XXX Porn Sites That Advertise Local College Girls Get The Block Treatment From USC, UCLA

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This USC rooftop action deserves a .xxx domain.

Why would a university want to buy a porn domain name on the web? Because that website URL just might advertise hot, nude college girls who (allegedly) attend said school. And that would be bad for ... something.

And so campuses across the nation have been gobbling up .xxx domain names related to their schools after the new URLs became available in fall.

No USC.xxx? Doesn't look like it:

The university's director of trademark licensing and social responsibility, Matthew Curran, says in a statement sent to the Weekly:

USC has preemptively blocked our core registered trademarks (USC, Trojans, UniversityofSouthernCalifornia, FightOn, ...) from being used with a .xxx domain.

UCLA spokesman Steve Ritea was coy about whether the Westwood campus has purchased its .xxx domains, saying only:

We are aware of this issue and the university will continue its past practice of dealing swiftly and vigorously with misuses of its names.

The L.A.-based porn industry lobbying group called the Free Speech Coalition has been against the .xxx domain roll-out this fall (citing "ghettoization" of its content) and has urged companies to send letters threatening litigation if the ICM Registry lets third parties have .xxx domains with their names attached.

The FSC in summer wrote up a sample letter that its members can use, according to the group:

The "letter of notice" informs ICM Registry - operators of the .XXX domain - that the sender will consider any infringement on their trademark as potentially actionable. The letter also clearly states concerns about potential anti-trust issues and unfair businesses practices on the part of ICM, as well as the certainty of cyber-squatting and other exploitation of established trademarks in the .XXX domain.

Many corporate giants have purchased .xxx domain names in an effort to protect their brands from being sullied. But some folks are mad they have to pay as much as $100 a year to have their names protected from .xxx poachers.

Allison Vivas, president and CEO of porn company Pink Visual Productions, told the Associated Press that the obligation to buy the .xxx version of its name "kind of becomes extortion."

[@dennisjromero / djromero@laweekly.com / @LAWeeklyNews]