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The Internet The Almighty Buck Technology

ICANN Begins "Land Rush" For .XXX Web Domains 94

Velcroman1 writes "The World Wide Web red-light district is poised to explode. After more than a decade of debate, rejections and legal challenges, the Internet's governing body began accepting applications for .xxx websites from the adult entertainment industry on Tuesday, Nov. 8 — otherwise called the 'begin printing money phase.' The so-called 'landrush' phase signifies the true launch of .xxx websites, following the Sept. 5 date when ICM Registry began accepting .xxx applications from trademarked companies — those looking to use a .xxx address and those seeking to prevent their company from appearing on a .xxx website."
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ICANN Begins "Land Rush" For .XXX Web Domains

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  • by Anonymous Coward

    Open source porn! (Plus Apple stories)

  • Any idiot who thinks otherwise and sets up a pr0n site will soon be filtered out and go out out of business.

    • By the other side, it just makes it easier to google with "site:.xxx". Anybody with more than one neuron will probably get both a .xxx and a .org or .net domains for the site.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        True but it is not exactly hard to find porn on the internet whether you are looking for it or not.

        • But if you look for it in .xxx Frank Shilling [elliotsblog.com] is where you are likely to find it. Don't expect that the landrush opportunity isn't already locked up in full.
          • by Hadlock ( 143607 )

            The man with the 7-figure pockets could get sexe.xxx and sexo.xxx, but not sex.xxx? After the battle over sex.com, I'm curious who was awarded that domain.

            • While you battled with your 7-figures about a single world, I registered every other word in the dictionary and created new niches of porn.

              You should check out our wildest newly added categories: categories [tinyonline.co.uk]

              (while joking, that list does sound like it could be made into a porno.)

            • Dunno, but I bet he's wined and dined the boss of ICANN. Maybe even thrown in a luxury yacht or two.

    • by Hentes ( 2461350 )

      It's not necessary the only domain of a porn site.

    • by Lincolnshire Poacher ( 1205798 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @11:59AM (#38000006)

      > will soon be filtered out and go out out of business.

      The main environments in which such filtering would occur are libraries, schools and workplaces. Somehow I doubt there is much demand for porn originating from those environments anyway, at least not much money-raising porn.

      According to a recent article in the Economist [economist.com], porn browsing is growing fastest on smartphones. The .xxx domain wouldn't be blocked on those devices unless attached to a corporate network.

      So who exactly will be blocking this?

      • by mehrotra.akash ( 1539473 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:21PM (#38000322)

        So who exactly will be blocking this?

        Entire countries?

        • You mean the ones that already do?

          • by mehrotra.akash ( 1539473 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @01:23PM (#38001166)
            I cant say about other countries, but here in India, there are around 30-40 porn sites blocked, and on addition to that the entire .xxx domain is blocked
            • by bmo ( 77928 )

              >but here in India, there are around 30-40 porn sites blocked,

              That's not very many.

              --
              BMO

              • >but here in India, there are around 30-40 porn sites blocked,

                That's not very many.

                -- BMO

                you missed the second part.
                in addition to these 30-40 (which are on .com/.net/etc), the ENTIRE .xxx domain is blocked

                • You missed the part where there are about 1 billion other porn sites on the web so the 30-40 doesn't even scratch the surface.
                  • by ooloogi ( 313154 )

                    I think that was the intended point: 0.00001% of non-.xxx blocked, while 100% of .xxx blocked - it shows that companies using an xxx domain will also provide access via other TLDs as well

        • by mjwx ( 966435 )

          So who exactly will be blocking this?

          Entire countries?

          Will the people in those countries be paying for Pr0n?

          Even if they could afford it, when the government controls the banks (had to resist making an ISR joke here) how could they? I can think of three nations off the top of my head who will block a $30 P/m pr0n site, yet you can get a shag from a live girl for less then that (in one of them, you could probably get two depending on your negotiating skills).

          What kind of person pays for Pr0n these days. Would .XXX be blocked in those countries. Not a prob

      • The main environments in which such filtering would occur are libraries...

