .xxx get precedence over schools, churches, civic groups, aboriginal communities, labour organisations, and artistic groups?"

Mr Auerbach said Icann already had many proposals for new domains from many groups that could actually contribute to the value of the internet.