Yes, universities are snapping up .XXX Domains left and right. But no, they’re not aspiring to be future AVN award winners. Instead, schools like Missouri and Washington University are buying up domains like missouri.xxx and washu.xxx to protect their names.
Because there are no trademark or copyright protections for domain names, anyone who beats a brand or institution to a domain name has full control over it. Obviously, higher institutions of learning don’t want to be affiliated by mistake with certain sub-cultures in the non-academic sense.
Each domain costs about $US200, and both of the aforementioned schools are buying multiple domains that they think could be associated with them. Sorry to dash whatever dreams of a harvard.xxx site you may or may not have. [CBS]