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XXX Domains: An Obvious Failure
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Is it just me or is the ICANN plan to corral online porn going terribly wrong? We already have reports that universities are snapping up XXX domains in an effort to get ahead of porn pranksters who want to besmirch a few good online names with smut.
I guess this turn of events was obvious to anyone with half a brain.
Legitimate porn sites have little interest in the triple X domains, which went on sale earlier this week, for their businesses because they see them as potential censorship and, more importantly, they thrive on people accidentally stumbling on their URLs. In the early days of the web this was common because porn purveyors snapped up known names and brands — none of which had to feature an obvious porn domain label. That’s how “Whitehouse.com” ended up, for a time, as a porn site.
.XXX was designed to improve the situation. No more accidentally typing in, well, something you didn’t intend. With a designated porn domain, it’s unlikely anyone would end up in the wrong place. Better yet, corporations and homes could easily block all .XXX domains. That’s the plan, but if pornographers stay away and legitimate people, companies, businesses and universities race to snap up any and all XXX domain names that could be construed as theirs, then this triple XXX domain could be an embarrassing failure for the ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers).
Think I’m exaggerating? The AP reports that 80,000 XXX domains were sold in presale and many companies like Pepsi and Nike lined up to purchase adult domains. The University of Kansas reportedly just paid $3,000 for a variety of XXX URLs.
It’s unlikely anyone will ever type in www.KUgirls.xxx, but that’s not the point. The university just wanted to be safe. I understand the impulse. Even as I’m writing this, I’m wondering if I, too, should try to protect my good name by buying the LanceUlanoff.xxx domain.
I know where to go. GoDaddy.com is registering them for $99 a year, making these domains considerably more expensive than standard domains (which you can buy at various sites at anywhere from $1.99 or $9.99—yearly maintenance fees are then more expensive). According to the website, if I wanted to launch an adult website under that URL, I actually have to become an “Internet Community Member” and then confirm my status of “the sponsored adult entertainment community”. My guess is that this is how the ICANN polices the URLs, to ensure that someone isn’t registering someone else’s brand as a porn site. I have no plans to do so, which conveniently means I do not have to become a part of the “Community.” GoDaddy tells me this too, and is — fortunately, I guess — only too happy to help me park my URL for the same exorbitant fee.
Atop GoDaddy’s XXX domain registration page is this: “Let’s be adult about it. Create an adult Web presence or protect your brand.” This is followed by an explanation of why you’d want to register an XXX domain. Note what it starts with:
Secure your brand. Protect your reputation.
Perhaps you’d like to create an adult entertainment website. Or maybe you’re here to keep your brand from being registered as a .XXX by someone else. Whatever your reasons for wanting a .XXX domain, you’ve come to the right place. To check the availability of your domain, type the name you want into the search box above.
GoDaddy has built its brand with coy references to sex (check out any of its Super Bowl ads), but it’s not being coy here. The message is clear: If you don’t want someone launching a porn XXX domain with your name or brand, you’d better let GoDaddy take your money and register it for you.
While I see the parallels with the early days of the web, this situation is different in one fundamental way: Those snapping up the domains for protection will never use them. No one outside the porn industry wants to run a live XXX domain website. These businesses and universities are simply buying them in what GoDaddy actually calls “Defensive Registrations” to hide them from view forever (and they’ll pay GoDaddy yearly fees to do so).
Instead of creating a solution, the ICANN’s apparently misguided efforts have spawned a new anxiety: “Your Brand Name in Porn.” The fear is so strong that it’s got all these people buying up domains just so the wrong people can’t get them. As I see it, this could be quite a windfall for GoDaddy. The company should send the ICANN a thank-you note.
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Selling .xxx domains is pretty much just extortion. Pr0nz site are still going to use .com or whatever they want but everyone else that has a brand to protect now has to buy yet another domain extension. quick way to make a lot of money for anyone behind the .xxx but thats about all it really boils down to IMO.
As someone who runs a company who sells domains, including .xxx I think it’s important to make the distinction, it’s not necessarily extortion for you to sell them, they have their place.
But the *REGISTRY* is focusing on brand protection as a selling tactic and even included specific types of registration for these purposes, and because of this registrars then follow suit in order to sell the product, it’s their businesses and it’s the registry/ICANN who are the source of this situation.
