Codebreaker

Colleges buying up .XXX domains

John Moe Dec 12, 2011

You probably never know quite what to expect when you’re the web administrator at a big college. Still, it had to be odd for the web team at, say, Brigham Young University, to buy up a .xxx domain even if they were only doing it to keep BYU.xxx out of those seeking to porn up the name of the Mormon university. USA Today is one of several outlets reporting on colleges as well as big corporations and non-profits paying $200 per domain name – and acting fast to do so – to prevent names from being grabbed. And it’s not just one name. The AP says the University of Kansas spent $3000 for Kansas.xxx, rockchalk.xxx, kugirls.xxx, jayhawks.xxx, and several others. I see that marketplace.xxx has been reserved. Now I’m just hoping it was us who reserved it. I’m also a little worried that someone in IT is wondering why Moe is looking up .xxx sites at work.

There’s a lot happening in the world.  Through it all, Marketplace is here for you. 

You rely on Marketplace to break down the world’s events and tell you how it affects you in a fact-based, approachable way. We rely on your financial support to keep making that possible. 

Your donation today powers the independent journalism that you rely on. For just $5/month, you can help sustain Marketplace so we can keep reporting on the things that matter to you.