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Schools Buy .xxx Domains In Trademark Panic
bs0d3 writes "Schools nationwide, including The University of Missouri and Washington University, are snapping up .xxx domain names to avoid people making porn sites with their names in the url. The new .xxx domain will be launched later this year, and before that, everyone with a trademark will have the opportunity to reserve names during what's called a "sunrise period". Someone is promoting the possible horrors of what could happen as a way to sell these domains, which cost up to $200 dollars per domain per year. Even though these schools may already be protected from defamation and trademark infringement, they still feel compelled to buy these names."
there goes a business plan have a girls of X school / college web sites.
They just dont want anyone profiting from all the 12yr camwhores that go to their school.
Keep it up ICANN! You are doing a fine job! You jerks should be killed.
protecting companies and institutions in the US from having to fork over more than a nominal amount (let's say $10/yr) to reserve a domain based on their own name, provided that they never back it with content.
What if ICANN doesn't play ball? Well, the legislation should then direct US-based ISP's to block all .xxx traffic.
We-el, unless the school also buy up girlsof.xxx ...
Slash dot.xxx is still available for all your nerdish needs.
...there's really only one TLD because everyone has to buy the same name from all of them to protect themselves. (Especially as you lose a trademark if you don't protect it.)
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
It isn't ICANN that is the driver behind this craze, it is the US schizophrenia that is driving this thing. What you see is the happy marriage of "Brand is EVERYTHING" with "Save the Children" and "Sex is dirty".
To see all the domain names Penn State is going to have to buy.
"The average reporter we talk to is 27 years old......They literally know nothing." - Ben Rhodes
What happened to suing trademark infringers?
Great idea, but not in practice. People only recognize the AOL keyword kind of URLs. There is no http://slashdot.com or http://slashdot.net , only http://slashdot.org . I like the ideas of namespaces, but for average people using the internet, the TLDs don't matter. Its .com or it does not exist. This is common in other countries as well, where .com should not be in their default namespace.
This is the entire business plan of these new TLDs. My company currently pays around $20k/year to pay for domains (and local presences in countries where that is required) that we never use, just to protect ourselves.
What we really need is a free (or extremely cheap) option to block domains from being registered if there is a valid trademark. Of course, this would eliminate the profit motive of introducing new TLDs, so it would stop happening.
This is something that needs legislation to solve.
and you have ICANN finding that every time they allow another .* TLD, people scramble to buy them all up.
so they release .xxx and all hell breaks loose, and a lot of registrars make a lot of easy money for no added benefit.
Best business idea ever. Anyone who doesn't want their name associated with porn is forced to buy a domain name.
I am a psyc professor and some of my lectures on sex probably, while not porn, would be x-rated.
http://www.busyweather.com/
I hope my school buys up some names. We would have a legitimate concern for cocks.xxx
Go Gamecocks!
What you see is the happy marriage of "Brand is EVERYTHING" with "Save the Children" and "Sex is dirty".
Really?
I did not know the US encouraged polygamy.
If my comment didn't sound as good in your head as it did in mine, then I guess we all know who's to blame
but www.yalesluts.xxx will still be available. I really don't think money for education should be diverted to porn site registration unless they plan to run the porn site themselves! Are there concealed cameras in the dorm rooms? Gotta get content somewhere!
These people are idiots. So someone buys youruniversity.xxx and puts a bunch of porn there. Unless they can somehow profit from that, such schemes will wither on the vine. The only way to profit is via blackmail. And schools are falling for it, because everyone thinks that's the best way to cover their ass, so to speak. Everyone is afraid that the trustees or the president or dean will come to them and say "someone put porn at youruniversity.xxx, and you could have prevented it by only spending a few hundred bucks." Talk about a bunch of pussies.
The whole point of the XXX TLD was to make sure you had only porn hosted in such domains. In other words, if you don't do porn, you have no business buying there. If the schools that are buying up names in this TLD decide ignore the intent of its existence, it is entirely their problem.
how many girl would sign up for that to get cheap room and board?
