February 3rd – XXX-tortion Day?
As February 3rd 2012 quietly approaches, all dot XXX domains held in escrow accounts (ie: amanda36c.xxx) will go up for sale and according to the Whois records, http://whois.domaintools.com/amanda36c.xxx , there will be more than 2,400 performers affected. No word yet on what’s going to happen with these domains. I wonder. Will they all just be snagged up by Webpower Inc or will it be ICM Registry themselves to grab them? Will it be Webpower’s lawyers again or will it be their accountants this time? Will the domains go up for sale or auction? Will performers be given information at the very last second, with little to no time to respond? In much the same manner as they sprung upon us the performer’s program itself; a quick change of plans to protect against backlash in the budding stages of their massive XXX venture from several thousands of what they (arguably) call “supporters”? I guess the real surprise will come just as the auction takes place, no doubt in some quiet corner of the dot XXX world.
ICM Registry has shown nothing but shadiness. Was it not evident when I provided, in a past blog entry (https://amanda36c.wordpress.com/icm-registrywebpower-inc) , proof that ICM’s very own lawyer squatted on domains? This is the same lawyer who was attached to both ICM Registry, as well as Webpower Inc, a company whose 400+ complaints (on this one website alone), Ripoffreport.com of various forms of fraudulent behavior have completely went overlooked by the people supposedly in charge of overseeing this whole dot XXX venture. The people on the board of the IFFOR (the organization that makes the policies for dot XXX) are also involved with the same companies. In fact, one of Webpower’s other lawyers sat on that board when dot XXX was first introduced. Let’s see – how many millions/billions do they expect to earn from this? What’s its true potential? Well, first let’s try and determine how many idiots exist in this world, willing to dish out money to ‘defend’ their name from the big bad porn pimps of the internet, who can so easily just come along and buy up any name available in dot XXX. What shocks me most is the only one willing to take them to task is Manwin, the adult industry giant, with their anti-trust and monopolization suit. Why has noone else taken them to task? The complacency and passivity in today’s society is sickening. They are making good and sure to control everything, knowing full well that noone will do anything to stop them.
All I can say is february 3rd should be an interesting day, if you’re a performer in this industry. I have the distinct feeling that we will be hearing very little from ICM about what’s to happen, what course of action will be taken on these domains. How soon before (stolen) content is put up on those sites, after they are grabbed (by whoever the highest bidder happens to be)? I wouldn’t trust them with my site, nor would I trust them to my information.
The expiry date on those domains is less than 2 months away. Watch how this plays out.
Joy., and 
nicholas are discussing. 
amanda36c 
nicholas 6:23 pm on December 13, 2012 Permalink |
This is crazy, how can this be legal ?? Are you saying, your own domains are up for sale on February 3rd 2013 and you can’t do any thing about it? Someone suggested to you once or may be more than once, that you should become a Senate. That’s where the real power is … Consider it Amanda. From what I’ve read from your blogs and understood, it sound like a good idea.
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amanda36c 5:57 pm on December 16, 2012 Permalink |
It appears so, Nicholas. I’m wondering exactly when they’re going to announce what they plan to do with these domains or how we can purchase them. Perhaps it would be best to just watch someone else buy it and when my content appears on it, perform that DMCA takedown and sue their asses at the same time. I can’t fathom how anyone could want to deal with these people, knowing full well who they are, what they represent and the frauds they have been accused of by 400+ members of their website, in the Ripoffreports.com website alone. Senate? It’ll never happen in this industry. That would mean we’d need law enforcement to step in and from what I can see, they would rather keep their shoes clean and just let the inmates run the asylum. There is no way to bring in any sort of governance otherwise. Basically, we’re screwed. Even if I did have the power, not enough people would be willing to back me. They say they do, but only if they can remain anonymous and that just doesn’t work.
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Joy. 12:56 pm on December 14, 2012 Permalink |
Hey Amanda, once again I’m here to be your spirited debate opponent. =)
As always, a very well written article.
