Hybrid Domainer

Are universities wasting money regging .xxx names ?

The University of Colorado registered 27 .xxx names at $200 a piece. $5400 which could have been used for a partial scholarship for a deserving student, to fund an entrepreneurial micro start up, or one of many other causes.

They registered names like CU.xxx which I am not sure they are the first thing the public as a whole thinks of when they hear CU.

East Carolina University registered 8 .xxx names. Some that no squatter imo would have registered. Many univeristies have registered many .xxx names not just one.

The University of Michigan registered 21 .xxx domains and some make no sense to waste $200 on. michigananddifference.xxx, mgoblue.xxx and umich.xxx are three just three examples.

Interestingly their rival Michigan State took the same stance as the Univeristy of Illinois ( we wrote about here) and registered 0.

Are univeristies second class citizens ? Last month ICM suspended the registrations of names like BusinessWeek.xxx and VerizonWireless.xxx.

Now in all fairness some of these names were not trademarked. So the universities could not ask for ICM to suspend names like they did with BusinessWeek for example, but they could have at least got their trademarks blocked for free just like these companies got them blocked. I think Michigan State and Illinois took the right route.

Michigan registered 14 names at $200 and then went and got 7 more when they were free to register for anyone. Names like umich.xxx and leadersandbest.xxx were registered for $99.

A lot of these names would not have been used imo for porn, they may have got squatted but not developed sites. How do you protect it completely if someone wanted. Are you going to register CUfootball.xxx and MichiganCheerleaders.xxx and all the other combinations which go into the hundreds of possibilities ?

So what do you think ? Are universities wasting their money regging .xxx domains ?

Should they have gotten the same free ride VerizonWireless got ?

Written by RH

 

University of ILLINOIS says forget about .XXX protection we will take action

While many universities have paid the protection fee for their univeristy name and nicknames, The University of Illinois has said they will not do that.

From the associated press:

The University of Illinois won’t be buying Internet domain names with the suffix “.xxx,” but that doesn’t mean you should.

Many universities are snapping up the newly available domain names to keep them out of the hands of pornographers. Southern Illinois University has purchased siu.xxx, southernillinois.xxx and saluki.xxx.

But the (Champaign) News-Gazette reports that Illinois administrators have decided not to purchase fightingillini.xxx or other Illini-themed domains. Their reasoning is it’s impossible to think of — and purchase — every name with a connection to the university.

Chief information security officer Mike Corn says the school will instead threaten cyber-squatters with legal action. University lawyers will send cease-and-desist letters to anyone it feels is violating trademarks.

AP

This probably makes sense, BusinessWeek did not have to pay anything to get their name removed. They got lucky that someone squatted and ICM Registry suspended registration on their own.

http://www.worldtrademarkreview.com/daily/detail.aspx?g=E444EBCB-06A9-47F6-93CC-D225FB574F43

Wired: "The .XXX Domain Arrives, to a World That Has Moved On"

Wired wrote an article last night talking about how the .xxx extension may have come along too late.

It also has remarks from Stuart Lawley where he is worried that new tlds may do exactly what his company did, which was get companies to pay for defensive registration.

Taken from the article :

Even ICM’s Lawley, however, is worried that other gTLDs, rolling out beginning in early 2012, may be used by companies seeing more income potential in getting institutions to sign up defensively to pay continued fees.

Lawley also goes on to say that if ICANN already had a "trademark clearing house" Had such a database been in existence before the launch of .XXX, Lawley says, the one-time use registries may have cost only $20.

The whole article is worth the read and the comment section is also worth the read. It shows just how polarizing this extension is, with some believing that .xxx is the first step to all pornography being relegated to the extension eventually.

Read the whole article here

Verisign wishes they could copy the ICM Registry model

Now that .XXX is up and running we see all the registrations that were purely defensive.

Take this story from the Edmonton Journal:

Many domain-name buyers that include the University of Alberta and Grant MacEwan University have no intention of using the sites they have acquired, such as "UniversityofAlberta.xxx" and "MacEwanUniversity.xxx."

"We have registered five domain names," MacEwan University spokesman David Beharry said Tuesday. "Of course, the reason we would do this as an institution is to protect our reputation. We wanted to make sure we had the proper combinations of Grant MacEwan, MacEwan, MacEwan University, so that we would be able to control these sites."

MacEwan University is among thousands of brand owners worldwide who used an early application period in September and October to preregister their trademarks and to block others from attaching their brand name to a triple-x site.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the general public could start buying any remaining dot-xxx domain names on a first-come, first-served basis.

