The ICM Registry, the operator for the .XXX top-level domain (TLD) announced it made application for the new gTLD’s in SEX, .PORN and .ADULT.
According to the press release issues this morning if ICM were to get any or all of the new extensions the owner of the matching .XXX domain would be given a grandfather right to acquire the matching name in the new extension.
Here is the balance of the press release:
“ICM Registry has worked for more than a decade to create .XXX which has become a globally accepted and responsible place for adult online entertainment to thrive in an easily recognizable self-regulated environment,” said Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry. “We are dedicated to protecting interested stakeholders by providing the latest technology and the best domains which is why we created the .XXX TLD. We chose to submit applications for additional TLDs to spare .XXX participants from needless expense and to ensure the TLDs will be run in the same trustworthy and appropriate ways that .XXX is today.”
If awarded these new TLDs, ICM Registry is offering an unprecedented “grandfathering” clause and will automatically reserve matching names at no cost for those who already have .XXX domains. .XXX registrants can chose to do nothing and the matching names will never be released under the new TLD suffixes. If however, registrants choose to register the new names for use, there will be a nominal fee. This means .XXX domain holders can potentially triple their exposure and value of their holdings, while brand and trademark holders who own .XXX domain names are automatically protected and will not have to register for the new domain names.
“ICM Registry has invested just under two million dollars in these applications to support our existing customers,” said Lawley. “By offering the grandfathering clause at no charge, we are demonstrating our commitment to our adult entertainment community and will not collect fees for this from anyone who already has purchased a .XXX domain by the appropriate cut-off date.”
Each of these applications may face opposition from members of the Government Advisory Council (GAC). Although some governments expressed opposition at various times to ICM’s application to run the .XXX registry, members of the GAC have much stronger power under the new gTLD program than they did under the rules in effect when ICM applied.
It will be interesting to see if Manwin who has sued ICM over the .XXX extension for anti-trust will make application for any of these three extensions as well or any other “adult” oriented extension.
Also now that the deadline to apply for new gTLD’s has been pushed back a week until April 20th it will be interesting to see if any new applications come in based off of this announcement.
When does .XXX plan to deliver promised features ?
Back for seconds at the ICANN buffet before eating everything on their first plate ?
as the ICANN applicant system fails leaving everyone short on money and long on promises…
No way if they get .sex, will they just hand over some of the most premium domains on a grandfather clause, they are going to make the owners pay via a premium at least, otherwise they will never make money.
Tom
They may make money by selling more .XXX for those that want to get grandfathered on these other new extensions, they can still sell all the unsold .XXX domains on the new extensions as well.
How have they invested “just under two million dollars” in these 3 applications?
Cartoonz
Well they are $600K in fees plus having 3 years of operating capital locked up for each based on the number of anticipated registrations.
Fees to the back end provider also have to be factored in.
I think the fact that .sex, .porn and .adult have even been proposed, so soon after .xxx went live, shows once again that this gTLD process is nothing more than a cynical money-making exercise, because one of the ‘selling points’ for .xxx had been that ‘it provides porn/adult sites with their own dedicated TLD’.
Greed. Plain and simple.
All .xxx registrants should be insulted by this news.
These new applications divert ICM money and resources AWAY from .xxx and for what? More money for ICM and less focus on .xxx.
The .xxx domains are not even out of landrush lock yet and ICM is moving on to something else???
BAD news for all .xxx registrants.
Someone else is probably applying for them anyway. Given that fact, it makes more sense for ICM to have them under one roof to leverage the existing blocked names and TM registered names. If someone else gets them, then it’s a greater overall expense.
I just wish that a perfectly normal, healthy and fun activity like sex wasn’t considered tawdry, and I hope that if a .sex TLD is granted to anyone, that providers of sexual education, health, and so on, take full advantage of it.
If it wasn’t for sex, none of us would be here to be horrified about it.
dot whatever is pure useless. The default of typing a website on smartphones is dot com.
Dot com is king!!
As long as people want to have SEX, there’s always going to be a need for real estate…
-Peter
DenverRealEstate.com
.nottonightdarling 🙂
First they have the ‘bargain-basement sale’ of $69 for .XXX domains, and now this announcement. Ka-Ching! These guys seem to understand that the real money isn’t in sex.
