UPDATED 15:32 EDT / NOVEMBER 21 2011

NEWS

ICANN Faces Lawsuit Over .xxx Domain

Many companies, brands, famous people, and groups are securing their .xxx domain from the ICM Registry either to assure that they got premium or targeted .xxx domains or to make sure that porn sites or people with malicious intent can’t use non-porn brands to entice or trick people.

Back in August, the ICM Registry announced that it will soon start accepting registration for desired .xxx domains in their sunrise period.  They are now in their landrush period and by December, anyone can register for .xxx domains of their liking provided that they are still available.  But registration and applying for the desired .xxx domain isn’t free and this is causing some companies from the porn industry to question the need for .xxx domains when they already have existing .com or .net domains.

Manwin Licensing International SARL, a major online porn company, filed a lawsuit against The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).  Manwin’s lawsuit claims that the new .xxx domain is a monopoply and an unnecessary expense for business operations.  ICANN is responsible for the ICM Registry.  Manwin also claims that the new .xxx domain could significantly affect the porn industry since not everyone is aware of the existence of .xxx.

A few excerpts from the Manwin lawsuit:

  • 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.

“We are certain the claims are baseless and will vigorously defend this matter,” ICM’s Stuart Lawley said in a statement.

As for other porn-related news, Facebook recently contracted the gore-porn-pox and is spreading viral porn videos to unsuspecting curious Facebookers.  If you think that seeing videos or photos of celebrity porn or animal cruelty is enough to make you regret ever clicking that link, you’d probably hit your head or pull out your hair if you realize that because of curiosity, your Facebook account had been hacked and compromised.

A Facebook spokesperson announced that they now know who is responsible for the attacks but did not disclose any information regarding the identity of the malicious attacker/s.  Some are still pointing their fingers towards Anonymous who vowed to Bring down Facebook on November 5th but some are thinking that people like the “Spam King”, Sanford Wallace, could be behind the attack.

If you think that your children are safe from porn when they are in school, think again. Heidi Kaeslin, teacher at Lincoln High School, is currently on paid leave as she and Richard Fields, a Stockton retired police officer assigned to the school, are being investigated for allegedly running several for-profit websites including porn sites in the school’s computer like mysluttyteacher.com.

Michael Pickering, an employee for Staples High School for 10 years and coach of the football team for nine seasons, is under investigation for allegedly giving the football team access to porn sites.  He was taken in custody but was released when he paid the $50,000 bail.  Pickering told the authorities that there were “issues” on the football team and that he had passed on the access code to players as a way to “create camaraderie among members of the team,” according to local media reports.


A message from John Furrier, co-founder of SiliconANGLE:

Your vote of support is important to us and it helps us keep the content FREE.

One click below supports our mission to provide free, deep, and relevant content.  

Join our community on YouTube

Join the community that includes more than 15,000 #CubeAlumni experts, including Amazon.com CEO Andy Jassy, Dell Technologies founder and CEO Michael Dell, Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger, and many more luminaries and experts.

“TheCUBE is an important partner to the industry. You guys really are a part of our events and we really appreciate you coming and I know people appreciate the content you create as well” – Andy Jassy

THANK YOU