You know that the Muesli overtook Amurrika in 2009, don't you?
If you don't defend a trademark, you lose it - even if you're not aware of it being used by someone else. So, I don't agree that it's the school's problem, the problem is the entire trademark system.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
Well, if they're going to use my name they had better have some top flight content. (I'll pay extra for girl-on-girl if they're wearing Debian thongs...)
Trademarks are used to identify products or services. If you don't own a product or a service that deals in porn, you don't need to defend it.
or, rather, you don't risk losing it by not defending it.
I'm [insert porn name] and I'm a porn star Phoenix. Thanks University of Phoenix!
...than the lawyers later. Even if the schools' names are protected by trademark and/or defamation law it's likely to cost considerably more than $200 to find infringing domains and get them revoked.
Besides, when the school gets hard up for money they can rent their .xxx domain out for pron.
Or they could just give it to their cheerleaders...
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
I guess it's a "no brainer" if you're paying with someone else's money.
There are several area schools in Indiana that have not registered yet... hmmm... domain pirating anyone??
Thank you US Federal Government, for this awesome economic boost! Just a few more of these and we'll be in the black in no time.
The solution to protecting a trademark is to register domains in every possible TLD. This message brought to you by GoD*ddy.
If you don't defend a trademark, you lose it - even if you're not aware of it being used by someone else.
I'm still interested to know how you defend your trademark when you're not aware of it being used?
Let's drop the .com/org/edu if we're not going to regulate their use to actual Companies, non-profit Organizations, and Educational institutions. Just move to:
harvard
law.harvard
students.harvard
registrar.harvard
store.ibm
support.ibm
etc etc
When do we get the sexy version of Slashdot?
People are always thinking of the children, but what about Little Richard?
This will go straight to memory-dumps like .cc
Only if you're doing it right ;)
I'm going to propose creating a new .xxy TLD for the real celebrity porn now that .xxx is exclusively used to pre-emptively block celebrity porn domain names. .xxy is one whole letter more naughty than .xxx, so domain names cost twice as much to register!
.xxy domains can be pre-reserved within a sunrise period over the next N years, where N is the time until I have enough money from registrations to retire. After that time it will totally launch, honestly. So if want to prevent spammers from offering pornography on a website that has your name in the address (rather than just all over the page), be sure to buy up all variations and misspellings of your name now!
Eeeew, squatting on hardvard ....
Why don't you consider one of the following:
[ ] mypsu.xxx
...
...
...
[ ] sexypsu.xxx
[ ] girlsofpsu.xxx
[ ] sexinpsu.xxx
[ ] gaypsu.xxx
[ ] psushowers.xxx
Come on, it is almost 2012, everyone should have understood a long time ago that people don't search for content based on the domain name.
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Somebody's going to get sued for false advertising...
More like they get to pay the registration fees now and the lawyers later, when someone registers a variation on their name that they didn't register.
The only thing they have ever done well is bring in more money to registrars.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Or maybe these colleges just want to use that business plan themselves. It would be kind of like having a football team. If you're a horny teenager which school are you gonna pick the one with hot chicks fucking or the one with a bunch of dudes playing catch with each other. These Universities probably just want to do some quality control.
This is 100% correct.
The US suffers from a HUGE conflict of idealism and it is precisely the items you speak. I would have said "sex sells" rather than "brand is everything" but the core of marketing is correct. Business and sales rule the U.S. The problem is business and sales interests are often in direct conflict with moral idealism nearly all of us profess to maintain. Personally, I have identified those conflicts and reject all business that conflict with my own moral ideals. As a result, the companies I reject include Sony and Disney. I reject Sony for reasons that should be clear and obvious to all. I reject Disney because they are selling sex to very young children in a way I cannot agree with.
