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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowIndiana University is buying up 11 Internet domains names using a new suffix meant for pornography sites.
Numerous colleges across the nation are taking similar measures.
University officials say they're buying the ".xxx" to keep IU's name from being connected to any pornography sites and to protect the school's trademarks.
The university is paying $2,200 to secure the 11 site names for 10 years. Those names include Indianauniversity.xxx, Hoosiers.xxx, IUPUI.xxx and others based on the initials of Indiana's regional campuses.
University trademarks director Valerie Gill told the The Herald-Times of Bloomington that without the purchases, if someone else were to start using domain names with an IU connection, it would cost IU several thousand dollars to fight it legally.
The organization that oversees the Internet address system approved the ".xxx" suffix in March. The addresses are becoming available this month.
The .xxx top level domain is aimed at giving adult content providers a natural place on the Internet, though the porn industry has been critical of the plan that some say is the first step in forcing them to move to the more easily blockable domain addresses.
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