BARRIERE, Canada – While selling adult content is, indeed, commerce, it is not the sort of commerce residents of a British Columbia town expected to find on the local chamber of commerce’s website. Politicians and the business community were “horrified” to discover a porn merchant acquired the chamber’s URL when the organization let the registration lapse.

According to the mayor, the chamber thought the registration would renew automatically. It didn’t. By the time officials realized the oversight, the URL had been redirected to the hardcore tube site PornoLaba.

Mayor Virginia Smith said the new owners of the domain, which on Jan. 20 returned a “page not found” error, demanded a $9,700 ransom to return the virtual address.

“It’s just one of those horrible tragedies,” she told national news agency The Canadian Press.

She also admitted the chamber should have been more careful.

“I can see both sides to the story, that yes, perhaps the chamber should have been far more diligent,” she told CP. “That unfortunately didn’t happen, and now we have a situation that has to be dealt with.”

Instead of caving to what the mayor called “extortion,” the chamber of commerce secured a new URL and re-established its site.

“I think it’s a horrible situation, and I don’t think it speaks too well of the chamber or general mankind, as such, with that kind of a site,” Smith said.

Barriere incorporated in 2007. The chamber of commerce represents 70 businesses in the North Thompson Valley.