Way ta go, Indians, Geronimo, Cochise, Sitting Bull…
from www.forbes.com – What once was a brand for the porn industry seems to be its enemy in the Internet Age.
According to the Economic Times today, the government of India plans to block all .xxx domain sites once they begin to be deployed. Last week the board of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers approved the new top-level domain for pornography sites.
Like many parents around the world, India wants to stop that suitor at the door:
“India along with many other countries from the Middle East and Indonesia opposed the grant of the domain in the first place, and we would proceed to block the whole domain, as it goes against the IT Act and Indian laws,” said a senior official at the ministry of IT.
A key reason the porn industry says it opposes the domain, according to a Business Insider article, is “it would raise costs for porn providers, who will now have to register additional .xxx domain names at $60 a pop to avoid having their brands hijacked on the new domain.”
ICM Registry stands to make a mint selling .xxx domains for $60 a pop, just for that reason. The industry also fears, according to ET, “a large scale arbitrary censorship by governments across the world who would now be able to easily identify porn sites because of the new nomenclature.”
And here’s the scenario that is most feared. When a porn company registers their .xxx domain — to protect themselves from hijacking — those domain names are lumped nicely together with their .com, .net, etc. equivalents, which can then be targeted. Don’t believe it? Read ET’s source talk about non-.xxx sites: “for such cases the ministry would proceed on a case to case basis.”
Whatever your stance on porn might be, you can see why the industry thinks those “x’s” look more like a mark than a market.