And as always, I’m not all that concerned because in life I go with the flow. Don’t sweat the small stuff …and it’s all small stuff. I’ve worked for big companies, and been self employed, and there’s always something or someone we can be upset with/about.
There’s way too much other stuff I’m dealing with to move underhanded .xxx dealings off the bottom of my worry list. LOL Yet that said……….
To me it looks as though the huge financial boom they were expecting from .xxx domains is a bust. Or maybe I’m just not paying all that much attention (‘cuz I’m not =)
Have any amazing .xxx sites shown up? Not that I’m aware of. Do people searching for specific porn care if the site name ends in .xxx or .net or .com or .org (my personal fave, for orgasm or organ, but no one else seems to thinks .org* is fun like I do =)
The .xxx is a hefty $99 USD, so who is going to pay that in order to make a measly pittance on affiliate marketing of camgirls or even B-level (and below) pornstars? I think the entire thing is a bust for them.
If I were in the business of building sites to promote affiliate links, or selling knock off vids or photos of a particularly hot camgirl or porn star, I’d simply buy her name using a GoDaddy $5 .biz or $7 .org-asm, etc. and set up shop directing traffic to one of those cheap and cheerful parody sites. I wouldn’t spend $100 on .xxx Hey, but that’s just me, I’m tight with a buck and very resourceful, so I’d never pay ridonkulous prices for something that can be done just as well for a tenth of the cost. LOL Heck, I am Joy Lovewell and I wouldn’t pay $100 for my own .xxx name! ha ha ha ha ha
When the price for a .xxx domain name falls in par with what other domains are going for, I think we’ll possibly have something to be concerned about protecting our names. Until then, no so much. But that’s my opinion. =)
Oh, and I do agree with the everything you’ve uncovered about the shady dealings of WebPower and their ilk. Nasty business, and I hope they’re getting what they deserve. Nothing ($$$).
I’m with Nicholas. Amanda you’d make a wonderful Senator. You’ll just need 9 years as a US citizen before you can through your bra in the ring (and it is a 3 ring circus down here, ha ha ha). Canada has a huge porn issue with child porn and illegal sex slave trade, so maybe you can get yourself elected in Canada to begin combating those monsters. Bonus: You already reside in the capital! Easy-peasy!
Thanks for another interesting blog post.
All the best and happy holidays,
Joy
I realize .org is meant for organizations/forums/communities, but it’s use doesn’t seem to be policed.
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amanda36c 4:20 pm on December 16, 2012 Permalink |
That’s where we differ, Joy. What you consider “sweating the small stuff”, I see as a major contributor to the decline in traffic we’re seeing and something we should be taking an active stand against, before it gets worse. There is a lot we could have done to prevent getting screwed over in the past but instead, we chose to brush it off. We didn’t think it was a big enough deal. Regret not doing anything now, after seeing how badly our revenues are declining, despite the fact that our content appears to be growing in popularity all over the internet? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out what’s going on there.
Contrary to your belief that this decline in traffic/revenue is something only I am seeing (you’ve made your position quite clear in past comments related to that topic), other (independent) girls I have spoken with are seeing the same drop. One round of visits to their rooms tells me it is a widespread concern. Go ahead and take a look at all the non-studio/agency girls and you’ll see for yourself. I don’t think it’s fair to mention names here but you know who they are. They won’t often be spotted in or above the first 4 rows on Streamate at any given time.
All internet stats display a steady decline in traffic across the board, among the big sites. As if the growing rate of our competition, along with a very unstable economy, aren’t bad enough. These new smaller sites popping up all over the place (owned by the big ones under privacy protect services) with our stolen content on them, are putting an even larger dent in our revenue stream and our problem is, we’re too damn complacent to do anything about it. What we should be doing is looking at all that’s affecting our bottomline and acting on it, but we don’t. These sites know it all too well, and in their arrogance, there isn’t a hint of fear that one of us could be a loose cannon. They’ve gotten away with a lot, so far and will continue to get away with more, if we don’t act. I guess what it boils down to is … how do you like the way you’re being treated? Next step is .. what do you plan to do about it? I know when something is wrong. If it’s worth it to me to pursue, I need not seek approval from anyone. I’m a stubborn Leo, after all.
