Penn State Bought Adult Domain Names to Block Usage Prior to Sex Abuse Scandal

[Liberal_in_LA]

Penn State has purchased some Internet domains to block usage by the porn industry prior to the ongoing child sex-abuse scandal that has rocked the university.

Penn State spokesman Jeffrey Hermann said the university purchased four .xxx domains -- Penn State, PSU, Nittany Lions and The Pennsylvania State University -- or the most popular of its federally registered trademarks.

"The cost was $200 per trademark, but this purchase should also prevent someone from buying a domain that includes our trademark along with other words," Hermann wrote FoxNews.com in an email. "Our purchase of nittanylion.xxx is intended to prevent someone from purchasing a url such as nittanyliongirls."

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which regulates Internet naming, approved the .xxx domain for pornographic websites in March. It allowed colleges and other organizations to purchase the domains before the general public is allowed to do so on Dec. 6.


Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/30/penn-state-buys-adult-domain-names-to-block-usage/#ixzz1fDzov8Bm

[MADem]

1. That won't stop the pervs, I'm betting. PENNisState, anyone? nt

[Initech]

2. This whole thing just gets weirder and weirder.

[gratuitous]

3. Cheap at twice the price

I don't blame the university at all for doing what it can to salvage any shred of dignity out of this. An $800 investment could be well worth it to avoid further unpleasantness from idle idiots with nothing better to do. Every other college and university would be well advised to do the same, even without the added oomph of a pedophilia scandal.

[wtmusic]

4. Purchasing a domain name does not a trademark create

but whatever.

[Fumesucker]

5. That article is remarkably uninformative..

The title certainly implies that the domain names were bought before the current scandal became public but the body of the article doesn't specify when it happened at all.

[Capitalocracy]

6. Regardless of when they did it, it's common practice. nt

[Brickbat]

8. It says they got the names approved in March, before the names were opened up to the general public.

I'm guessing pretty much every college and university bought their names up.

[Fumesucker]

9. That's not what it says, it says the domains were opened in March..

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, which regulates Internet naming, approved the .xxx domain for pornographic websites in March.

[dtexdem]

7. Oh, wow -- now they can have their own porn sites in their own names!

Perfect for State Penn University.

[blogslut]

10. Horseshit

They bought them because they believed the sales schtick fed to them by some "branding consultant". The .xxx TLD is nothing but a money-generator for non-porn suckers. Adult webmasters want nothing to do with the ICM Registry and its scam TLD.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

11. Meh... Florida Tech had to fight a porn site for their domain name back in the 90's

One of our clients in Canada owned the .ca and not the .com of their domain, the .com eventually became a Russian porn site.

Not sure preemptive cybersquatting has much to do with the scandal.