Colleges, businesses snap up .xxx domains to thwart porn

Universities and businesses are buying up their names and variations with the xxx domain to prevent their good names from falling into the hands of the pornography industry.

General availability of .XXX domain names began on December 6, 2011 -- on a first come, first served basis. It is reported that more than 80,000 XXX domains were sold and majority of the buyers were universities and big businesses in a move to keep these domain names off the market and prevent the sullying of their reputations. Surprisingly, legitimate porn sites have shown little interest in the triple X domains. University of Michigan grabbed 21 .xxx website names associated with its name, and other Universities such us University of Kansas, University of Indiana, Central Michigan University have reportedly spent thousands of dollars to buy domain names so that no one else can use those addresses. University of Michigan Spokesman, Rick Fitzgerald says, Let me state the obvious: We have absolutely no intent of launching a website in the .xxx domain. But we did this as essentially an insurance policy against someone else taking advantage of the University of Michigan's good reputation. Big businesses are also snapping up domain names in order to protect their brand names. Google reportedly bought domains like Google.XXX, Blogspot.XXX and Youtube.XXX to prevent them being exploited by the adult entertainment business. Retail major Target purchased a few .xxx names related to their brand. Target has applied to block a number of the .xxx domains that correspond with our registered trademarks, although we do not plan to use the domains, said Lee Henderson, a spokesman for the company. Internet domain registrar companies such us Godaddy.com are trying to make the most of this buying spree selling these domains considerably more expensive than standard domains.The old domains run around $15 per domain name. The new .xxx domains run $99 on Godaddy and $129 on Register.com. GoDaddy’s XXX domain registration page itself starts with this: Secure your brand. Protect your reputation.