Taylor Swift buys .adult and .porn websites

By Staff Writer

Mar 24, 2015 05:48 AM EDT

Queen of country pop music Taylor Swift has bought the adult websites .adult and .porn.

But, this does not mean that Taylor Swift is letting go of her wholesome persona. In fact, it's a move to protect Swift's image and brand.

Taylor Swift, along with other celebrities and big companies are buying their namesakes website before the new domains go on sale to the public on June 1.

This means that anyone will be able to purchase .porn and .adult domain names and, of course, a lot of people, including Taylor Swift, do not want their name or brand attached to a domain with a porn-related suffix.

So, to preempt trolls from using her name, the "Blank Space" singer purchased the domain names TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult.

CNN Money reported that Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the nonprofit group behind this expansion of generic top-level domains, or gTLDs, has allowed public figures and companies purchase ahead on the more controversial gTLDs before they become available to the public.

Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, in an interview with CNN Money, confirmed that Swift's team had already purchased TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. ICM Registry manages the .porn and .adult domains in the internet.

"For example, Microsoft has already registered Office.porn and Office.adult. The same goes for TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult. Starting in June, It's first to the buzzer," Lawley said.

Vanity Fair said that Taylor Swift's purchase of .porn and .adult is part of a larger controversial practice called "domain squatting" which has become a bigger issue for celebrities and corporations. Domain or cybersquatting is the practice of registering a domain with the intent of profiting off someone with a brand to protect.

This is not the first time that 'the "Shake It Off" singer has bought a domain. The country pop singer has previously purchased ITaughtTaylorSwiftHowToGiveHead.com.

According to The Register, Swift's move came during a dispute her lawyers were having with her former guitar teacher Ronnie Cremer, who set upITaughtTaylorSwift.com. Swift's lawyers claimed the site name was breaching on the Taylor Swift trademark. Because of this, Taylor Swift bought all the variations of I Taught Taylor Swift.

Taylor Swift, who is also known for being business savvy, recently trademarked lyrics from her latest album; posted a picture of herself in a bikini in Instagram to beat the paparazzi; and in a controversial move, ripped all her music from Spotify because "piracy, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically."

© 2024 VCPOST, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Join the Conversation

Real Time Analytics