Colleges Snapping up ‘.xxx’ Sites to Thwart Pornographers
- Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:01am by
Madeleine Morgenstern
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Paul Vander Tuig, trademark licensing director at Kansas University, poses for a photograph by the gift store at Allen Fieldhouse in Lawrence, Kan. The school has purchased .xxx domains to protect its school and brand from being linked to pornographic sites. (AP Photo/Ed Zurga)
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The University of Kansas is buying up website names such as http://www.KUgirls.xxx and http://www.KUnurses.xxx . But not because it’s planning a Hot Babes of Kansas site or an X-rated gallery of the Nude Girls of the Land of Aaahs.
Instead, the university and countless other schools and businesses are rushing to prevent their good names from falling into the hands of the pornography industry. Over the past two months, they have snapped up tens of thousands of “.xxx” website names that could be exploited by the adult entertainment business.
“Down the road there’s no way we can predict what some unscrupulous entrepreneur might come up with,” said Paul Vander Tuig, trademark licensing director at the Lawrence, Kan., school.
The university spent nearly $3,000 in all. It plans to sit on the .xxx names and do nothing with them.
The brand-new .xxx suffix is an adults-only variation on .com. The .xxx name went on sale to the public for the first time this week, promoted as a way to enable porn sites to distinguish themselves and a means of making it easier for Internet filters to screen out things parents don’t want their children to see.
ICM Registry of Palm Beach, Fla., is the exclusive manager of the .xxx names and sells them through a dozen middleman companies such as GoDaddy.com for an average of $100 a year.
Indiana University spokesman Mark Land said the school spent $2,200 to buy http://www.hoosiers.xxx and 10 other such names. Other Indiana schools took the same step, including Purdue University and Ball State University.
“This is just a modest cost of doing business in the world we live in,” Land said.
ICM sold .xxx names for the past two months exclusively to companies and others that wanted to protect their brands from the porn industry. During the so-called sunrise sale, ICM registered nearly 80,000 names, said chairman and CEO Stuart Lawley.
A search of ICM’s database finds prominent brand names – including Nike.xxx, Pepsi.xxx and Target.xxx – among those purchased.
“Target has applied to block a number of the .xxx domains that correspond with our registered trademarks,” said Lee Henderson, a spokesman for the Minneapolis-based store chain. He added, dryly: “We do not plan to use the domains.”
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, which the U.S. government established in 1998 to run the Internet’s address system, authorized creation of .xxx earlier this year.
The strongest opposition to the suffix has come from the adult entertainment industry. The Free Speech Coalition, the industry’s trade group, lobbied against its creation, complaining among other things about the registration fees.
Allison Vivas, president and CEO of Pink Visual Productions, an adult website operator in Van Nuys, Calif., said her company and others like it were also given the chance to buy up .xxx sites matching their existing .com addresses, but Vivas and many others opted not to.
Vivas said she doesn’t think her company – or any organization, adult-oriented or not – should have to pay to protect its trademarks. Otherwise, “it kind of becomes extortion.”
Lawley said ICM will take steps to protect existing trademarks even if companies or schools fail to lock down certain website names.
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BBomber66
Posted on December 11, 2011 at 7:11amOh, like people are really going to click on a site with girls from Kansas.
Report Post »LIBS-ARE-DINGLEHEADS
Posted on December 11, 2011 at 6:36amThis made me laugh. Whomever is doing this ought to be fired. Period. LOTS of ways to go around this. Expect Playboy to do a Kansas Ass spread of their corn-fed girls nude – soon! LOL
Report Post »foobear
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 11:38pmThe creation of the XXX domain was nothing more than a money grab by the ICANN.
This is why we need the US directly running things.
Report Post »tzion
Posted on December 11, 2011 at 1:45amYour advocating for government to control our internet? What exactly would that accomplish? The government being able to regulate the internet would be a major loss for liberty.
