From Slashdot: Schools Buy .xxx Domains In Trademark Panic.
I called this several years ago. March 2007 to be exact. It's less trademark-defense, and more of an online-branding thing. These schools want their .edu domain to be the only brand that has that name. Sharing with the hot coed action on a .xxx is anathema to most US-based higher-ed institutions. They'd rather not do that thank you, and $200/year is not a lot to pay to prevent that from coming about.
I called this several years ago. March 2007 to be exact. It's less trademark-defense, and more of an online-branding thing. These schools want their .edu domain to be the only brand that has that name. Sharing with the hot coed action on a .xxx is anathema to most US-based higher-ed institutions. They'd rather not do that thank you, and $200/year is not a lot to pay to prevent that from coming about.
$200/y might not be "a lot"; but any amount is extortion. I'd venture a guess 90%+ of .xxx sites will be purchased by victims to prevent the abuse of their name.
It was a bad idea in the first place and should be illegal too.
Yeah, this kind of brand-protection is going to be extortion at any price. I suspect that the price for domains is set to be high enough to prevent mass registrations and camping, but no so high as to actually discourage entities from just these kind of defensive registrations.
(1) It's extortion.
(2) We'll pay it.
The alternative? Really messy.
There is no way to legal tactics? if the intention is clearly extortion you can report this.