It is extortion. I am a Media guy for a Church. Imagine all the money they are going to make just from Faith Organizations alone, just to protect their name.
In my opinion thinking forward dot xxx domains will offer possibilities for adult only content search and will have a good impact of filtering xrated sites out from the rest.
I can also imagine that .xxx domains will be obligatory in the future if your website is about adult content. I think what ICANN did is fully positive and opens new interesting ways to find/get access to adult stuff. Not just porn… think about the gambling and other 18 plus only industries.
I disagree, .xxx domains are very attractive and people would want to buy them if they weren’t so expensive…
Just because it’s .xxx doesn’t mean they need to be used for porn, something ICANN doesn’t want to understand..
Btw, big brands buying it to protect the name… this is nothing new, Google owns all google domains even if its .info.. It has nothing to do with the fact that’s it’s an XXX domain, they just want to be on the safe side no matter what domain it is.
i just checked.. google.xxx hasnt been bought by google yet~
Even though google.xxx hasn’t been bought yet, who would want it? they would be putting themselves at great risk of a trademark violation lawsuit brought on by google if someone other than google bought it. That goes for any trademarked name.LOL
It’s not all ICANN it’s the sponsoring org the ICMRegistry, part of this is because the whole point of it was segregation. There’s no point creating a domain to segregate a set type of content if you don’t enforce it.
And while I agree many large companies will protectively register all domains, with .xxx the registry does focus on brand protection because whole someone setting up on a .info or .co.za might not be a big issue for a company someone on .xxx is not just using their name, it’s also associating their name with pronography.
“Who would want it”? There is plenty of marketing and “fun” to be had at other expense. Take “modernwarfare3.com” for example. Activision did not buy it, and a fan did and then pointed it to Battlefield3 (their competitor). They eventually took legal action and got it, but not until weeks later and plenty of internet laughter!
Good time to invest in GoDaddy then?
very interesting,i think some people should consider this instead of go-daddy…… view more about latest xxx on http://your-love-doctor.blogspot.com/2011/12/how-to-have-great-sex-tips-and.html
So well put
I agree with josh fulfer that it GoDaddy ads sound like extortion. But, do a brand or university really has to fear a, say, universityoftexas.xxx domain? I think more harm could come from a universityoftexasX.com domain, something really misleading. A .xxx domain doesn’t mislead anybody. I also agree with Alexander Edbom that having a .xxx domain could be profitable for someone that sells non-porn products or services.
Sadly, yes. I work for a domain registrar that sells .XXX domains (www.uniteddomains.com/xxx) and in addition to the orders I’ve taken from college administrators for blocked .XXX domains, I’ve seen a fair number of live site orders for college names. If you think about it from an adult entertainment perspective, “college girls” are a huge segment of the industry. It’s not a far leap from “college coeds” to a .XXX site dedicated to the college girls of a particular school.
Or think about all the hotornot.com type sites that have developed on individuals campuses over the years. I could definitely see some enterprising students registering their college name in .XXX to create a similar adult-themed site of that college’s students.
It is extortion. I am a Media guy for a Church, and imagine all the money they are going to make just from Faith Organizations alone.
Can’t think of any domain hacks that use. xxx – Perhaps comple.xxx, etc. They seem very redundant to me, and appear suspiciously like just another way the ICANN get create a new gold rush for themselves. Once every company and employer, school and organization, strict countries (Libya, etc.), and parents block it, the domains will turn into a ghost town.
HEHEHE PORN IS FALLING BIG TIME. HOW SAD. KIEKIEKIEKIEKIE.
It will be interesting to see how the .xxx extension pans out and whether or not the adult industry starts to welcome them? It’s caused a lot of controversy within the adult industry but i feel they will change their minds as the extension continues to gain the type of traction expected. Normally i stay clear of new hyped up extensions but i feel this one actually makes sense and benefits both adult and non adult users .e.g. non adult users can visually see its an adult site prior to clicking, and adult surfers are safeguarded from spyware / malicious mail-ware clients when visiting a .xxx extension, plus it’s the perfect ext for branding such companies within that industry.
