AfterDawn: News

ICANN sued over .XXX domains

The big boys of online porn have joined together to sue ICANN in an anti-monopoly lawsuit.

Manwin, the company behind YouPorn, Brazzers, PornHub and Xtube has teamed up with Digital Playground to sue ICANN and the ICM Registry over the newly created .XXX top level domains.



Both companies want a full injunction to stop .XXX and a re-opening of competition with "reasonable price constraints."

The lawsuit claims "(...) monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anti-competitive and unfair practices, broadly harming competition, businesses, and consumers, arising out of the establishment of .XXX, a new Top-Level Domain Name (TLD) intended for adult-oriented content."

The 44-page lawsuit continues:

ICM initially attempted to coerce ICANN to approve the .XXX TLD and to approve ICM's anti-competitive .XXX registry services. That coercion took the form of misleading predatory conduct and aggressive litigation tactics, described more fully below.

Eventually, ICANN agreed to approve the .XXX TLD, and to approve ICM as the XXX registry, not only in response to those improper and coercive tactics but also because ICM promised to pay ICANN what is expected to be millions of dollars in fees.

The .XXX top level domain has brought problems for almost everyone, as schools and companies have been forced to defensively purchase names, like yale.xxx and pepsi.xxx to avoid having reputations hurt.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 18 Nov 2011 14:43

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• 8 comments

• hikaricor

  In other news, waaahhhhhh waaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!111

  18.11.2011 17:49 #1

• Notcow

  Originally posted by hikaricor: In other news, waaahhhhhh waaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!111 It's a legitimate concern...that's a lot of money that institutions are being forced to waste by the government. When Colleges have to buy porn domains to protect their image due to a government policy, something is wrong...
  

  18.11.2011 18:03 #2

• hikaricor

  No one is being force to do anything, they're buying into stupid hype. No one is ever going to confuse a .xxx domain with the official thing, not even grandma. Seriously this whole thing is retarded.

  18.11.2011 18:58 #3

• KillerBug

  While the Yale.xxx thing is unreasonable to a point, remember...if they didn't buy it, some porn site would, then they would take pictures of hookers wearing Yale chearleader uniforms, and this would make the school look bad (or good, if you are into chearleader porn).
  
  The real problem is with existing sites. Lets use RedTube as an example...redtube is now forced to pay a very high price for RedTube.XXX, or have their competition take their customers away through semi-fraudulent practices. That isn't right.
  
  It would be one thing of all domains were open, so anyone could get a .123 or a .abc domain name; but when you only have a handful available, you get problems like this.
  

  
  

  18.11.2011 23:20 #4

• SomeBozo

  I thought the .xxx domain is a good compromise. People/admins that want to block content from adults sites because it isn't age appropriate for a given environment, or wishing to block their children could easily block any xxx domain. Those wishing to view all the adult content they like know where to find it. Always seemed like a good compromise for all involved. There might be other issues related to this, but then are secondary to the issue as I see it. Both groups of people get what they want but not fully. Those who don't want adult content on the web can't censor those in the xxx domain, and those who want it have all the freedom and choice provided they stay in the xxx domain.
  
  If there is a better solution where people on both sides of the issues with adult content get what they want, suggest it.
  
  

  19.11.2011 14:44 #5

• Necrosaro

  Originally posted by Notcow: Originally posted by hikaricor: In other news, waaahhhhhh waaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!111 It's a legitimate concern...that's a lot of money that institutions are being forced to waste by the government. When Colleges have to buy porn domains to protect their image due to a government policy, something is wrong... What, $8/year?

  25.11.2011 13:07 #6

• Mike Kennedy (unverified)

  Originally posted by Necrosaro: Originally posted by Notcow: Originally posted by hikaricor: In other news, waaahhhhhh waaaaaaahhhhh waaaaaahhhhhhhhh!!!!111 Its a legitimate concern...thats a lot of money that institutions are being forced to waste by the government. When Colleges have to buy porn domains to protect their image due to a government policy, something is wrong... What, $8/year?
  .xxx domains are $79.00 for 1 year, with a $19.00 Application Fee at 101domain.com :/

  25.11.2011 17:51 #7

• senator29

  why the hell would you sell these domains? and at 79 a pop? something seems wrong with this picture.
  
  
  they should have issued any and all registered porn sites with an xxx extension requiring the switch. plain and simple. any and all registered domain holders be notified and opportunity to acquire their .xxx domain for protection.
  
  79 a year? seriously? even the prices i pay for domain registry seems quite high. what does godaddy really do that costs money to take mine?

  26.11.2011 03:59 #8