Report Post »batteredyoungpatriot
Posted on December 11, 2011 at 2:43amReally, that’s your solution. do you really want the quality of people at the dmv running your internet? REALLY?! sound critical thinking there buddy, maybe you should go ahead and get a new user name to state what your really selling, how about FUBAR
Report Post »garbagecanlogic
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:44pmWith the corruptness of the liberal colleges – it worries me what they might do with it, especially if Bernardine Dorhn or Bill Ayers get hole of them.
The U.S. Out Of The U.N.
Report Post »The U.N. Out Of The U.S.
Halo9x
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:37pmI can’t believe this! That was the whole point, to get the porno sites
Report Post »off of the .com space. The the sex freaks could go to that domain and
leave the .com free of porn. It could also be better protected from young
children getting into sites the shouldn’t be in either by accident or
intentionally.
lukerw
Posted on December 11, 2011 at 6:38amWhat better place for Porn… than at Liberal Universities… where the girls will Strip for Grades, Peace, and the Revolution!
Report Post »THE TRUTH SHALL MAKE YOU FREE
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 7:57pmhttp://WWW.newtandgerbils.xxx
Report Post »http://WWW.romneyandgoats.xxx
hi
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 6:21pmStudents at Yale can get college credit for taking porn classes. The students go on A field trip to a stop bar and participate.
Report Post »Freedomtothink
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 4:08pmDarn, I missed another once in a lifetime opportunity. Who would have thought you could make money buying a .xxx domain name? I laughed at the ads but now I‘m sorry I didn’t buy some top hit names and resell them.
Report Post »jcr9307
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 2:38pmYou’ve got to be kidding me. Out of the hundreds of thousands of web site names that can be used, you think this is going to make a difference? Come on, get real! The stupid Mother Fathers.
Report Post »Rogue
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 1:36pmThis is absolutley rediculous. With all the internet porn regulations out there, this “xxx” domain SHOULD be the place for porn sites to go. You want to have a porn site, you should be allowed to ONLY use the “xxx” domains. Simple. It would make it much easier to block these sites from your PC, monitor and protect what your kids are seeing, and remove them from internet searches, spam emails, etc. Yo uwant to clean up the smut on the internet, send them all to “xxx”.
Report Post »Rowgue
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:19pmExactly.
It would be far easier for schools and businesses to simply block access to all .xxx sites than it is to try to set up complicated filters and block lists when porn sites are using legitimate suffixes like .com or .org.
Besides nobody is going to go to a .xxx site by mistake. Nobody is accidentally going to type in target.xxx and be suprised to find a porn site when they were looking for the store’s website.
I’m not really seeing the problems this is supposedly supposed to prevent. I guess they can waste their money however they see fit though.
Report Post »brother_ed
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 1:34pmRestoring Love is a porn site.
American Girl dolls are a big Christmas gift, but I wouldn’t Google it.
It’s getting more difficult to navigate the web. Keep your children safe.
Report Post »Rightsofman
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 1:17pmKinda hypocritical with mixed sex dorms and bathrooms and all that teaching about no moral judgements and porn being part of the freedom of expression thing and beer and all that. Can’t you you get credits in the Relevancy of UTUBE Home Made Pornography in Modern Society nowadays?
Report Post »MrButcher
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 11:19amThis is also a potential revenue stream for higher education.
Report Post »Impenitent
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:49ammarxists for porn monopolies…
Report Post »Rich HOffman
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:46amThis whole pornography thing is a huge problem. It’s a shame that these organizations have to do this, but if they don’t, they’re names will be used to lure more sex addicts to porn sites.
http://overmanwarrior.wordpress.com/2011/12/10/the-sex-trade-puppets-pawns-and-punks/
Report Post »Joe Schmuck
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:34amHere’s a HOT TIP for them …
It’not just porn that will give some these universities a bad name.
For starters, it might help to invest a bit more in some conservative professor’s … and maybe clean up their sports program just a tweak. .
Report Post »sawbuck
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:19amLast night I decided to get some comedy relief and sat down and rented the movie “ the hangover 2 ” (unedited ) And by the time I got to the part of the she-man’s (full frontal nudity breast + junk ), I was sick ,you cant un-see and un-hear some crap that passes for a comedy these day’s .My point …?