Grant MacEwan University paid $375 U.S. for each of its five domain names, Beharry said.

Now would it not be great for Verisign if they could charge all these universities a fee to block their UniversityXXX.com and .net.  Just about every company I have seen register their .xxx have the xxx.com version available.
Now many .com owners will say that the new tlds will be great for the .com owner.  Sex.shop will be great for the owner of Sexshop.com the theory goes.  Bars.nyc will be super for the owner of barsnyc.com.

If that premise is true, all these organizations should be worried about their NameXXX.com being registered. If they are not worried, did they waste a lot of money when their name is available in the most popular extension in the world ?
It depends what side of the table you are on.  If you believe .com is the end all be all, then these organizations wasted money because their name with xxx was never taken in .com.  Its still available right now.  So what they were worried about with .xxx could still play out in .com. They paid protection money to ICM, so should they protect the same in XXX.com ?
If you are on the other side of the table and that right of the dot is the future, then these companies were right to protect against .xxx and there is no need to have the XXX.com.
What is your take on this ?

55,367 .xxx domains sold in first day

Just tweeted from the official .xxx Twitter account:

dotXXX Dot XXX

159,351 .XXX domains sold - 55,367 in the first day! Have you staked your claim in the new #goldrush? buy.xxx #dotXXX

Was it more of less than you thought it would be for the first day ?

Dot XXX and domain speculation

Today was a big day in the domain world.  The .xxx extension finally made its way to general availability. The problem for the domainer imo is the price.  At $85 at Name.com per .xxx or $100 at Go Daddy the price seems just too high to speculate.

We started off with a lot of the great names being either founders program to the likes of a Frank Schilling or names being restricted for future sales. A name like F#ck Me shows this:
Reserved by ICM Registry for Premium Generic Domain Names Program (Contact premium@icmregistry.com)

That is fine its their registry. This does make it hard to speculate in the extension for someone not interested in being a developer.  I think its safe to say many domainers regging a .xxx are only doing it to speculate in the extension, not to become an adult webmaster.

I will say one niche I thought might be attractive would be female first names. I think there will be performers that will like having a short, brandable first name. True many could use their full name rather than pay a domain speculator, but some use a common first name and only that.  Plus many amateur cam girls might find this an appealing way to brand their business.

Some first names were held back and others went right away. I was looking at names there were available. Names like Vanessa,Gina,Kate,Rachel,Naomi.  These all were good choices imo and some went right away.  Naomi did not get registered til late in the day and all the others got regged pretty fast.

Full disclosure I registered none of these names, because I think there are some other factors at play.

1) How many am I going to register ? I am not starting an adult site, so it would be purely speculation.

2) If I registered 10, could I find a better place for $1000 in .com ?

3) If no one bought them, how long would I renew

4) How effective will blocking .xxx names be ?

5) With so many people in adult against the extension, who will buy these domain names?

At $85 it is just too much of a gamble for any domainer not at the elite level. Frank Schilling and Michael Berkens could lose every penny they invested and their lifestyle is not affected in any way. The average domainer could find himself affected. Most domainers would not drop after one year, so now they got $200 invested and then maybe $300 and they did not get the top names.

I asked dot XXX on Twitter how fast can these be sold ?

@dotXXX Dot XXX

@hybriddomainer There is a 60 day no transfer hold; beyond that no restrictions.

Look there will be money made in this extension imo, the risk reward is too great for an average domainer with no desire to become an adult webmaster. Again IMO

Best of luck to all

.XXX and the adult domainer

Many who participate in the adult end of the domain pool do it privately. They register a domain and add privacy and that's it.

.XXX is a different story

IF you are thinking of regging a .xxx when they go live in about 8 1/2 hours, be prepared to provide a lot of info and get a phone call.

Here is the process:

How do you become a member of the Sponsored Community?

To have your .xxx domain name become a live website, you must self-attest to being a member of the Sponsored Community and complete the Membership Application. Below is a definition of the Sponsored Community with examples, as well as the Membership Application process all members will have to complete.

