The company that owns the rights to Playboy.com and other adult websites has filed a lawsuit to prevent ‘.xxx’ from creeping into its turf.
Manwin Licensing International SARL, which is based in Luxembourg, has among the largest stake in the adult content industry. In addition to Playboy.com and associated properties, it owns user-content-centric Youporn.com among others.
Manwin is upset with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names & Numbers’s (ICANN) decision to approve a new top-level domain, with the ultimate goal of requiring adult sites to carry a “.xxx” extension instead of “.com” or other domain.
Earlier this year, ICANN opened up a process that would allow existing companies to protect their brand by registering a “.xxx” site before the public was able to. In other words, Manwin is the only company allowed to register for Playboy.xxx at this time.
In addition, companies that have no intention of publishing adult websites can also register their names (e.g., TGDaily.xxx) to prevent squatters from grabbing those valuable domains.
But Manwin claims this process is illegal, and wants the entire “.xxx” project to be shut down entirely. Pornographic film production company Digital Playground has joined in the legal affair as well.
Meanwhile, ICM Registry LLC, which is managing the new domain, has stated, “We are certain the claims are baseless and will vigorously defend this matter.”
