YNOT – After filing a lawsuit against dot-xxx registrar ICM Registry in mid-November, Luxembourg-based Manwin on Friday issued a blanket refusal to do business with any websites in the dot-xxx space. The edict is notable because Manwin claims to be the largest adult entertainment conglomerate in the internet game, boasting more than 60 million daily visitors to the network of websites it either owns or operates for other companies.
“We oppose the dot-xxx domain and all it stands for,” said Fabian Thylmann, Manwin’s managing partner. “It is my opinion that the dot-xxx domain is an anti-competitive business practice that works a disservice to all companies that do business on the internet.
“The lawsuit was just the beginning,” he added. “Through this ban, we hope to make a strong statement against the dot-xxx domain.”
The civil lawsuit, filed Nov. 6 in a U.S. federal court, names both ICM and the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers as respondents. Among the charges leveled by Manwin and co-plaintiff Digital Playground are “monopolistic conduct, price gouging, and anti-competitive and unfair practices [that] broadly [harm] competition, businesses and consumers.”
“ICM willfully acquired [its] monopoly through … predatory acts and practices, including but not limited to … misleading acts and litigation tactics … which pressured and coerced ICANN into permitting ICM to acquire and perpetuate [a] monopoly,” the lawsuit notes. “[ICM Registry Chief Executive Officer] Stuart Lawley has announced that he expects to be able (and intends) to prevent the establishment of any other (potentially competing) adult-content [Top Level Domains], including through a contractual promise by ICANN not to approve such TLDs. Lawley has also announced that he projects that ICM will earn annual profits of $200 million from operating the dot-xxx TLD — profits to be earned by charging prices well above those in a competitive market.”
Thylmann indicated that by refusing to accept advertising or content from dot-xxx websites on tube sites owned or operated by Manwin, his company can significantly affect the profitability of destinations within the dot-xxx space. In addition, Manwin will not allow its original content — produced by popular studios including Twistys and Brazzers — to be used on dot-xxx properties.
“This will prevent ICM or dot-xxx from exploiting the 60 million daily visitors to Manwin’s network sites,” Thylmann noted — thereby presumably reducing the value of the domain space as a whole. “By permanently blocking the dot-xxx domain, Manwin hopes to send a clear message that it does not support ICM or dot-xxx.”
The tactic may or may not be successful. Over the weekend Thylmann clarified his original statements by saying Manwin’s refusal to deal with dot-xxx websites does not mean the company will discontinue existing relationships with companies that also operate identical sites in the dot-com space.
“The decision to stop working with dot-xxx TLDs simply is a way to underline our opinion,” he said. “We will not help people brand their dot-xxx domains to our 60 million visitors a day. Whoever wants to continue working with us can always do so by using another domain as long as the site itself does not promote dot-xxx on it. So if iFriends wants to advertise on the tubes, they can do so using iFriends.com as long as that site does not mention iFriends.xxx anywhere.”
In August, iFriends parent company WebPower Inc. was among the first adult entertainment entities to launch dot-xxx domains under ICM’s much-touted Founders Program. iFriends.xxx is an identical duplicate of iFriends.com. Both versions of the live-cam website are part of the ClickCash affiliate program, which maintains cloned websites at ClickCash.com and ClickCash.xxx. Affiliates may join and interact at either property and earn commissions from sales at either or both versions of any site in the ClickCash portfolio. The same is true on the consumer end.
In fact although some dot-xxx websites were developed from scratch, many — possibly a majority of — current dot-xxx websites are no more than “skinned” versions of sites that previously existed in the dot-com space.
ICM released a prepared response to Manwin’s declaration.
“Apparently Manwin is confused about whether it wants to bring antitrust claims or commit antitrust violations,” the ICM statement reads. “We find it ironic that a company that’s accusing us of anti-competitive tactics is taking such an anti-competitive action that could cause potential financial harm to the same webmasters they claim they’re trying to help.”
