Already, the decision in March by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers’ to create a new top-level domain, dot xxx (.xxx), for adult sites, has had one noticeable affect: Colleges in Missouri, including my alma matter, the University of Missouri, are buying up the domain names as preventative measure against unaffiliated porn websites that may seek to capitalize on the schools’ brands, the St. Louis Post Dispatch reported last week.
The University of Missouri in Columbia, Missouri has registered missouri.xxx, missouritigers.xxx (the school’s mascot) and mizzou.xxx (the school’s nickname), the paper reports. Meanwhile, Washington University in St. Louis has registered washu.xxx, and even the St. Louis College of Pharmacy has gotten in on the action, registering stlcop.xxx.
None of the domains are active, but the schools think the $200-per-domain registration fee is worth the price in order to protect the integrity of their brands.
“We don’t want someone coming across our trademark on a porn site. God only knows what they’d come up with,” said Terry Robb, director of information technology at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Post-Dispatch reported.
According to ICANN’s process, organizations with trademarks had several “sunrise” periods beginning in September in which to pre-register the domain names before “landrush,” which began November 8th and extends through November 25th, allowing anyone to request any open dot xxx name. The full public registration process, in which anyone can grab any remaining dot xxx name, starts December 6th.
Initially, celebrities, government officials and businesses were the first reported entities to take advantage of the sunrise period, with ICANN automatically banning dot xxx domains based on permutations of actress Angelina Jolie and British Prime Minister David Cameron, among others, according to UK blog This Is Lincolnshire.
Ironically, though it’s now non-adult websites that are now freaking out about the arrival of dot xxx domains, initially, some adult entertainment companies represented by the Free Speech Coalition were opposed to the new .xxx top-level domain, arguing it would raise costs for them because they would need to register new, similar dot xxx domains to protect their existing web properties, as The Business Insider reported at the time.
ICANN, the California-based non-profit corporation that governs the Internet Protocol address blocks, voted 13 to 1 in June to up the familiar generic top level domain names (dot com, dot gov, dot edu, dot org, etc) to not only dot xxx but “dot anything,” allowing applicants to secure their own generic top level domains for the staggering price of $185,000.
ICANN at the time contended the move was necessary to take the Internet to its logical next, and more precise step, with brands being able to create hundreds of sites under their own names, such as dot toyota and dot coca cola. Yet it was also criticized by watchdog groups after two members left to join a domain-name sales companies. One of ICANN’s co-founders, Esther Dyson, no longer with the organization, also blasted the move.
And ICANN’s subsidiary, the Internet Assigned Numbers, recently drew the ire of U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), who in September called for new ethics rules to prevent a “revolving door” between the standards organization and industry. Industry group the Internet Commerce Association contends that there is no ICANN ethics quagmire, except for a perceived one drummed up by the press.
Still, opinion around the Web is mixed on whether or not the new expansion of top-level domains is overall a good or a bad thing. Come December 6, we’ll begin to see for ourselves.
