Universities buy .xxx domains

PR Newswire

(CBS/AP) - In a preemptive strike against a potential disaster, universities across the country are buying .xxx domains that might hurt their reputation.

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Schools grab .xxx sites to protect names from porn

University of Kansas is securing KUgirls.xxx and KUnurses.xxx before the porn industry can buy the site and cash in on the college's name. Those aren't the only URLs that were purchased. Spending a total of $3,000, the university also snatched up kansas.xxx, rockchalkjayhawk.xxx and jayhawks.xxx, among others.

"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.

Indiana University coughed up $2,200 to buy sites like hoosiers.xxx. University of Missouri, Washington University, Purdue University and Ball State University have also purchased domains.

Corporations had a chance to grab web addresses months ago. Brands like Target, Nike and Pepsi have all paid to protect their brands.

ICM Registry, the exclusive manager of .xxx domains, is cashing in on this type of brand protection. Prices range from $199.99 to $209.99 for 10 years of blocking, plus $99 per year for a domain name.

There has been strong opposition to the top-level domain from religious groups all the way to the adult entertainment industry.

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."

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[saturn05]

Really! Universities wasting money on xxx domains. Like we wouldn't know the difference. There are so many variations on names that they can't possibly afford to buy up everything so why bother to waste the money. Students can't afford tuition as it is, so now who is going to make up this waste?

[RunsWithWolves]

No wonder college tuition is rising so fast.

[venusvegasvada]

Sad commentary on where we are at as a society.

It's also sad when lawyers are running the show and a trademark isn't worth the paper it's printed on.

You actually have to have more money to hire an army of lawyers to back it up. Just going through the expensive and time consuming process of getting a trademark doesn't mean jack sh@t. You still have to pay the lawyers to fight it out afterwards. Crap system where the unscrupulous rule. Can you get a trademark for something? Maybe. Once you actually get a trademark, does that mean that others simply won't infringe on it? Nope. No system safeguards that automatically prevent people from registering a business name or image or anything else that actually puts teeth in a trademark. They totally put the onus on the poor guy that tried to do the right thing and be legal and get a trademark.
It's the lawyers keeping their water trough's full.

[NotPartyControlled]

People are educated enough to understand what .xxx stands for and to understand that a trade mark is being hijacked or twisted a little. We already deal with the fudging of .com site names to steer you to another site.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

That is true.

[KnowerseekerReturns]

I agree, it is extortion. The owners of trademarks shouldn't have to shell out over and over again to protect their brands.