I suppose that last sentence seems a bit odd. But I will say this: I think it's normal and healthy for kids to be curious about sex and everything else in the world. They experience life in their bodies just as we did when we were children. It is definitely not productive to tell every child he is evil because he is curious about sex, sexuality and his sexual instincts. So I say explain them to children and teach them honestly and do not punish them for being human children. But what Disney does adds so much more confusion to the mix that it is even more difficult for children to be themselves and to be well adjusted as they grow and develop. Worse, they create the same sort of self-hating and self-destructive idealism in children that we have seen in women across the globe. (Of course you know I speak of the modelling and fashion industry creating unhealthy ideals for women to pursue and fail to achieve resulting in self-loathing and even self-destructive behavior.) So when a child doesn't look, dress and act like the Disney kids, they are ugly in their own eyes.
I'm seriously glad I don't have any girl children as they are the most targeted victims of Disney's behavior and it would be very challenging to mitigate the damage Disney does directly or indirectly to society.
And you know? People still somehow see whatever Disney does as being "pure and clean" and rated G. It's amazing to me because people were initially up in arms when young girls were being made up to look like little sluts but no one says anything when Disney does it. Just amazing.
I don't agree with "Save the Children." I think I would rather say "Leave the Children ALONE!" This would include leaving them out of marketing crap.
The former Australian Prime Minister did something like that. He was talking about doing a draconian "for the kiddies" internet censorship plan (which a later Government continued) while owning the ".cx" domain.
I may have to explain that in more detail to avoid kneejerk know-it-all reactions that will crap on about ".au". Christmas Island is a very small Australian territory and ultimately some of the ".cx" domain registration money made it back into Australian consolidated revenue.
And it would be a great way to keep tuitions in check.
thegodmovie.com - watch it
Perhaps .xxx is appropriate.
"I did not know the US encouraged polygamy."
Wait until they elect a Mormon as President
Used up my mod points for some trifling nonsense the other day, wish I'd saved them for your post. There's some countries that ban advertising to children (citation needed), would be nice if the US could pass similar laws as well.
Mod parent +1 sexychildren!
I can't help but to read "tranny" instead of tyranny.
Every fucking time.
sorry, they have 'community activity' programs and political campaigns like the oppression olympics to fund.. education is at the bottom of the priority list these days. it's like how 'syfy' no longer shows scifi, and history channel no longer does much on history...or how mtv rarely plays music videos.
By actively building recognition of the mark, to avoid it becoming generic. Don't just advertise for Quiggle. Advertise for Quiggle-brand widgets, from the makers of Foobar.
Your trademark being used by someone else doesn't really matter, until you object to it. Once you have a dispute, your opponent will try to show that your trademark isn't really unique to you, and you've done little to try to keep it unique. They'll gather a lot of little things, like similar domain names you didn't register, old advertisements where you didn't emphasize the mark as a brand, and stock photos that show your mark without your authorization. It all builds up to show that your mark is now just a synonym with the type of product, rather than the brand.
You do not have a moral or legal right to do absolutely anything you want.
"That's a nice trademark you've got there. It would be a shame if anything where to happen to it."
"That's a nice trademark you have there, it would be a shame if anything where to happen to it."
Is that where they're going to sell all those porn pics their laptops are recording?
demanding money with promises to not harm your business is a crime
Given that females make up more than 50% of college applicants? I'd say they will be promoting the football team at every chance.
They bought .net, .com, .org, and a few others. They finally got over it, though. Now we just have .edu.
It took a while for sane heads to prevail, though.
I guess there was a difference though. The .net,.com etc. was just due to internal stupidity. With .xxx, it almost seems like an extortion racket.
Are you saying that "Megashark VS Giant Octopus" isn't scifi?
seriously I can't imagine typing sex.xxx or girls.xxx, just doesn't look right
now if it was girls.sex....
it's more like cgi.
You know, this may be the first time we've had a 5, Insightful that must have been directly translated from the original Klingon...
WARNING: Smartphones have side effects--most of them undocumented.
They all act as if that was not the intended purpose of the .xxx domains (or the purpose of any of the TLDs). The purpose of the new .xxx domains is that all your suckers have to buy .xxx just to be save, and not to control the porn industry.
