By: Alicia Stice
Source: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/
MU is one of almost 80,000 institutions and companies that have purchased Internet addresses designed for pornography providers — but not for the reason you might think.
MU bought the addresses mizzou.xxx, missouritigers.xxx and missouri.xxx to prevent those names from being associated with adult entertainment websites.
"If somebody wanted to buy (the domain) and run a porn site, they could," Division of Information Technology spokesman Terry Robb said. "People could mistakenly go to mizzou.xxx, and there you are. It's our trademark name, and a porn site obviously should not use our trademark name for their activities."
MU spends $129 per year for a block on the addresses. Robb said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers alerted trademark holders in September that they would need to protect their trademarks. The corporation is the global organization that monitors and approves top-level domains.
The .xxx addresses are being sold by ICM Registry, the company that controls the domain. The .xxx domain will make adult websites easier to find for people who want them and easier to avoid for people who don't, said Jocelyn Johnson, a public relations representative from the firm representing ICM Registry.
"ICM Registry has been working on .xxx for almost 10 years now, in terms of getting it prepared and getting it approved," Johnson said. "So when it was approved last spring, it had been in the works for a while."
Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 31, almost 80,000 companies registered names under the .xxx domain. This was the "sunrise period" in the registration process, during which companies with trademark names could buy the Web addresses, Johnson said. The company is not releasing information about how many of these companies were registering names because they wanted to block pornographic websites from using their trademark names.
"Companies applying to remove trademarks needed to submit an application and supporting materials to prove they were, in fact the trademark owner," she said. "Once the application was submitted, ICM Registry had a third-party company verify the legitimacy of the trademark and owner."
A new registration phase begins Tuesday, when companies in the adult entertainment industry can buy website names, even if they don't have a trademark. In early December, anyone can buy a .xxx website name, and most of the registered websites will begin publishing content, Johnson said.
Source: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/11/07/mu-purchases-domain-name-protect-trademark/
Source: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/
MU is one of almost 80,000 institutions and companies that have purchased Internet addresses designed for pornography providers — but not for the reason you might think.
MU bought the addresses mizzou.xxx, missouritigers.xxx and missouri.xxx to prevent those names from being associated with adult entertainment websites.
"If somebody wanted to buy (the domain) and run a porn site, they could," Division of Information Technology spokesman Terry Robb said. "People could mistakenly go to mizzou.xxx, and there you are. It's our trademark name, and a porn site obviously should not use our trademark name for their activities."
MU spends $129 per year for a block on the addresses. Robb said the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers alerted trademark holders in September that they would need to protect their trademarks. The corporation is the global organization that monitors and approves top-level domains.
The .xxx addresses are being sold by ICM Registry, the company that controls the domain. The .xxx domain will make adult websites easier to find for people who want them and easier to avoid for people who don't, said Jocelyn Johnson, a public relations representative from the firm representing ICM Registry.
"ICM Registry has been working on .xxx for almost 10 years now, in terms of getting it prepared and getting it approved," Johnson said. "So when it was approved last spring, it had been in the works for a while."
Between Sept. 7 and Oct. 31, almost 80,000 companies registered names under the .xxx domain. This was the "sunrise period" in the registration process, during which companies with trademark names could buy the Web addresses, Johnson said. The company is not releasing information about how many of these companies were registering names because they wanted to block pornographic websites from using their trademark names.
"Companies applying to remove trademarks needed to submit an application and supporting materials to prove they were, in fact the trademark owner," she said. "Once the application was submitted, ICM Registry had a third-party company verify the legitimacy of the trademark and owner."
A new registration phase begins Tuesday, when companies in the adult entertainment industry can buy website names, even if they don't have a trademark. In early December, anyone can buy a .xxx website name, and most of the registered websites will begin publishing content, Johnson said.
Source: http://www.columbiamissourian.com/stories/2011/11/07/mu-purchases-domain-name-protect-trademark/