BullS, agreed with your smartphone comment. I use a tablet for browsing more than my phone, but there’s that convenient ‘.Com’ button at the bottom of the keyboard on both.
I’m just wondering how long it will be until they add a ‘.Co’ key for Robert. 😉
Let’s see if this will delay the April 30th timeless date ICANN chose.
After shooting themselves in the foot with their ‘protect your online identity from dot xxx’ scam, dot xxx is no more well known now than they were when they launched. Dot xxx has become the extension for a marginalised adult community (advertising sites for porn stars etc) and dot porn etc would just be more of the same, but watered down and diluted through the saturation of additional extensions.
“dot whatever is pure useless. The default of typing a website on smartphones is dot com.
Dot com is king!!”
If dot com is king, why do you feel the need to remind everyone whenever alternative TLDs are mentioned?
It’s becoming obvious that a major change is occurring. Currently .com is king because it’s the most promoted and recognised but when people start seeing .game, .music, .xxx, .tv, .radio, .green, .blog, .brand, .etc, it wont take long for the human mind to evolve.
If people see domain.xxx, .adult, .porn, .sex, they will know what type of site it is (as will ISPs and search engines). I think having a choice is a good idea and who knows, maybe one will win out as the ‘king’. This is the beginning of a new stage of the Internet.
If I owned Party.xxx, I’d be glad to know that I could potentially also own Party.porn, Party.sex, Party.adult. I might use Party.adult for an adult events company; Party.porn is very static but also straight to the point (“porn” only means 1 thing); Party.xxx has a wider meaning than just porn and some may prefer it as their brand… The point is I have a choice. .porn will not be suitable for many adult companies, but will be very suitable for others.
However, if .porn were to be released by a different organisation and someone else secured Party.porn, I’d be pissed.
Who knows what will happen?
Ajb, why would you be pissed? Do you buy every single TLD out there for all your domains? Even TLDs like .cc? That’$ what they’re hoping you’ll do, I gue$$.
In the US, ask anyone with an old 1-800 number if they’ll trade it for a 1-866 or 1-888 or whatever. Even after all this time that the 866 and 888 numbers have been out, 1-800 is still known as the standard for toll-free phone numbers.
Nothing will ever knock .com down. Not when every corporation uses it by default. Google.com will not suddenly decide to become Google.search. Amazon.com won’t come to the ‘brilliant conclusion’ that it would be better to be known as Amazon.store.
When it comes to the Internet, .com is just too ingrained in people’s minds.
ICM Registry are giving .xxx holders grandfather rights to .porn, .adult, and .sex. .xxx holders will not have to pay to own their .porn equivalent but they can pay a small fee if they want to take the domain online. If not, they will remain inactive and wont cost anything.
Currently .xxx is the only adult extension. If a different organisation releases .porn then current .xxx holders will not own the equivalent, unless they $ecure it.
Amazon might go for .amazon, and Google might go for .google or .goog. Instead of typing google.com, you’d just type “google”.
Also google.whatever will be reserved in every new extension, so no one else will be able to register it. Just like how jobs.xxx, info.xxx, com.xxx, net.xxx, etc. are not available.
This is an excellent strategic move by ICM Registry. This strategy guarantees the satisfaction of all society members.ICM Registry has hit four golden birds with one diamond stone :
1. Happy registrants/investors realise now that they have a valuable asset that could be worth much more than all the other TLDs including the .com version (especially with the right keyword/name).
2. Happy users/society realise now that adult contents on the internet are safe and responsible now becasue they know that it is managed by a trusted organisation ICM Registry (especially when these users know that for the past 15 years they have witnessed extreme violations ,abuse and unethical business practices that were conducted by irresponsible adult companies who thought they got away with their illegal and unethical business practices)
3. Happy ICM Registry who successfully established a solid business model that guarantees to keep providing the world with safe and responsible internet services.
4. Happy ICANN who realises now that a professional organisation like ICM registry is the only organisation that deserves to be given the full leadership and control of all adult -related TLDs
Well done ICM team for the great work, keep the great work .
I have several xxx domains, what i am trying to get is more dot realtor domains. Great article!