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Friday, March 29, 2024 | Back issues
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Can You Monopolize Porn?

I admit it. I just don't get it. What's so special about XXX?

Yes, 30 is a nice age and some people like Vin Diesel movies but why would I rush to an Internet site just because its address had those letters following a period?

Is, say, YouPorn.xxx really sexier than YouPorn.com?

Would I think less (or, perhaps, more) of Mercedes Benz if there were a MercedesBenz.xxx?

If this seems odd to you too, check out a lengthy and fascinating lawsuit filed last week by the operator of a bunch of adult Internet sites such as YouPorn and xTube against a company called ICM Registry, LLC for allegedly violating antitrust law by controlling the .XXX "top level domain" (aka TLD).

It seems this will do everything from "ghettoizing" pornography (an oppressed, poverty-stricken area of the Internet) to forcing car companies and celebrities to register their .xxx names so that other people can't.

The other interesting allegation in the suit is that ICM has convinced Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the organization that controls addresses, not to allow any other sexy TLDs - i.e. no .sex or .porn.

But "defensive registration" seems to be the main beef. Apparently operators of sex sites think they have to register .xxx versions of their Internet domain names to prevent dilution or diversion of their business and ICM is gouging them for the privilege.

Hmm.

OK, I'm not expert on Internet porn. I might like to be, but I'm not. So perhaps this is true.

Then again, why is this not true for any other TLD? Check out (if you're over 18 and not easily offended) youporn.biz or youporn.org.

As for celebrities, can't they just sue if someone is exploiting their names? Why would anyone think MotherTheresa.xxx is an authorized site?

It's all very perplexing.

And you don't have to use the TLD to get your fill of exes. Just go to xxx.com. Seems like the same stuff.

A few other passages from the lawsuit:

Owners of children's character names may wish to bar registration of such names in .XXX to prevent any resulting adult or sexual connotation to the character.

I'm looking forward to MotherGoose.xxx.

ICM would only sell trademark owners the permanent right to block the exact trademark ... For example, ICM would have permitted Mercedes Benz to purchase the right to permanently block "MercedesBenz.xxx" but not to purchase the right to permanently block "sexinaMercedesBenz.xxx."

You're going to need some serious imagination to register everything with your name in it.

Businesses owning multiple trademarks or domain names may need to purchase many hundreds or thousands of permanent blocking rights or other defensive registrations.

Someone is going to make a fortune controlling the .isstupid TLD.

I expect fascinating appellate rulings on this stuff.

MORE SEX. Wonderful lawsuits such as the one above naturally lead to research. And so I came upon sex.com - an Internet address that definitely does not require exes. (Sex.xxx would clearly be excessive.)

The page you get offers no pictures - just a sober statement of purpose that includes this:

"There is no good or bad way to have sex, but sex is much more than just sex."

I'm not saying whether I'm speaking from personal experience, but I'm pretty sure there are bad ways to have sex. It seems that not everything on the Internet is true.

RANDOM HOPE. I hope that someone has the foresight and insight to register xxx.xxx - and use it for a website devoted to crossing things out.

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