Web Porn Wins Battle to Use .xxx Addresses

An online red-light district won a long battle to allow them to register racy websites with ".xxx" Internet addresses.

The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN, says it was wrong to reject the request for ".xxx" Internet addresses from ICM Registry LLC three years ago, the Associated Press reported.

ICM's founder Stuart Lawley says he expects to make $30 million a year in revenue by selling ".xxx" domain names for $60 each. He pledges to donate $10 from each sale to child protection initiatives via the International Foundation for Online Responsibility -- a non-profit organization he set up.

Not everyone is convinced. Some say that the porn sites would prefer to stick with their existing ".com" address so that they can be found more easily.

Lawley says he already has 110,000 reservations and could have ".xxx" sites off the ground within six months. He predicts that he may attract at least 500,000 sites, the AP said.