        When was the last time you went thru the computer lab at a library??? *yuck*

      • I'm sure mobile networks will be happy to charge an extra $1/MB for data to any site resolved via a .xxx domain name lookup...
      • by Anonymous Coward

        So the sticky keyboard is being replaced with the sticky smartphone screen

      • by Anonymous Coward

        They actually have some good ideas.

        "He wants to build trust: .xxx will be the only top-level domain to provide free virus scanning for all its sites. He also plans to create a payment system on the lines of iTunes and PayPal, which will shield users’ data and allow them to buy bits of content instead of paying a monthly subscription."

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by Anonymous Coward

      "Any idiot who thinks otherwise and sets up a pr0n site will soon be filtered out and go out out of business."

      Um, no. You could not be more incorrect.
      Do you really think that the more successful sites are the ones not filtered?
      Think - existing filters already exist, AND they block a vast majority of porn sites.

      Sites like brazzers dot com etc all do just FINE and they are filtered 100%. Presuming they open brazzers dot xxx, they will STILL be filtered 100%.

      I /guess/ you could possibly make an argument that

    • Any idiot who thinks otherwise and sets up a pr0n site will soon be filtered out and go out out of business.

      People make money from porn on the Internet?

      Is there really any porn you can't get for free by the gigabyte?

      • by Jibekn ( 1975348 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:30PM (#38000448)
        They're called fetishes, show me where I can get 40 hours of a midget beating a south American prostitute with a halibut while reciting the pledge of allegiance and ill stop paying for my porn.
        • by S.O.B. ( 136083 )

          While reciting the pledge of allegiance? That's just going too far.

          • by mjwx ( 966435 )

            While reciting the pledge of allegiance? That's just going too far.

            I think he means he's reciting the pledge of allegiance.

            But now I think about it, there's Nazi fetish pr0n, why not US patriotism fetish pr0n.

            Rule 34, I'll assume this one to be fulfilled, I have a high tolerance for freaky things but this would be beyond my ability to bear.

      • Is there really any porn you can't get for free by the gigabyte?

        How would you know how much porn is available for free? Hmmm?

    • Any idiot who thinks otherwise and sets up a pr0n site will soon be filtered out and go out out of business.

      Unlikely. The majority of people who actually pay for porn are probably watching at home on an unfiltered connection.

      The freeloaders who watch at work, or on mommy and daddy's connection aren't paying. They are the ones that will be filtered.

    • Why do you plan on filtering at home?
  • google.xxx (Score:4, Funny)

    by rwv ( 1636355 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @11:22AM (#37999558) Homepage Journal
    Can we expect a new, porn-only search engine? There's lots of money to be made with porn ads. It would be surprising to see what Google does with its own XXX site.
  • by vlm ( 69642 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @11:29AM (#37999646)

    The only valid use I can think of this is for goatse.xxx to return (actually it was a .cx, but whatever). Whats the QR code for that, anyway?

    In a way its a good idea... the over-controlling nutcases can think they are actually doing something by blocking the entire domain, while all the actual pr0n, not wanting to be blocked, remains in the .com domain.

    In a way its a bad idea, because most of the money will be generated by giant corporations buying the domain so pranksters/whatever can't abuse their name. Expect to see ibm.xxx purchased by ibm solely to keep other people from messing with it.

  • Porn? No, the XXX hell gates of mockery, intimidation and blackmail has just been blown wide open. I fail to see anything good or positive we can get out of this domain, looks like this is designed only to fill registrar's coffers.
  • scam + blackmail (Score:5, Informative)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @11:36AM (#37999752)

    This is a scam.

    I own a adult domain non-generic and working website.
    I have the trademark for it but they didn't let me register my domain.xxx because they have reserved thousands of popular words for a later auction.
    When i try to register it it says "RESERVED". My lawyer has contacted them without response.

    Also they have sold lots of valuable domains before september to investors without telling nobody, you can check register date in some generic domains.

    It can also be called blackmail.

