QM.COM Up For Sale For the First Time and Already Has a $260,000 Bid
QM.com is up for sale for the first time and already has a $260,000 bid. RightoftheDot.com is brokering the two letter domain name.
The owner wants to sell the domain name for $500,000 or more.At the time of writing this article, QM.com has a bid of $260,000.
According to whois records, the domain name was first registered in 1994.
ICANN : One-Week Extension to the Public Comment and Reply Periods on Enhancing ICANN Accountability Process
The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) announced one-week extension to the Public Comment an reply periods on enhancing ICANN Accountability Process.
In response to ensuring the community has sufficient time, while also having the process in parallel to, and informing, the process to Transition NTIA’s Stewardship of the IANA Functions, there is a one (1) week extension of the comment period to 6 June. Community members are urged to continue identifying members for the Working Group, with those selected by the ICANN London meeting to hold a listening session with the community. The reply period will close on 27 June at 23:59 UTC.
This announcement was sourced from :
https://www.icann.org/news/announcement-2014-05-29-en
Sex.xxx Domain Name Sold for $3 Million
ICM Registry, the company behind .XXX extension, announced today that the domain name Sex.xxx has been sold for a whopping $3 million.
The sale is part of a $5 million deal between the ICM Registry and Barron Innovations. As part of this large deal, Barron Innovations acquired more than 40 premium generic keyword domain names,including Black.xxx, Cam.xxx and Phone.xxx .
According to DNJournal’s charts, this sale is one of the 25 biggest reported domain name sales.
You can find more information about the sale in the press release published below :
“The SEX.xxx domain, one of the top-rated adult domains on the Internet, has been acquired by Barron Innovations as part of a groundbreaking $5 million, multi-year deal with ICM Registry (”ICM”).
The $5 million deal includes more than 40 Premium Generic Keyword Domains and the highly desirable SEX.xxx accounts for $3 million of the total. Other notable names include cam.xxx, phone.xxx and black.xxx, all of which attracted six-figure sales prices, as well as web.xxx, market.xxx, mate.xxx and education.xxx.
According to Stephen Winyard, director of ICM, the organization is pleased to announce this deal with Barron Innovations, which is connected to one of the most prestigious, well-established and highly successful groups in the adult entertainment industry. “The group has held its top position for most of its 15 -year existence,” says Winyard, “and we are happy to have completed this transaction with Barron Innovations. This deal follows on from the ever-increasing flow of significant premium names sales we are achieving now that we are into our third year of operation. It tangibly and irrefutably reinforces the performance benefits of .XXX names for members of the industry.”
Barron Innovations will be placing significant development resources behind creating ultra-high quality destination sites, including offering new and remarkable possibilities to other leading companies, who wish to derive benefit from the strength of these premium domain names. The different options will be launched later this year and in 2015.
“As part of a group which operates leading brands such as ImLive.com and Webcamwiz.com, we tracked the introduction of .XXX closely,” says Shay Efron, spokesman for Barron Innovations. “We have studied the undeniably superior performance of .XXX domains in terms of SEO and conversion rates and decided to make a huge splash by acquiring the very best keyword generic names available. We evaluated SEX.xxx, the flagship domain, and decided it has the potential to became the leading brand in the entire adult industry, so it was an obvious part of a very large deal.”
“We look forward to enjoying the benefits of ICM’s unique Domain Matching Program, which gives .XXX holders an opportunity to secure matching .XXX domain names in .PORN, .ADULT and .SEX,” says Efron. “And we would like to use this opportunity to thank Stephen and the rest of the ICM team, who made the negotiation process a very pleasant experience.”
About ICM
ICM Registry, headquartered in Florida, is the registry operator for the .XXX TLD (Top-Level Domain) approved by ICANN in 2011. ICM Registry has recently been successful in its applications for the .PORN, and .ADULT TLDs, which are expected to launch in 2014, and hopes to gain the .SEX TLD in 2015.
