Porn News

University of Hawaii threatens .XXX Domain with legal action for using its name

Follow AdultFYI on twitter@adultfyi1

HONOLULU from www.hawaiinewsnow.com – The University of Hawaii is demanding the operator of a pornographic web site stop using the school’s name or face legal action.

The web site, called universityofhawaii.xxx, claims to feature what it describes as “hot nude Hawaiian college girls.” It is full of graphic pictures of men and women having sex on beaches and at other tropical locations.

It’s a very different look from the University of Hawaii’s legitimate web site.

UH students were upset when a Hawaii News Now reporter told them about the .xxx web site using the UH name.

“It’s pretty disgusting. I guess it’s kind of odd to do. I don’t know why they’d choose university of Hawaii,” said Joe Leavitt, a UH freshman from Seattle.

“They should definitely stop that,” said Justeena Veltre, a UH freshman from Rochester, New York. “It’s not good for our name at all, because we want to look like a good school, and not a school where we have porn.”

UH President M.R.C. Greenwood spoke to Hawaii News Now about her concerns Monday.

“This is not a University of Hawaii site. We are appalled that anyone would use our good name this way,” Greenwood said in an interview in her office.

On Friday, the UH sent the web site a cease and desist letter, demanding the site stop using the UH name or face legal action.

“… it is clear that you are using this name and its association misleadingly and/or for improper purposes, and in bad faith,” wrote UH General Counsel Darolyn Lendio in the letter.

“In other cases, this has been used as a mechanism for forcing people to buy their good name back. We would rather fight it legally than submit to that kind of extortion,” Greenwood said.

Other universities have purchased various versions of the .xxx suffix to protect themselves from just this sort of unsavory use. Each .xxx suffix costs about $100 a year. But UH did not.

“We considered it. But then when we thought about it, we realized that there are so many names that could have xxx attached to it,” Greenwood said. “So this was the decision that we made that we would fight it if it happened but there was no way we could completely buy every name.”

If the site doesn’t pull the UH references, the university may go after its webmaster using a number of state and federal laws and also will try to recover its legal costs, Greenwood said.

UH senior Garrett Maruyama of Pearl City looked up the web site on his laptop computer after a Hawaii News Now reporter told him about it Monday afternoon.

“It’s not really legitimate Hawaii girls. It’s just in tropical settings and is seems like a marketing ploy for their new site that they’re trying to get up. And actually running this story is probably going to get more hits than they ever got,” Maruyama said.

Hawaii News Now emailed the web site’s webmaster Monday and asked for comment but did not receive a response by early evening Monday.

The new .xxx domain names became available for sale in early December of 2011.

Back story: from www.kitv.com – HONOLULU — Someone has put a University of Hawaii .xxx website address up for auction on the Internet, less than one month after web domain addresses ending in the suffix .xxx became available to purchase for the adult entertainment industry.

While some colleges and universities bought up potential porn web addresses using their names to preserve their reputations, the University of Hawaii did not.

It appears that the University of Hawaii has become the victim of what’s called “cybersquatting,” which happens when someone not affiliated with a company or institution buys a form of its web address and tries to make money by selling it back to them.

KITV 4 News discovered someone is trying to sell TheUniversityOfHawaii.xxx domain name for a starting price of $100,000 on the online auction site eBay.

“They should be concerned about their reputation. But before giving in to these extortionists, I’d start to do research on the alternative ways which are much more cost effective in maintaining their reputation,” said Internet security expert Chris Duque, who retired from the Honolulu Police Department in 2007 after spending 17 years as a detective specializing in cybercrime.

Duque said the UH should put a disclaimer on its own website, making it clear any porn websites are not affiliated with them.

“We don’t condone, we don’t sanction, we don’t authorize any sex sites for our organization. If you do happen to come across this, please contact us,” Duque said.

Some educational institutions have gone to the ICM Registry website, where people can purchase .xxx online domain names for about $100 a year. The schools have purchased various versions of their names with the .xxx suffix as protection.

“There’s too many to buy. So rather than start, they’re going to nickel and dime you to death. So rather than do that, I’d say put up the disclaimer and the warning and says that we’ll take legal action against anyone who misrepresents us,” Duque said.

The person who trying to sell the UH .xxx site on eBay calls himself “chrisasaur,” and is offering other suggestive website addresses for sale, including “IHadYourMama.com,” for bids starting at $50,000.

He is also listing the HugeBoobies.xxx website for a starting auction price of $2,500.

Duque said the public is much more educated and skeptical of the Internet now compared to 15 years ago, before the use of the web became widespread.

“And when they see a website that, OK, ‘blah, blah, blah college .xxx.’ They say, ‘No, that’s not related to this particular university,'” Duque said.

202 Views

Related Posts

Ryan Keely Receives 2 XMA Nominations

Dec 3, 2024 1:12 PM PSTHOLLYWOOD, Calif. — Ryan Keely has received a pair of nominations at the 2025 XMA Awards. Keely was nominated for Best Sex Scene - Comedy Movie alongside Oliver Flynn and Serena Hill for her work…

Alt Erotic Opens Las Vegas Shoot Location

Alt Erotic and parent company YourPaysitePartner (YPP) have opened a new content shoot house in Las Vegas, Nevada.

RedGIFs Announces Elsa Thora as December Creator of the Month

RedGIFs, a short-form adult content platform, has selected Elsa Thora as its Creator of the Month for December 2024.

Goddess Moxie Is LoyalFans’ ‘Featured Creator’ for December

LOS ANGELES — LoyalFans has named Goddess Moxie as its Featured Creator for December. The title highlights "exceptional members of the LoyalFans fam — those who bring an intangible, significant je ne sais quoi to the LoyalFans community, as well…

Scarlett Alexis Named Twistys Treat of the Month for December

Popular starlet Scarlett Alexis has been selected as Twistys' December Treat of the Month and will be featured on Twistys.com throughout the month.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published.