Celebrities Flock To Reserve .xxx Domains
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hypnosec writes "Celebrities have moved swiftly to block their names from the .xxx domain, which is meant for websites that offer pornographic content. Thousands of celebrities have contacted ICM Registry to put their names on the permanently reserved list so that no one will be able to start offering porn under their name. The domain registration company, ICM Registry, failed to give out the list of domain names it had blocked nor it is willing to tell how long the list is. On a lighter note, OsamaBinLaden.xxx has been also blocked and we assume the Al Qaeda would have demanded to reserve the domain."
protection racket (Score:5, Insightful)
protection racket
This is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't just mean the reservations, but also the whole domain.
If I wanted to see porn of the Celebrity named Jane Doe, I wouldn't go
JaneDoePorn(com/xxx)
PornJaneDoe(com/xxx)
JaneDoePron(com/xxx)
JaneDoePics(com/xxx)
et cetera
I'd open Google and type in "Jane Doe Porn" and see which links look good.
If you're going to flood the xxx domain with useless garbage, then the whole concept of it is useless.
Re:This is stupid (Score:5, Insightful)
There's no utility in this besides the cash grab.
Re:This is stupid (Score:4, Insightful)
Oh but they can (Score:5, Insightful)
I work in the industry and have followed this. The evil in the .xxx domain is staggering.
First is the pure money grab, same as with .mobi and .travel and several others. Ever use them for legit sites? No? But lots of companies paid for their domain name nonetheless. Domain names are cheap? Not the .xxx ones. This ain't a service it is a commercial business and they want some real cash. Oh not enough to be a major worry to most companies but enough to add up.
Then there is the provision that the registar has that they reserve the right to scan your site. That doesn't happen with any other domain but it does for the .xxx domain. Harmless you say? Most porn sites are members only. Is the registar going to need a full access account for every site to scan it? They refuse to answer. Who is going to responsible for leaked access? They don't even acknowledge that question. How is an American company going to deal with laws in different countries, as in why would a Japanese site have to follow US rules or vice versa?
But the final evil is why lots of politicians are in favor of it.
What is Playboy magazine? A porn mag OR a magazine with some pictures of nudity? The difference is important. The US has no clear anti-porn laws, instead it has laws that prohibit obscene material. What is obscene? That is a very good question and so far the courts have been unable to answer it.
Porn is legal in the US as long as no court can define it as being obscene. In olden days this explains nudist magazines and movies. By shooting it as a documentary on nudist live a movie could be sold that was just a skin flick. It is educational!
This has never gone totally away in the US although a lot of porn IS produced as purely porn the laws are still there and plenty of politicians would be willing to enforce them.
But how can you proof something is porn? How do you proof playboy.com is just obscenity? Well, a bloody big clue would be playboy.xxx Godwin be damned but it is a yellow star. Why do you think the yellow star was used on jews but not say a black star on blacks in America? Because there was no need to, you can tell a black person just by looking a them and therefor there was no risk of a black person going into a whites only store. The only way to enfore "gein juden" was to force them to wear an identifier.
If you force all porn on the .xxx domain you have also forced to label themselves as porn. To those who wish to purge porn from the web, step 1.
Will this happen? Some believe so, the same kind of people that defended Larry Flint. Not because they liked Hustler so much but because of this "joke".
An Arminain grandfather lies on his deathbed and calls his sons to him to depart some final wisdom, "Remember my sons, always defend the jews."
Why the jews the oldest son asks.
"Because once they are gone, we will be next".
The web as it exist now is a mess, porn, business, copyright infringement, press all mixed up with no easy way to tell which is which. But it makes it very hard for a group to silence a part of it. See the US problems with trying to filter porn in public libraries. Oops, it may contain sex but it is also free speech. .xxx would have no such protection since by its label it is only obscenity and that doesn't fall under free speech.
.XXX is a multi-layered beast. At first glance it seems just like a money grab until you realize that there is political support for it for over a decade from a certain quarter and they are NOT in it for they money. They got other motives and once they become evident it will be too late.
Remember this, when it was asked during a conference that IF as the registar said market forces would decide if it was a success or not that ANOTHER option for the registar who invested a LOT of money in this MIGHT use their political mussle to buy ADDITIONAL laws to FORCE purchase of .xxx domains to save their business, the representative plain refused to answer.
Google will do wonders for some more insights.