The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers -- the nonprofit group behind this expansion of generic⁴ top-level domains, or gTLDs -- is allowing public figures and companies to get ahead of the game by purchasing domains before they open to the public.

 

"For example, Microsoft has already registered Office.porn and Office.adult," Stuart Lawley, CEO of ICM Registry, which operates the .porn and .adult top-level domains. "The same goes for TaylorSwift.porn and TaylorSwift.adult." Starting in June, "It's first to the buzzer," Lawley said.

 

It's a smart move for Swift to claim her name before the trolls can, but the pop star has always been business-savvy. She recently trademarked lyrics⁵ from her latest album; beat the paparazzi out of a $100,000 payday; and in a controversial move, pulled all her music from Spotify because "piracy⁶, file sharing and streaming have shrunk the numbers of paid album sales drastically."

 

But note to Swift's team: .Sucks is operated by another company, so it's still available for purchase. The .sucks domains will cost up to $2,500 to buy out.

 

Before he left office, U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller told ICANN he thought it was "little more than a predatory shakedown scheme" to get businesses to spend big money on defensive⁷ domain¹ registrations⁸.

 

But according to CNN Money, "[ICANN] claims that its program to expand gTLDs will be beneficial for all internet users, because descriptive domains, such as .healthcare, .deals, and .amsterdam, help ensure web users arrive at their intended destination."

 

"To me it's very responsible," said Steve Miholovich, senior vice⁹ president of marketing¹⁰ at Safenames, a domain registrar¹¹ and advisory¹² firm for websites. According to CNN, he added that "another benefit to having more descriptive domains is greater parental¹³ control over which websites their children visit. Blocking isn't always as easy for .com adult content sites."

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