Since a porn site can still have a regular .com domain, you still have to use all the old filter software to block porn sites, plus you have to block all .xxx domains, and now of course you have to buy .xxx to be save.
What would have make more sense is a .kids domain. That way you could just block all other domains except .kids and be done with it. And you don't have to worry that someone will get a .kids and put porn on it. (of course if a .kids domain gets some rules attached to it, like the site with a .kids can only have content appropriate for kids).
Was a .kids TLD even discussed? What was the argument against a .kids domain vs. a .xxx domain?
http://www.mueller-public.de - My site http://www.anr-institute.com/ - Advanced Natural Research Institute
Not a patch on Sharktopus
Be gone from my sight or prepare to feel my flaming wraith!
People pretty well understand .edu is for educational institutions, particularly since it is one that not just anyone can get. The university I work for only has the .edu version of its name, .com, .net and .org are all owned by different people and each one goes to a different site.
The thing is people get all uptight about porn and dumbass administrators go "OMG they might think our school promotes PORN, we'd better buy the name!"
Just knee jerk crap.
Dude, when you think of the children when thinking about an .xxx page, you might be in for a visit from some unfriendly law enforcement units.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Maybe instead of trying to hide everything from the children (by stopping the advertising), things should be explained instead. I like that option better than pretending such things don't exist.
Filthy, filthy copyrapists!
You'd prefer squatting on hardwood?
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
So, if I go to ASU.xxx I'm going to get Arizona State's school website as opposed to what most of their student body (and damn fine bodies at that) do in their spare time? False advertising!
AccountKiller
whitehouse.xxx
... snoozer.zzz
And this, ladies and gentlemen, is why the economy is in decline. Yet more money spent on worthless things. Basically this is what drives inflation. The more money wasted like this, the less there is to spent on actual increase of value.
.xxx domains were a useless idea anyway and now they've evolved into a bad idea.
Worse.
Imagine a hack, that sets up a xxx domain AFTER they bought it. Than they endorsed it.
Someone should buy stashdot.xxx before a porn site ruins our reputa ..... oh wait!
Hurd.xxx. The site where they keep at it for years without actually coming.
People are always thinking of the children, but what about Little Richard?
Your "little dick" is of no concern to anyone but yourself
Yes. What we see here is the fine art of siphoning off money from the educational budget (and a lot of other entities with no connections to the pr0n industry) for no service at all. Basically the same scheme as the IP industry cashing in on everybody, consumer or not, by default (or by decrete).
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
Or just girlsof-.com. This was the same before the xxx domain so the schools here are just stupid.
In unrelated news, university's all over the country have approved funding for new arts projects, with a unexpanded need for a large number of hidden surveillance type camera.
You have 5 Moderator Points!
Which Helpless Linux zealot/MS basher do you want to mod down today?
So they'll do two photoshoots for the classpictures now ?
I think we can keep recursing like this until someone returns 1
when can we get xox so everyone with a trademark can fork out or risk be associated with hugs and kisses.
We're saying that it shouldn't have been. But also should have. So much inner conflict.
Surely a .xxx email address would be perfect for their football department.
Because on slashdot, that is who we think about. Mmm, oh yeah ride me!
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
The market for xxx was always for non-xxx businesses - there are so many more of them needing to defend their brands. The porn industry was second.
We all knew this right, that why we all suggested it was a bad idea at the time?
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pennstate.xxx ?
http://www.gunslot.com/files/gunslot/images/71122.jpg
ICANN's thought: "Just as planned."
Back when searching for strings of text in domain names actually did produce useful results, I loved the Northern Light search engine. They made it so easy.
It's been a long while but the last time I checked, no one made this possible in the same way any more.
Nowadays, does any search engine have this feature? The ability to search for a text string in an URL while limiting results to only those characters to the left of the TLD could still be occasionally useful.
