San Francisco – The Internet is about to get a seedy new neighborhood: the body governing top-level Internet domains has approved a new .xxx domain for adult content, despite objections from the adult industry.

ICANN concluded its annual meeting in San Francisco today, and voted 9-3 to approve the .xxx domain. The idea for the domain has been kicking around for almost a decade, and was approved briefly in 2005, but ICANN reversed itself a couple of years later.

Adult sites wouldn’t be forced to use the new domain. But the Free Speech Coalition, which represents some businesses in the adult industry, opposed the adult domain because it would raise costs for porn providers, who will now have to register additional .xxx domain names at $60 a pop to avoid having their brands hijacked on the new domain.

The FSC also claimed that the new domain will make it easier for filters to block adult sites.

Yesterday, the organization sponsored a rally in San Francisco outside the hotel where ICANN was having its meeting, but the demonstration apparently didn’t work.

Today, the FSC said it would appeal the decision to an advisory board consisting of government representatives.