In most cases early adopters will benefit from picking up generics and nice keywords at reg fees, whereas those waiting in the winds will get left behind and end up paying higher premiums (goes without saying). imo if you want to be a player you have to be in the game, and as a investor / entrepreneur it’s in my blood to go with my gut feeling… even though i don’t operate within the adult space i still feel there is money to be made here hence buying a few generics I feel I’ll get greater returns on, plus like most other companies I’m protecting my companies brand.
I think within 2yrs .xxx will be fully ingrained within the web and within 6 months to 1 year Google will start to give it some weight after reviewing algorithms and the management of the extension by the registrar, hey! who knows Google may even restructure to display adult content on google.xxx and remove all adult material and url’s from there main search located on the .com? to me this would make perfect sense and also help clear up any redirects to adult sites you didn’t expect to arrive at when searching for something totally un-adult related.
I totally understand why the adult community are so against the .xxx extension as this would result in a loss of revenues due to the simplicity of Countries, ISP’s, and users blocking the extension from ever resolving on pc’s or within certain territories, this would make any business nervous operating in such a sector as they are no longer in control, whereas operating on the .com extension still gives adult webmasters the ability to manipulate how people arrive at there site e.g. through misspelled domains or operating on various brand terms to name but a few, plus it makes it much harder for people to block such an extension.
I think within the next 2 years there will be various discussions with governmental bodies and domain authorities surrounding where adult sites sit on the web, and I think these discussions will take place due to the .xxx movement as the principle behind the extension makes absolute sense, maybe people wont like me saying that but it true. Personally if i could start the web from scratch i would have all adult sites solely sitting on .xxx to make it clear to users where they are going to end up, basically we’re now trying to re-engineer something which should have been put in place from day dot, moving forward isn’t going to be the smoothest of rides but I’m sure it will result in a structure being put in place whereby ISP’s and webmasters will have to abide by certain criteria’s, its inevitable as the world is becoming more judicial in its ways.
If the governments can stop gambling sites from operating in various territories and seize domains due to certain laws put in place, they can sure as hell create other laws to restrict how adult websites operate on the web, personally I think this is where .xxx is laying the foundations for this to happen, clearly they have a vision of cleaning up he web and becoming the main body for adult websites, only time will tell though whether or not they succeed…
Whatever happens though the guys over at ICM Registry will most definitely be having a glorious Christmas celebration I’m sure, cha-ching :OP
Just my thoughts guys and girls,
All the best,
Barry.xxx > Those are kisses by the way :OP
Ps, sorry for any typo’s or grammatical errors – it’s late here…
Is it just me or is the ICANN plan to corral online porn going terribly wrong? We already have reports that universities are snapping up XXX domains in an effort to get ahead of porn pranksters who want to besmirch a few good online names with smut.
These .xxx domains will open space for the people to abuse the real brands and to add more every domain who care for their reputation should invest $$ just like university of kansas. If some one is not bothered, they are done for it. Also, the legit porn know what can happen once they go in to .xxx domains. Personally, this additional domain isn’t going to add anything constructive to the world of web.
If they really want to achieve standards in domain names, like using suffixes for specific content they should start by standardizing prices. Lately every year or so we see new suffixes, that for brand addicts or for people afraid of becoming the laughing stock and ones who are afraid to be associated or even confused with third party web presences translates to X amount of $ per year. In the long run TLDs become WTFs since we should find ways to fund or naming needs ;p
Failure of ICANN approving it, but success for the registry, who have already grossed well over $10 mil in revenue after the launch. I agree the extension is doomed to fail with the adult industry disliking it and unwilling to adopt it for the most part. But sadly that doesn’t make it much less lucrative for ICM, who has successfully convinced tens of thousands of mainstream businesses that if they didn’t protect their trademark, someone would have gotten their name and embarrassed or damaged them.
Interesting and important too!
Way to go ICANN! GoDaddy owes you a fancy dinner!
Must be a real “obvious failure” even with more than 55,000 .xxx domains listed in one day.
porn is very very ugly part of online world
http://www.cell4review.com/
Hmmm, is ICANN based in Nigeria now? (just wondering) Hi, neighbor… can you say “money grab”? (I knew you could. :D )
flour.xxx (just a recipe site guys)
hola que tal guero hablas com tu
No matter who buys into .xxx as long as there is money made it’s no failure for the business model behind it but every new TLD is a failure for the companies that need to invest just to secure their brandnames
@bentoscano..By ‘obvious failure’, they mean failing to do what these xxx domains are ‘supposed’ to do, which is filter adult web content.
