First of many
So this should increase the value of the ".sucks" TLD nicely.
Thousands of companies, far more than expected, are handing over hundreds of dollars each to block their brands in the new .xxx internet domain. According to ICM Registry, the company behind the adults-only extension, porn-shy firms have applied to defensively block more than 10,000 trademarks in just the first week of its " …
until the next negatively-connotated TLD comes along.
And the one after that.
And...
There is a reason you don't bend to extortion.
It is a pity that industry as a whole didn't just get together and completely ignore it - their opinion of their customer base shows as rather poor since they clearly feel said customers can't work out that a reputable company won't be the holder of the xxx tld. But we keep buying from their intelectually insulting marketing people, so possibly they have a point afterall.
They did, more then once. And the international community rightly screamed that the US was trying to control the internet.
What is stupid is that, according to ICAN's plans, we will soon see ANYTHING as an extention. So .slut, .smut, .sex and .profanityinanotherlanguage will soon flood the net anyway.
This is probably a MUCH bigger security issue then anyone as been willing to address too.
Imagine when your .home domain on your home network starts resolving on the net...
you obviously don't know how sunrise works.
the registry needs to hire trademark lawyers to check the paperwork and make sure the domain name goes to the true owner of the trademark. this is not always an easy thing to do. does kenwood.xxx go to a porn star called ken wood - nice name for a porn star! - or the company that makes car stereos or the one that makes kitchen appliances? a very expensive lawsuit could follow if you get this wrong.
Dilution of trademarks. It is why Hoover cannot prevent anyone referring to their vacuum cleaner as a "hoover" and equally why companies such as Rolls-Royce are likely to send you warnings if you describe your product as something like "the Rolls-Royce of ABC", or why J K Rowling's lawyers jump on anything that infringes her Harry Potter IP.
Also, there may be negative connotations in allowing this which could harm their reputation or damage their brand - sure us porn surfers would know the difference but your Mary Whitehouse wannabes, particularly in the States may not, all they would see is people shagging in a Ferrari from a website with ferrari in teh name and likely assume it had something to do with Ferrari.
As far as why they *are* doing it, you're probably correct on both points, but as far as why they *need* to I think the case is less secure.
Trademarks are relative to the line of business, so you could almost certainly wait for someone to infringe and then set the lawyers on them. You don't need to pay protection money. If you are lucky, someone will register "your" xxx domain and start using it for unrelated purposes and effectively cybersquat for you.
Mary Whitehouse wannabes can flame you either way. If you pay for the domain, they'll accuse you of giving money to dodgy characters on the fringes of the porn industry. Indeed, by registering your interest, you are putting yourself on an easy list of "brands to hate". Why have you done that?
Surely if marksandspencer.xxx was found (containing, perhaps, semi-nudes in business suits...), the real Marks & Spencer (and rightful owner of the regular domain) can go after them for "passing off", not to mention damage to reputation, etc.
By "them" I mean either the porn supplier or ICM, but I'd be inclined to want to see a world of pain at ICM's doorstep. If they want to open and manage this can of worms, it should be their *RESPONSIBILITY* to ensure brands are not registered immorally - and that doesn't mean passing the buck to those companies who don't wish to see their name turn up with an xxx suffix.
"Imagine when your .home domain on your home network starts resolving on the net..."
I was going to comment this isn't a problem, .home may not be reserved but there are reserved domains to use locally. But really, these are it:
.test, .example, .invalid, .localhost (.localhost should always go to loopback interface), example.net, example,org, example.com.
Even .local, although zeroconf uses it, is not actually reserved by RFC. Probably IETF should at least reserve .local so people can pick a fake domain for themselves (myhome.local or whatever) that is better than {".invalid" or ".test" or just grabbing a random domain for themselves that could be used down the road.)
As for calling this .xxx blocking extortion -- really it's not. These companies are free to wait until somebody registers their .xxx domain and sue them. This is just to pre-empt that whole situation.