In September this year, ICM Registry of Palm Beach, Fa., the exclusive manager of the .xxx domain names, started the so-called sunrise sale. It was the initial phase during which companies were given the chance to protect their brand names.
As a result tens of thousands of .xxx domain names – nearly 80 000 according to AP – have been acquired over the past months for the sole purpose of avoiding cybersquatting. Businesses and, more surprisingly, universities were on the front line.
A few days ago .xxx domain names went on sale to the public, 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. While the traditional industry and the education massively acquired .xxx domain names as “defensive registrations”, a majority of adult sites seem to reject the offer.
A paradoxical but predictable situation. Adult-oriented businesses certainly don’t like the idea of being censored from the popular .com TLD. Traditional businesses are afraid for their reputation even though ICM promised it will take steps to protect existing trademarks even if companies or schools fail to lock down certain website names. Both see the move as well as the high registration fees ($100 on average) as kind of an extortion. Note that domain-name registrars can buy them for $60 each, but registry sites typically sell them to the public for more.
The whole project turns out to be a total failure considering that it took ICANN six years of legal and procedural hurdles before getting the final go-ahead in March 2011.
You can read more about the XXX debate on Mashable.
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There you go: Someone Has Purchased Vatican.xxx, And It Isn’t The Vatican