As for what has gone on since the launch, as mentioned in the article, businesses etc saving face was an obvious step but I’m curious…or more like confused. You had mentioned something about ‘ensuring you weren’t registering someone else’s brand or name’. If this is the case, then none of these brands should have to go through this domain buying process. If I read incorrectly & this is not the case, then it SHOULD be the case. It almost seems to simple a fix for this mess: if someone wants to register ‘University of ABC’, then that certain someone should have to prove, by some well thought out method w/legal doc, that they are indeed the rightful owners of said University/Brand. Or is that just going to put a damper on all the crazy amount of money coming to ICANN, Godaddy, etc… Cause let’s be honest, they love this dirty money right now as they’re rolling around in it with the hooker they found on a .COM domain!
Reading now…. definitely wrong, except for GoDaddy
Written by someone who doesn’t understand the issues involved. Yes the “landrush” approach is tantamount to extortion and was poorly handled at best. However, the .xxx extension has been a long time coming and is long overdue. If ICANN had any foresight at all they would have launched .xxx and .kids extensions a decade ago when they were originally proposed as an early method of segregating inappropriate content from children. As to the brand infringement argument, ICANN’s existing rules and regulations adequately provide protection for brands of all kinds. The problem is most people don’t bother to read them and begin to whine before they think.
I like the article except for the second paragraph.
godaddy is now swimming in a pool full of cash wow wow yay
Never forget that ICANN is very much a FOR PROFIT organization. Their intentions are to launch as many domain extentions as possible and approve any entity to become registrars that are willing to pay ICANN’s registration fees. Their intention to exploit their position to flood the market with TLD’s and force organizations to buy them to protect their brands. ICANN should certainly be regulated.
Just when I thought the world could not get any stupider….
Kudos to you, Lance, for pointing out something for what it clearly is. I also wrote on the hypocrisy of .xxx in my column for Corporate Counsel where I regularly report on developments in digital media. See http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1202533311296&slreturn=1. But there is more to ICANN’s decision to allow .xxx. It is part of a bigger picture that has unleashed an avalanche of criticism over ICANN’s governance of the DNS and its evolution into an organization that believes it is accountable to no one. On January 12, 2012, ICANN plans to start taking applications for what it testified in the U.S. Senate on Thursday will result in more than 1,000 new top-level domains. I reported on the threats of ICANN’s plan in September. See http://www.law.com/jsp/cc/PubArticleCC.jsp?id=1202517803940. ICANN justifies its plan by citing its process undertaken over the past few years of participation by the Internet community, the constituency it is charged to protect, in hearings all over the world. In truth, while many participated, ICANN did not listen and this past June, in a Board vote dominated by domain name sellers, passed on a plan that will create havoc in the DNS and further deteriorate Internet security, already in a critical state. ICANN’s promises of more innovation and competition are hollow, as the Senate testimony of the Coalition for Responsible Internet Domain Oversight (a coalition I represent as legal counsel), the YMCA on behalf of non-profits, and Esther Dyson, the first ICANN Chair, pointed out in stark reality. Even the Chairman of the Federal Trade Commission warned Congress that ICANN’s plan will be disastrous for consumers. And Senators at the hearing who were former state attorney generals expressed grave concerns that ICANN’s plan will make law enforcement against scammers and predators even more difficult than it is today. While there may well be justification for a few new TLDs, the failure of .xxx, as well as a host of others previously introduced by ICANN, including .jobs, .travel, .aero, .coop, .name, .pro, .museum and more, raise serious doubts that the wholesale introduction of thousand more will not also fail. It’s time for ICANN to look at all the problems it’s created on the Internet before it adds more fuel to an already out of control fire.
ICANN’s genius: Defensive Registrations. Smart Asses.
