Not for sale: Candidate .xxx domains

Domain names are important real estate in presidential campaigns. Candidates hope to snatch up all variations of their name before opponents looking to score points do. Adult website domains present a more intriguing situation. Domains designated .xxx(as compared with .com, .net, .org and so on) were opened up earlier this year by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) as a way to provide adult websites with their own domain and, while many actual adult companies seized on the opportunity, plenty of non-adult entities, including colleges and museums, have bought up their .xxx names as a defensive measure against others misusing them. For the current Republican field of presidential contenders, the .xxx domains that correspond with their campaign websites have already been taken by the firm that operates the registry in order to protect the GOP hopefuls. That means MittRomney.xxx, RickSantorum.xxx, RickPerry.xxx, Newt.xxx, MicheleBachmann.xxx and RonPaul2012.xxx are not for sale. [Dec 28]