The ICM Registry, responsible for the new Internet top level domain .xxx, is preventing the purchase of Jewish.xxx and other terms deemed “culturally significant” by ICANN‘s Government Advisory Council.
The company says that beginning in September, it provided all countries participating in the international body two months “to identify strings that match words of cultural and/or religious significance.” It then reviewed said identified strings and, “at its sole discretion,” placed potentially offensive names onto an official Culturally Significant Names List.
The full list of names and the nations which submitted them, ICM told Heeb, is “confidential” information. Instead, they directed us to their Whois lookup tool, where we had no choice but to play search engine roulette with “culturally significant” terminology.
Our search found that Jewish, Judaism, Moses and Israel are all off-limits for purchase, as are Christian, Jesus, Muslim, Islam, Mohammed, Buddhism and Buddha. Kabbalah is also forbidden, unless you’re looking for the Hermetic or Christian variety, which are still readily available for desecration.
Attempts to reach the forbidden pages result in the message, “This domain has been reserved from registration.”
The decisions seem rather arbitrary. Jews.xxx, for example, went unnoticed by ICANN’s global censors. It was picked up by Robb Kiley, a Senior Associate at Ernst & Young in Washington, D.C. (who doesn’t strike us as a member of the tribe). Rabbi.xxx was also spared the mohel’s cut, and was purchased by Shaye Rosenberg of Brooklyn, NY. Torah, Talmud, Shabbat, Shabbos, Bar Mitzvah, Jewish Federations, AIPAC, ADL, Aish, OU, Matisyahu, Hillel and Birthright Israel are also all still free, and largely terrifying to imagine. Zionist and Zionism also remain up for grabs. (We recommend something with a Stalag theme.)
Chabad.xxx also remained within the pale. It got rolled up on by self-identified Rebbe Rider Oriya Klein, a serial entrepreneur also from Brooklyn. Lubavitch.xxx is still awaiting its savior.
A quick lesson, by the way, for Misters Kiley, Klein and Rosenberg: It’s called Domains by Proxy. The newly minted owners of KosherSex.xxx and Hebrew.xxx had that much figured out!
The Simon Wiesenthal Center took home the grand prize with Holocaust.xxx. Knowing all of Marvin Hier’s Hollywood connections, you can bet on high-end production values when that site launches. And whoever Stanley Start of Virginia Beach is, kudos on snagging the ever coveted Auschwitz.xxx! You’re sure to make a killing!
It should also be noted how forward thinking it was of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum to reserve HolocaustMuseum.xxx. It’s long been said that Holocaust education needs to evolve to suit modern contexts and we commend the museum for its efforts to meet Americans at their level. As usual, our cousins at Yad Vashem have been left in the ashen dust, with their domain wide open to others’ sexploitation.
For those looking to follow the Wiesenthal Center and USHMM’s lead, Shoah.xxx and Nazi.xxx are also still available to enterprising fetish pornographers. Don’t build your brand up around old Adolf, however, as Hitler.xxx has also been banned by ICM.
Bernie Madoff was not so fortunate as to benefit from the official protection of his nom de guerre, as Madoff.xxx has made its way into the hands of Salvador Cruz of Antequera, Spain. We suspect a porn affiliate network Ponzi scheme is brewing.
Brandeis hopped on the bandwagon of universities snatching up their domains for fear of naughty co-eds. Yeshiva University, which recently announced plans to limit students’ access to adult sites, seemed unconcerned with the need for Yeshiva or YU.xxx, leaving open the possibility of one day seeing a moistened, wanting starlet utter the words, “I will go as sexy Richard Joel.”
ICM also gave trademark holders, during its sunrise registration period, an opportunity to pay a one-time fee in order to discretely block their domain name from ever being purchased by others. That might explain why JDate.xxx has also been reserved by the registry. For this, we are ceaselessly thankful.
Have some names and concepts for Jewish adult websites? Share below!
The SWC and USHMM were clearly just protecting the domain from being purchased by someone else, like the universities are doing.
I do fear for those you mention that haven’t been protected, and perhaps should have been. Though at $100/year, perhaps they decided it wasn’t worth it to be safe.
Oy… to think what someone could have done with http://www.torah.xxx
Funniest thing I’ve read for some time. The Rabbi’s is funny too. Is that Sarah Silverman in the picture?
[…] Heeb Magazine […]