Suck…
The adult industry IS using the new .xx extension. ive types several phrases ending in .xxx and have been taken to various adult sites. So don’t say they are not using them. They are indeed! Why not? It is just another avenue for them to make big money. If a porn site has adult material on a .com URL why not get the .xxx as well so they can make even more money regardless of censorship. The .xxx extension is just an additional piece of real estate for them to make money and they DO. If one adult company decides not to use a particular domain ending in .xxx there are 10 others who will use that same name as another avenue to get more revenue. Think of the day in the future when they eventually pass a LAW REQUIRING adult websites to move to the new .xxx extension. They will want to already own whatever they can for that “just in case” scenario! Think it can’t happen? Watch.
HAHAHAHA!!! ROFLMFAO #sofunny
How to fail: ICANN style.
No words#
I have not understood (out of ignorance, I am sure) why people go to Godaddy to buy expensive domain names. I know that for years Godaddy was a general ripoff for most anybody, but has offered cheap “whatever” at a price. There are, however, serious suppliers of domain names which do not rip off anyone and I do not think they are hard to find.
suppliers such as…
Does this mean it is more a ‘scam’ then it is a reality? I keep asking myself, should I buy one of my trademarks in the .xxx area. But at the same moment, it is so expensive.
They should spend money and time on other things…
100% Agree
This seems like a good idea in theory, but in practice not so much. The fee associated with this is a lot of extra money that small and large companies will need to spend to protect their brands.
GoDaddy could send ICANN a POUND cake…but that might be in bad taste…
In agreement with Josh F below, adult entertainment sites are not limited to or withdrawn from any other TLD. The ICANN can’t squeeze adult website owners into a TLD until there is an incentive (outside of the useless domain misspelling issues that plagues my keyboard). I can only see one poorly designed reason for a triple x TLD and it was effective in bringing negative press to an already dubious role of authority. That reason? Payday for some executive.
I think Lance is totally wrong. as an owner of several .xxx domains its a great oppertunity for the future of the internet. In the real world; cities and states have zoning laws that prohibit strip clubs and adult book stores from just poping up anywhere they want. We have to remember that there is a responsibility to children and their parents that would allow less stumbling on a adult site and more direct connection. a redlight district for the internet is good. also, as an IT person; we have website word filters which block sites that have adult content i.e. pictures, names, videos and the like. We in IT can block all video streaming and therefore the arguement of the adult industry is mute. And in the end.. a parent can allow only 1 or 2 web sites and a company can block ALL internet from its employees. Also, its way to early to call it a failure.
Also, do not compare .xxx to .mobi… because .mobi was for device were .xxx is for the internet. it will take off and people who do not get in on the ground floor will be searching like craxy to get a few. It will be a great investment for the future..
The internet has not reached its full potential and this .xxx is the start of the internet growing up and becoming like real established brick and motar cities. where zoning laws and other things are common place.
Also, Lance should know it took corporations until the late 1990s to actual utilize the internet for e-com. The adult industry is only angry because yes it will cost them millions over time either in possibly law suits or in the id that they (the adult industry) is facing many issues; namely the introduction of amature porn. Any couple 18 or over with a $600 laptop and a $60 dollar a month high speed internet connect can become a internet porn star. you dont need to go the california and interview and have sex with strangers. couples can do it and sell their videos online to certain sites without touching the “Professionals”. So, now when the professional adult industry is battling to keep itself relevent.. it now faces the fact that millions of amatures can buy a .xxx and start making movies and selling them or webcaming themselves without leaving their hometown. it makes sense to have a .com and .kids and .xxx and .edu and .org; etc. The internet needs to loose its wild wild west theme and need to have a structure like real cities..
I saw a commercial for this hot mess the other day. I’d love to know who thought .XXX was a good idea and said “this is great! launch it!” What a disaster.
The domain industry is corrupt – every time a new extension is released, the super rich get first dibs on all of the common one-words, then nothing is left when it hits the general market. This is no exception, but it’s also far worse..$99 is ridiculous. It’s extortion because brand identity is at stake every time a new domain extension is released.
Indeed. I’ll open it up to everyone that wants my domain name as a #porn site. Biblically based porn, could be a whole new industry. They wouldn’t even have to pay a writer, as it’s all in the public domain.
Yeah sure blame it on the americans! Most of the porn comes from outside the USA. I own several forums and i’m constantly blocking people outside the US who keep trying to post porn on my websites. Its mostly from China and the UK.