    This domain will not succeed because its owned by speculators and cybersquatters.

    • Without telling nobody? At least they told somebody.

    • It's also completely pointless. The "red light district of the internet" exploded in the 90s. I rarely even look at the domain names when browsing for porn.. who cares?

    • Yeah, it's definitely a cash-grab. It has no utility for the rest of us, nobody wanted it and it only makes for costly aggravation.

      I feel bad that folks like you that have to deal with this.
    • by khallow ( 566160 )
      Blackmail doesn't mean what you think it means.
    • Re:scam + blackmail (Score:4, Informative)

      by LordLimecat ( 1103839 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @01:27PM (#38001242)

      It can also be called blackmail.

      Extortion perhaps, but not blackmail: blackmail is when someone threatens to make private information public if you do not comply with their wishes.

    • by Anonymous Coward

      Officially notify them that you own the trademark and do not agree with this and that you are willing to pay the regular price for it.
      Also notify them that you will sue anyone who uses that domain for trademark infringement.

      Now the domain name is a tainted product.

      Make sure they realize that you will make sure that whoever does end up buying the domain will be informed that ICANN new it was a tainted product.

  • ICANN has cheezcake?
  • It's such a scam (Score:5, Insightful)

    by hawguy ( 1600213 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:01PM (#38000024)

    My company's attorney asked me if we needed to register all of our domains under their "Register your brand with .XXX so someone else doesn't" program. I told them that while we could do that, there's no reason why someone would want to use our domain for porn, and even if they wanted to, they could register under .org, .net, .info, or one of the dozens of country domains available to anyone (some domain speculator already grabbed our .org and .net domains). I asked him if he was prepared to spend thousands of dollars/year preemptively registering our domain and common mispellings across all available TLD's on the off chance that some porn operator thought that our company's would be attractive to people looking for porn (our company's name is associated more with industrial products than big bouncing boobs). I think he finally understood why this .xxx preregistration was such a scam.

    • by Dunbal ( 464142 ) *

      I think he finally understood why this .xxx preregistration was such a scam.

      Also especially because the .info and .biz TLD's are doing so well...

      As a side note, I don't get it. I clicked on the button to register the domain, and it took me to another page where I had to fill out another form and enter my CC info yet again. When I clicked register on that page, it took me to yet another page and I had to apply again...

    • by Dewin ( 989206 )

      You're associated with industrial products, not big bouncing boobs? I'm sure there's an audience for that (Possibly NSFW) [youtube.com].

      • If you noticed there were advertisements in that, you're gay.

        Speaking of which, I think I need a new 2-speed battery drill.

    • Personally I'm a bit curious about what will show up on kernel.xxx.

  • My first read was why the hell is Carl Icahn getting into .xxx domain markets... doesn't he have anything better to do with his time?

  • Phase names (Score:4, Interesting)

    by sootman ( 158191 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:29PM (#38000432) Homepage Journal
    > The so-called 'landrush' phase signifies the true launch
    > of .xxx websites, following the Sept. 5 date when ICM
    > Registry began accepting .xxx applications from
    > trademarked companies — those looking to use
    > a .xxx address and those seeking to prevent their
    > company from appearing on a .xxx website

    ... which is, in turn, known as the "extortion" phase.
  • by ackthpt ( 218170 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:42PM (#38000596) Homepage Journal

    On slashdot.xxx

  • by bryan1945 ( 301828 ) on Wednesday November 09, 2011 @12:50PM (#38000702) Journal

    A few articles ago there was an article about a better way to pack balls into something.
    Now this story.

    Coincidence? You decide.

  • ICANN should hand out domains for _free_ on a first-come first-serve basis BUT maintain escrowed bids for all domain names. The annual fee for retaining control of those domain names should be the 1 year Treasury rate. The escrow accounts should yield to the highest bidder the 3 month Treasury rate. If there are groups of domains that have synergistic value together, they should be considered a composite domain by the bidder. The combination of bids (composite and individual) that yields the highest tot
  • I'd be amused to find out what would lie behind vaticano.xxx

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