First there was .XXX, the red-light district for the Web. Now, ICM Registry has plans to expand Web porn to, well, .PORN.
In total, ICM said Thursday that it has applied for .SEX, .PORN, and .ADULT to complement the .XXX top-level domain it launched in November.
ICM said that the existing holders of .XXX domain names wouldn't have to do anything to prevent a .XXX domain, such as prettygirls.xxx, from being registered under the .ADULT TLD by a third party. If the domain owner chooses to register it, however, ICM will charge between $10-15 retail, it told Xbiz.
The new top-level domains are part of a new era of generic TLDs, which will allow virtually any suffix, such as .pcmag or .grapefruit, from being registered. That deadline was supposed to have passed Thursday, but a glitch forced the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers to extend it into next week.
The adult industry protested the passage of the .XXX TLD, however, because of a fear that it would "ghettoize" the porn industry and allow it to be easily filtered.
In March 2011, the Free Speech Coalition, representing the adult industry, staged a protest against the introduction of the .XXX domain, arguing that the .XXX domain would add seven times the cost burden to existing domains and registrations, or about $60 to $70 per domain.
In August, GoDaddy began charging $209.99 for a one-time non-refundable application fee for a .XXX domain renewing at $99.99 per year. ICM charges $60 annually for each .XXX registration, according to an antitrust suit filed against ICM And ICANN Manwin Licensing and Digital Playground, networks which include YouPorn as well as some licensed sites from Playboy.
FSC representatives could not be reached for comment.
For its part, ICM claimed that registering the additional TLDs would save the adult industry money.
"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, chief executive of ICM Registry, in a statement. "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."
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