I would have rated that movie …WARNING…!! XXX For subject matter, extreme homosexual agenda pushing ideology for visual and language .
They took a movie and made it as raunchy as they could.
I pity this generation of kids that are going to be subjected to this shiot . There will be no moral ground ,for our children, if Hollywood has their way. The way our country is heading they don’t stand a chance .
The first hangover movie I watched on TV last week
Report Post »and it was right on the edge ( had to be extremely edited, I’m sure now ) .
I should have looked at the reviews .I should have known better.
A person can’t do anything today without a background check .
Ruler4You
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:38amSo, what are they going to do with them?
You KNOW they aren‘t going to use them for ’education.’
Report Post »truevalue
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 12:51pmsawbuck I agree 100%…
Report Post »foobear
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 11:36pm“When I see the youth of today, I weep for the future.”
-St Paul
(In case that was too subtle, your moral panic is nothing new, and yet we’ve turned out okay over the last 2000 years.)
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:09amThis will tick off the internet college Liberals (Obama and Paul supporters) who depend on this type of “handy” entertainment. Lmao!
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:17amyepimaconservative
Report Post »Huhuh you said handy huhuhuhu. lol
Baddoggy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:18amYou put paul supporters in with Obama supporters? Are you insane? No really…are you? In what mental institution do you now redise? You are a conservative my a@@…
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:33amYes BAD… I put Paul college age supporters in with Obama college age supporters to make a point. Both are doing the “jack wagon shuffle” in their dorm rooms to the “beat” of the same drummer in the name of Libertine “freedoms” to be as freaky as they wanna’ be. They are having a party in their own pants so to speak, lmao!
Report Post »let us prey
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:46amyep
Report Post »Most college aged clowns are playing handball with their own poop.
David
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 11:32amI guess if you’re generalizing on those terms, then Obama supporters, Ron Paul supporters, Rick Perry supporters, Mitt Romney supporters, Michelle Bachmann supporters, Rick Santorum supporters, Newt Gingrich supporters, Herman Cain supporters, etc all seem to have that particular attribute in common, unfortunately.
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 12:11pm> LETUSPRAY.
Lmao!!!!
Report Post »YepImaConservative
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 12:26pm>DAVID.
I don’t know… but I‘m in the camp that believes Obama’s and Paul’s college age supporters tend to skew their own poles, er sorry… flock to the “polls” in defense of Porn more than the rest, lol.
Report Post »David
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:30pm@YEPIMACONSERVATIVE
That’s a pretty interesting view. What evidence do you have to support that?
Report Post »tomloy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:51amThis is futile. Just HOW many names are you going to snap up? There are a LOT of variations on
Report Post »KUgirls.xxx.
sWampy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:09amAnd these fools are teaching the nations kids.
Report Post »Detroit paperboy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 10:21amMmmmmmm gollege chicks………
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:39amInstead, the university and countless other schools and businesses are rushing to prevent their good names from falling into the hands of the pornography industry…
HAHAHAHA Colleges with a good name? Libtardia? HAHAHAHA
Report Post »Jackie Rogers, Jr.
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:30amBall State was named after major benefactors to the university the Ball brothers. Which in itself would make a nifty porn site name — ball brothers.xxx
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:19amBuying up those websites might help promote that one professors supposed art of posing nude with art students.
Report Post »Eliasim
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:17amYeah, I’m oh so quite sure they will just sit on it. I think the universities at some point will actually be getting into the porn business.
Report Post »randy
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:13amThere you go Barney http://www.BarneyFrank.xxx
Report Post »goodolddays
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:26amhow abou twww. Wenier.xxx ?
Report Post »Skippy Toes
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:08amOn going battle, soldiers!
Report Post »quicker
Posted on December 10, 2011 at 9:23amCivil liberty lawers will soon file law suit.As these colleges are interfering with art.I say to these colleges stand you have the magority of people behind you and the next step is to get rid of Marxist professors.
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