Our Sponsored Community consists of individuals, business, entities, and organizations that fit any one of the following descriptions:

• Provide Online Adult Entertainment intended for consenting adults (“Providers”) (e.g. adult webmasters, performers, studios, store owners, club operators)
• Represent Providers (“Representatives”) (e.g. lawyers, agents, advisors, accountants, affiliates)
• Provide products or services to Providers and Representatives (“Service Providers”) (e.g. adult domainers, manufacturers, delivery companies, caterers, distribution companies, merchant account services, make up artists, stylists, hosting services)

Validation Process

The Sponsored Community validation process consists of individuals, business, entities, and organizations that fit one of the following descriptions:

1. Person/company registers a .xxx name with their registrar of choice — they pay their registrar directly for that.
2. ICM sends the person/company an introduction email that includes a validation link — to the Registrant Contact email address provided with their application.
3. The person/company clicks on the validation link in the ICM email and is directed to the ICM Membership Application.
4. The person/company fills out the ICM Membership Application — free of charge. (Takes about 5 minutes to complete — only have to do this one time per email account, not per domain.)
5. As a part of ICM's Membership Application, the person has to provide the following:
   1. Address
   2. Phone Number
6. As a part of ICM's Membership Application, the person has to attest to the following:
   1. Provide correct birth date information
   2. Agree to ICM's Registry-Registrant Agreement
   3. Attest to being a member of the Sponsored Community
7. ICM will call the phone number provided during the Membership Application.
8. In that phone call, ICM will provide the person with a PIN # (real time) and the applicant will input the PIN# in the designated area in the Membership Application process.
9. Once the person completes the Membership Application, ICM provides the registrar a Membership Token thus allowing all of the .xxx domain names associated with that email account to resolve/go live.                                                                                                       
   

 

Over 100,000 XXX Domain Names Are Going Live Tomorrow At 11 EST

BusinessInsider.com just released a story that 100,000 names will go live tomorrow.

From the article:

So far, more than 100,000 domain names have been registered. ICM expects that number to double within the first few weeks of the domain going public. While prices vary depending on which registrar registers the site, Lawley said it usually costs between $70 and $100 to create a .XXX website.

It's difficult for ICM to estimate how much money it will make off the idea, since profits depend on the number of registrants, but the company's wholesale price for domains is $60.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/official-porn-domain-hitting-the-internet-2011-12#ixzz1fgowJHnr

More and more colleges getting .xxx names to make sure no one else does

The Greenfield reporter is reporting that the University of Iowa is looking to acquire a bunch of Iowa Hawkeye domains in .xxx to make sure no one uses their name for adult content.

The University of Missouri has acquired Missouri.xxx, mizzou.xxx and missouritigers.xxx .  I think the Missouri purchase is interesting as being the pure geo and not representing just the school. I am sure many would like the state.xxx domain.

The Maneater reported these purchases taken from the article:

Division of Information Technology Director Terry Robb is a leader in MU's effort to prevent porn sites created under the MU name. The university has bought missouri.xxx, mizzou.xxx and missouritigers.xxx, which means adult entertainment enterprises cannot use those URLs. 

"There certainly can be permutations of the university’s name," Robb said. "It would be expensive to purchase them all."

To Robb's knowledge, there has not been a problem with porn sites being associated with MU in the past, but he sees a benefit in the creation of the new domain as a whole.

"It will help parents filter pornography from a computer children may use and that’s a good thing," Robb said.

Once the domain is publicly available for purchase, individuals and companies alike will be able to purchase a URL of their choice that will go under the .xxx domain. ICM Registry is hoping to encourage self-identification.

".XXX isn't just a helpful distinction," the ICM's website stated. "It's the progressive new home for adult entertainment online."

The Tennessean.com reports that Vanderbilt and Tennessee got their .xxx names.

If Beyonce does not have to pay the .xxx " block fee" why should your company ?

.XXX is underway and under Sunrise B, any non-adult trademark holders that want to block their trademark from being registered in .xxx can do that by paying a fee.

But ICM is blocking or reserving some celebrity names. Go to http://www.icmregistry.com/whois

You can check to see if a name is "reserved" by ICM.  It seems this is new policy on the celebrity .xxx. Maybe they read our article (probably not ) http://www.hybriddomainer.com/2011/08/one-group-that-needs-to-think-about-xxx-cybersquatting-celebrities.html

So Beyonce does not have to worry about paying to block her name.

 

  Brandy does as its not reserved.

Some sports celebrities like Jennie Finch and Hope Solo are not on the reserved list. But two of the most famous pornstars of all time are reserved. Tera Patrick and Jenna Jameson.

On the mens side, Brad Pitt is reserved, Ryan Reynolds is not.

So it does seem like ICM is smart enough and has the ability for a reserved list. So why then does a company like Coke have to pay to block their name ?

They even reserved 71 year old sex symbol Raquel Welch

 

*Beyonce photo courtesy of myplay.com

*Brandy photo courtesy of boshank.com

*Raquel Welch photo courtesy of onsugar.com