Before somebody points to Google, I'd like to note that I find their tool useless. If I'm using it wrong, please correct me, but the Google "allinurl" search will find the text *anywhere* in the URL. That's not what I want. If I want to find sites that deal with, say, lowriders, the google results will inevitably show 10,000 links to places like http://www.someweirdasspicpostsitenoonehaseverheardof.ru/some/ridiculous/bunch/of/subdirs/someusername/lowrider001.jpg . Such results are completely without value when you're looking for http://www.lowriders.com/ or some variant thereof.
Keep it up ICANN! You are doing a fine job! You jerks should be killed.
Is this subtle humor or a serious response? I mean, if every organization, product, and idea were given a government-assigned GUId, then we would never hear about branding ever again. So does that mean that we blame the entire free market system for this minor story?
Or maybe they saw right through you and realized you were still living in your parent's basement and read slashdot? Complex conspiracy theories often fail to take into account simple logic....
The company which is profiting from the .xxx scare is "International Creative Management," a major Hollywood talent agency which is behind the shows "Survivor," "The Real World," "Deal or No Deal" and represents such big names as Jay Leno.
ICM is located just off Santa Monica Boulevard in Los Angeles, across the street from the Academy of Motion Pictures.
It's great to see the universities spend the money they collect from excruciating tuition in things that really, really matter.
But therein lies the rub: type of product.
That's how for example aspirin became a generic name for acetylsalicylic acid. It had become a synonym for that kind of an analgesic, to the extent where everyone was just saying stuff like "take two aspirins" when they meant "take some acetylsalicylic acid".
You don't lose a trademark just because a term is generic for something ELSE than your product. Microsoft Windows is still a trademark, although "windows" has been a generic term for, you know, a certain kind of hole in a wall since the 12'th century. (The concept of a window itself is of course older, but the first attestation of the English word "window" -- or close enough -- is from the 12'th century.) Apple Inc doesn't lose its trademark just because the word "apple" has been used for a kind of fruit for over a thousand years. And Prince Albert Tobacco doesn't get to be generic just because Prince Albert also is commonly used for a type of piercing.
What I'm getting at is that even IF it were to came to pass that Washington University became synonymous with some sexual practice or position, and people went around saying stuff like "woohoo, I had a Washington University yesterday with two chicks"... so what? As long as that doesn't apply to a college, it doesn't come even close to threatening the actual Washington University's trademark.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
Instead of www.whatever. The url should be xxx.whatever.
I am not against adult sites, but it is a very good thing to separate it from web traffic.
I am also a big fan of separating commercial traffic from educational sites.
No it doesn't. They can't possibly buy up every name with a variation of "University of Missouri" in the name. GirlzOfUofMissouri.xxx
what like .org and .edu?
so, everyone who's scared pays $200 a year...
In unrelated news, university's
university's
y's
You seriously need to break that apostrophe key off your keyboard and throw it away. It's not your friend.
Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
who would have known that one can easily misspell or mistaken .edu for .xxx.
I know .gov and .com are (uh hem), but edu?
HarritionHighschool.xxx?
the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff
not funny, asshole.
snatching up .xxx domain names
FTFY
girl
The question changes considerably with the gender considered.
Are girls allowed to go to school in your home society? Or, for that matter, to have choices?
There are all sorts of unpleasant assumptions behind your comment.
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"
Relax man its a joke.
I don't understand why the Dutch are allowing this blatant rip-off of their intellectual property. XXX is the accepted and well-known sign for Amsterdam, and these crass money grubbing ICANN guys are ripping them off. Hopefully, once everyone gets their own .xxx domain the Dutch will jump in with a massive, (and I mean mega-gigantonormous) lawsuit against everyone in the internet for infringement of copyright. It will pay for the Dutch social system for centuries.
wicked, but only fair, i mean really
Subversion of spatial scale luxury decoration ideas.
I thought the site's tagline read "news", not "jokes"?
Birds are not dinosaur descendants;birds are dinosaurs, for all useful meanings of "birds", "are" and "dinosaurs"