You already are aware that ICM Registry, in possession of all our .XXX domains, and every underhanded game they’ve played in the past with us, is hardly the patron saints of the industry and you know that they can change their rules at the very last second, tossing performers into an ‘escrow account’ in order to maintain more control over us, rather than allowing us to purchase our own .XXX sites under our performer handles. I was, after all, blocked from buying it under the Sunrise A program and forced into this make-shift Performers Program, which was nothing more than a last-minute scramble to stop me dead in my tracks from trying to obtain amanda36c.xxx. I had absolutely no choice in the matter. They outright refused to allow me to purchase that domain! Lest we forget about their lawyer, who squatted on domains. https://amanda36c.wordpress.com/2012/01/30 You claim to know all this yet you trust this company to your information, by taking a deal with them for a one-year free service? I’m curious. Come february 3rd, are you going to purchase your .xxx from them? You have no concerns over them stealing your content? Their agreement, if challenged in court, would never hold up. They can’t sell your content without some sort of arrangement to pay you either a one-time sum or a royalty. Or perhaps you just don’t care. What about in 5 years time, when your revenues are down to 1/4 of what they are today? Still going to sit there in that complacent state of mind, while they continue to thrive off the revenues from all their collective fly-by-night websites earning revenue galore from the sale of our stolen content? It’s clear what they have done to this industry. I have seen this first-hand and the websites with our stolen content are in the millions. You can’t say this is trivial or has no effect on our revenues.
Indeed, we do see things quite differently.
Until you’re willing to investigate them yourself, to gain perspective or any sort of knowledge as to the magnitude of impact this will have on us, a few years down the road, why brush off what I have to say as irrelevant or insignificant? I fail to see how you think ICM/Webpower Inc is not a threat to our industry with their .XXX venture, based on the simple fact that hey haven’t had the kind of success they anticipated. That doesn’t mean their hands are tied where our content is concerned. To write them off would be a huge mistake. Remember, they have been trying to get this thing off the ground since 2000. Their applications kept getting rejected by ICANN, until early 2011. ICM Registry are not going anywhere. They have big money behind them and can sit on that as long as need be. I wish you had actually taken the time to investigate what I have to know what that connection between them and Webpower really means to the industry and the future of camming. You would be a lot more concerned about this. IFriends sunk like the Titanic yet there they are, still on life support, still somehow afloat. Surely, they’re trying to model themselves after the successful tube sites that Manwin has created, only in millions of little sites, rather than a few really large ones. This way, they can hide it all, move everything offshore, ‘spread the wealth’ so to speak.
I don’t know how much or often you actually cam or if you’ve noticed, through any sort of consistent patterns that the more sites pop up with our content on them, the more declines in traffic we’re seeing, subsequently. I watch this like a hawk.
At the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, I’m going to answer what I’m sure many people reading this, might be asking: “why, if they’re frauding all these people, do they continue to get away with it?” – Look at society for a minute. By and large, people don’t stand up for themselves. They would rather turn a blind eye to frauds, scams, than to be the one scrutinized and called a “conspiracy theorist” (especially attached to the filthy adult industry) with a target on their back, for taking this information public. The scammers know what they can and can’t get away with. This industry is the perfect playground for them because there is noone governing it and we allow this by doing nothing to stop it.
Oh gosh, I can ramble sometimes. It is a topic I get get overly passionate (and upset) about. Just bump me like a record and I’ll stop. Heh!
Happy Holidays to you, too, Joy.
P.S. I’m not in the capital, that would be Ottawa. I’m in Montreal. Close though, it’s a good 2 hour drive from the city.
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