from www.cnet.com – Porn bigwig Manwin Licensing International has filed a lawsuit arguing that the new .xxx top-level domain arises from a monopoly aimed at hurting the adult film industry.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which obtained the lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court of the Central District of California, Manwin specifically targets the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers (ICANN), as well as ICM Registry, the company that is managing the domain. In the suit, Manwin argues that those companies have engaged in “monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anticompetitive and unfair practices,” according to the Journal.

Manwin is no slouch in the world of online porn. The Luxembourg-based company currently operates YouPorn, as well as the online sites for Playboy. Manwin also manages porn filmmaker Digital Playground. All told, it attracts over 60 million visitors to its sites each day.

Although ICM didn’t immediately respond to CNET’s request for comment on the lawsuit, the company has argued in the past that the .xxx domain is good for both consumers and porn companies.

“With all the sites malware scanned daily and properly labeled, it’s a win for consumers of adult content who are now able to identify and select the sites they wish to visit more easily and safely,” ICM chief Stuart Lawley said in a statement in September promoting the domain.

“It is also a win for the adult entertainment industry as .xxx helps to ensure that responsible adult content is easily identified online, leading to greater and more predictable revenues.”

But Manwin disagrees. In a statement to the Journal, the company said that it believes the .xxx domain creates “an unnecessary cost on everybody, without any benefit for the adult entertainment community.”

Follks in the porn business have been making that argument for months now. In September, porn companies said that with an annual registration fee of about $60 for each Web address, along with being forced to pay approximately $100 to register each site, the costs quickly pile up, considering the firms need to buy several addresses to account for users mistyping names into their browser. What’s more, operating .xxx sites will only add to the costs those firms are already incurring with their .com addresses.

But the porn industry’s complaints over the domain go far beyond cost, with companies arguing that the top-level domain will make it too easy for countries to block their sites.

However, it’s worth noting that the .xxx domain is voluntary, so porn companies that don’t want to invest in it don’t have to. Manwin, for example, has already said that it won’t get .xxx addresses for its sites.

But that doesn’t mean that other companies have followed suit. In the “sunrise” period opened in September for porn companies, ICM received 80,000 .xxx address applications. The second phase of the rollout, called “landrush,” is under way to help current porn purveyors get their desired addresses before the public can start buying up domains on December 6.

ICANN gave the .xxx domain its official approval earlier this year. The organization also put ICM in charge of managing the domain and working with 50 registrars around the world to ensure they’re offering the sites to prospective buyers.

For its part, ICANN wouldn’t comment on the lawsuit, telling CNET in an e-mailed statement that its “attorneys are currently reviewing this and we have no other comment at this time.”

from www.wsj.com – One of the largest purveyors of pornography on the Web has filed suit to block or overhaul the new dot-xxx suffix on Internet addresses, accusing organizations that assign online addresses of running a monopoly that creates unnecessary costs.

The lawsuit was filed by Luxembourg-based Manwin Licensing International SARL, which owns a network of websites including YouPorn.com and manages Playboy Enterprises Inc.’s brand on the Web, along with adult filmmaker Digital Playground Inc.

The suit alleges the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers, or ICANN, used a flawed process when it created dot-xxx, the new porn-focused counterpart to the familiar dot-com and dot-org.

ICANN in March awarded a contract to create the new so-called top-level domain name to a company called ICM Registry LLC, which Manwin and Digital Playground say has abused its position by requiring pornography companies and others to buy up Internet addresses in order to keep squatters from infringing on their trademarks with close equivalents like YouPorn.xxx.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, asks the court to block the new so-called top-level domain name altogether, rebid the contract, or put price controls and service requirements on ICM.

“We are certain the claims are baseless and will vigorously defend this matter,” ICM Chief Executive Stuart Lawley said. ICANN said its lawyers were reviewing the complaint and had no further comment.

The lawsuit alleges “monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anticompetitive and unfair practices.” It says ICM charges annual registration fees of $60 per address, which a Manwin spokeswoman said can add up as specific sites and versions with minor typos are registered.

The .xxx domain “is an unnecessary cost on everybody, without any benefit for the adult entertainment community,” said Kevin Gaut, an attorney representing Manwin. The company has no current plans to register .xxx domain names but may want to in the future, Mr. Gaut said.

ICANN is a nonprofit organization created in 1998 under the oversight of the U.S. government to coordinate the assignment of the unique names and numbers that identify computers hooked up to the Internet.

The organization has experimented in recent years with creating new top-level domains to expand the options for companies and others trying to create identities on the Web. In June, ICANN approved changes that dramatically increase the number of Internet domain name endings available, allowing cities for example to choose to end their Internet addresses with forms like dot-Berlin or dot-nyc.

Users, however, haven’t rushed to adopt new options.

ICM announced earlier this month that it closed an initial “sunrise” period for the dot-xxx domain with more than 80,000 applications for related addresses. General availability of dot-xxx domain names—which will be awarded on a first-come, first-served basis—is scheduled to begin Dec. 6.