By Rose Cahalan in Blog, Special on |

UT is buying up porn websites, but don’t worry—it’s not what you think.

Yesterday, the .xxx suffix was officially released as a new domain name ending for pornographic websites. The idea is to more clearly identify and regulate porn sites by giving them their own unique identifier: .xxx instead of .com, .net, or another suffix.

To prevent peddlers of burnt-orange smut, UT has blocked or bought about a dozen such names, such as HookemHorns.xxx, TheUniversityofTexas.xxx, and TexasSports.xxx.

Many other universities have done the same, according to Inside Higher Ed, which lists Nebraska’s Huskers.xxx, Duke’s BlueDevils.xxx, and perhaps most disturbingly, the University of Akron’s FeartheRoo.xxx (Akron’s mascot is a ferocious kangaroo).

“We see this as insurance,” says Gary Susswein, UT’s director of media relations, “because if unsavory companies were to register these trademarked names, we would have to take legal action, and that would be much more expensive.”

Susswein says the University paid about $200 per domain name. A team of administrators from UT Athletics, the UT System, and the Office of Trademark Licensing worked with UT’s lawyers to decide which trademarked names were most at risk.

We imagine that made for an interesting meeting.

As for the likelihood that UT trademarks would have been co-opted for such salacious purposes, Susswein says he doesn’t know. “But there are a lot of people in the XXX industry who will do anything necessary to make money,” he says.

Photo from Flickr Creative Commons