About Barron Innovations
Barron Innovations was established in order to promote premium .XXX domains and turn them into top adult industry brands. The company is using independent resources, as well as the expertise of other leading adult industry companies, to provide consumers around the world with the best possible opportunities to enjoy a unique online experience. The company is connected to a 15-year old veteran group in the adult entertainment industry that operates leading brands such as www.imlive.com and www.webcamwiz.com, as well as other leading adult entertainment brands. Barron Innovations offers well-established companies new and exciting ways to take part in the creation of high-end quality custom sites using the premium .XXX domains, which are part of this agreement.”
London Police Seize More Domains For Copyright-Infringing Websites
While many Britons were enjoying the bank holiday weekend, the City of London’s Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit was busy seizing domain names for copyright-infringing websites. There are reports as many as 10,000 domain names were seized.
The Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) was busy contacting a number of registrars hosting copyright infringing content as part of Operation Creative, and as a result several major copyright infringing website have closed down.
The operation, called Operation Creative, is a ground-breaking initiative is designed to disrupt and prevent websites from providing unauthorised access to copyrighted content, in partnership with the creative and advertising industries.
One of the domains suspended was torrentz.eu, one of the domains for the largest torrent search engine on the internet with over one million visitors per day, reported Torrent Freak.
“The actions of the Police Intellectual Property Crime Unit are not without controversy. While some registrars are willing to cooperate, Canada-based easyDNS previously refused to comply and successfully defended its customers.
“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I always thought it was something that gets decided in a court of law, as opposed to ‘some guy on the internet’ sending emails,” easyDNS’ CEO Mark Jeftovic earlier told Torrent Freak. “While that’s plenty reason enough for some registrars to take down domain names, it doesn’t fly here.”
But the suspension lasted only one day with Torrent Freak reporting in a separate story that “the site’s Polish registrar restored the domain name’s DNS entries after Torrentz’ legal team pointed out that the suspension was unlawful.”
As part of Operation Creative, rights holders in the creative industries identify and report copyright infringing websites to PIPCU, providing a detailed package of evidence indicating how the site is involved in illegal copyright infringement. Officers from PIPCU then evaluate the websites and verify whether they are infringing copyright. At the first instance of a website being confirmed as providing copyright infringing content, the site owner is contacted by officers at PIPCU and offered the opportunity to engage with the police, to correct their behaviour and to begin to operate legitimately.
If a website fails to comply and engage with the police, then a variety of other tactical options may be used including; contacting the domain registrar informing them of the criminality and seeking suspension of the site and disrupting advertising revenue through the use of an Infringing Website List (IWL) available to those involved in the sale and trading of digital advertising.
The IWL, the first of its kind to be developed, is an online portal providing the digital advertising sector with an up-to-date list of copyright infringing sites, identified and evidenced by the creative industries and verified by the City of London Police unit. The aim of the IWL is that advertisers, agencies and other intermediaries will use it as a brand safety tool and cease advert placement on these illegal websites.
Domainer-Friendly .XYZ Hits Landrush
The .xyz new gTLD has hit Landrush with thousands of premium names available to the global general public at regular Landrush prices. And the gTLD is encouraging domainers to get involved with the gTLD with domainer-friendly policies.
The domainer-friendly policies being touted by the gTLD include:
- virtually every domain is available – less than 3,000 names have been reserved (as compared to tens and hundreds of thousands for other gTLDs)
- all .xyz domains are available for the standard registration fee – no premium pricing
- all .xyz landrush domains renew at the standard renewal rate, making it affordable to hold a portfolio of .xyz domains.
It is also being billed as the first generic gTLD to hit the market. The Sunrise period saw, according to a CentralNic news release, world-leading brands secure their trademarks.
The gTLD is owned by 27 year old Daniel Negari, himself a successful domain investor with a track record of buying and selling over $100 million worth of domains.
“With experience as a domain investor, I understand the importance of releasing great domains at affordable prices to give investors the opportunity to make a commercial rate of return”, said Negari.
“Unlike most TLD operators trying to extract as much from domainers as possible through high prices for premiums and recurring premium prices, .xyz is positioning itself as the new .com – giving domainers the opportunity to buy anything they want at Landrush, and then benefit from .xyz’s unprecedented global marketing campaign to enjoy the increase in values that comes from global demand”, said Ben Crawford, CEO of CentralNic.
.xyz domains are now available through leading registrars worldwide. Landrush ends at 12.00 UTC on 2 June.
