Starting 7 September, companies, brand names and celebrities can register with ICM Registry to block their names from being used in the .xxx Web domain, considered as the red light zone of the Web world.
The .xxx Web domain, aimed to "promote a responsible approach to adult content" has alreadey received 900,000 expressions of interest so far in the first sunrise period.
The second sunrise period of 50 days, which began yesterday, is meant for corporates and celebrities to block their names from being misused and become a cause of embarrassment.
The new suffix goes live next year.
However, the blocking of domains does not come cheap. ICM Registry, the company which oversees the .xxx domain, charges a one-off fee of between $150 and $300 (£100 to £200), depending on which company they register their domain with.
The company said that it has reserved 15,000 .xxx domain names on the request of international governments and other agencies, including names of cities and well-known politicians, such as the US president and the British prime minister.
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"That would include David Cameron, Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher," ICM Registry’s chief executive Stuart Lawley said.
The company has said that existing adult entertainment sites can also submit their application to reserve a spot on .xxx.
But companies are under no obligation to go .xxx, according to Lawley.
"Regardless of what your personal views are on the existence of pornography on the internet, at least .xxx will give people the information they need to make a choice," said Lawley.
"We hope to sell 500,000 domain names by January/February," Lawley said.
The company said that Sunrise B is aimed at applicants from outside of the adult Sponsored Community.
"These applicants are owners of a qualifying trademark registration, who seek to reserve names in order to ensure that those names are not registered as domain names by others in .XXX ," said the company.
It added, "At the close of the Sunrise Period, if no conflicting application by a Sunrise A applicant has been made, these names will be reserved from registration (blocked)."
In case both Sunrise A and Sunrise B applicants want the same domain name, priority will be given to the qualified Sunrise A applicant to register the domain name.
However the company said that it would issue a notice to the Sunrise A applicant of Sunrise B applicant’s interest in the domain name so that the first applicant cannot claim lack of notice in any subsequent dispute between Sunrise A and Sunrise B applicants.
The company also said that general availability begins 6 December 2011, and remaining .XXX domain names will be allocated to applicants on a first come, first served basis.
Plans to establish exclusive domains for pornography websites go back to 2003 when the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann) first announced it. However, the regulator had to block the plan in 2007 after opposition from the US government, which opposed the creation of .xxx on moral grounds.
This year in March it was ICM Registry, which proposed the .xxx change. Icann, the group which administers Web addresses across the world, approved the proposal at a meeting in San Francisco.
While, nine board members voted for the approval, three voted against it.
The board of Icann said that ICM Registry would be allowed to oversee the .xxx domain and that the address is not mandatory for adult content websites.
The backers of the scheme said that the creation of an exclusive domain for pornography websites would prevent viruses, identity theft, credit card fraud and child abuse. They also claimed that it will help people filter out .xxx content if they so wanted.
Icann had also said that ICM Registry will sell addresses with the new domain for $60 annually. ICM Registry’s Lawley had called the decision a "landmark moment" for the Internet.
"Everybody wins," said Lawley. "The consumer of adult sites wins. The providers will benefit because more people will become paying customers. And those who don’t want to go there will win as well, because the sites will be easier to filter."
