If you were pioneering enough to register a .xxx domain attached to a popular brand in the hopes of selling it back to its rightful owner and making big bucks, your pan of dirty, dirty gold just got dumped in the river.
ICM Registry, the company issuing .xxx domains, just dealt a blow to the cybersquatters who bought websites like CNBC.xxx and verizonwireless.xxx by suspending their registrations. The domain registrar called the registrations “abusive” and “unmistakable, blatant cybersquatting in violation of the Registry’s policies,” according to a press release.
“We will not tolerate nefarious conduct and will exercise our right to take appropriate action when we detect widespread repeat patterns of cyber-squatting activity,” said Stuart Lawley, ICM Registry’s CEO.
Just to be clear: .xxx domains are for nefarious conduct in the bedroom, not the boardroom.
Using whois, a tool which reveals details of who registered a given domain name, for those blocked websites, like CNBC.xxx, shows them listed as “transfer prohibited,” meaning ICM Registry’s blockade goes into immediate effect and the ostensible buyer will not control the domain.
Huffington Post also smartened up and bought their .xxx domain on Tuesday following a brief scare that a cybersquatter bought it, as we previously reported.
And sorry, squatters: We bought dailydot.xxx earlier this week.