Penn State Buys Up Porn Domains

With the new .xxx adult entertainment domains up for sale next week, PSU bought up domains so that the university’s name will not be used to promote porn

Penn State University has been buying up .xxx domain names with the hope of preventing porn sites from using the school’s name for adult entertainment, and in lieu of the school’s recent child sex abuse scandal, this couldn’t be more timely.

The university has already bought four possible X-rated domain names that could be used as a pornographic nod to school embroiled in the child sex abuse allegations against former football coach Jerry Sandusky, reports the Daily Collegian.

The .xxx domain was created this year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, so that pornographic websites could be better identified as such.

PSU’s decision to scoop up the domains before any ne’er-do-wells could is not unusual. In creating these sites, ICANN saw the possibility for porn providers to use trademarked names to peddle their adult wares and gave trademark owners a first crack at buying the sites in September before they go public Dec. 6.

PSU officials paid $200 per domain and bought up .xxx URLs that included the terms Penn State, PSU, Nittany Lions and The Pennsylvania State University, reports the Daily Collegian.

“Schools as well as other trademark owners have done so much to protect and promote their brand,” Michael Drucker, vice president and associate counsel for The Collegiate Licensing Company, told the Daily Collegian. “They don’t want that brand to be associated with the adult entertainment business.”

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