.XXX Domains - Why Are US Universities Scrambling to Buy Them?
Many U.S. universities are buying up domains with the .xxx ending in order to protect their brands from porn entrepreneurs who may misuse them down the road.
One such case is The University of Kansas which has bought domain names www.KUgirls.xxx, www.KUnurses.xxx and several others spending a total of $3,000 according to Foxnews. The university plans to do nothing with them but keep them away from the hands of exploiters.
Starting this week, the .xxx domain ending purported to distinguish porn sites from normal sites went up for sale to the general public at a cost of $100 per year.
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Universities such as Grand Valley State University, Western Michigan University (WMU) and the University of Michigan have also grabbed domains.
WMU spokesman Cheryl Roland said that nine addresses including westernmichigan.xxx, wmu.xxx, and wmubroncos.xxx were bought according to Mlive.com while the University of Michigan told the Detroit Free Press that they had purchased 21 domains.
Some other universities are taking a different approach to the situation by waiting until any infringements do actually occur. They believe it is still difficult to tell how much of a threat this activity really is.
However this situation does not only apply to universities, companies and corporations who fear their brands may be affected have grabbed "triple x" domains too.
According to AP, Nike.xxx, Pepsi.xxx and Target.xxx are domain names that have been purchased too, purchased probably during the last two months where the ICM, exclusive manager of the .xxx ending, gave companies and organizations the opportunity to protect their brands from the porn industry.
According to Foxnews ICM also stated that it would protect university and company trademarks if they had missed obtaining certain website domains.
