In the crowded world of dot-com websites, it's well known that most obviously obscene addresses are already taken.
Type in your favorite expletive with a dot-com extension, and you'll likely find that someone else is already there, often in the form of an obnoxious porn site with an annoying array of pop-up windows.
That's been the situation since 1999, when new players entered the dot-com registration business and began letting people buy domains containing vulgar terms.
It didn't take long for speculators to snap up most curse words, leaving newcomers stuck with creative word combos that aren't always effective in drawing traffic.
Now that new dot-biz and dot-info Web extensions are on their way, however, coveters of obscene addresses finally have some new options.
As online registries prepare to roll out the two new top-level domains this fall, Internet regulators aren't limiting what kinds of terms can be included in a Web address.
As a result, choice obscene domains are once again up for grabs. And while some registration sites are blocking access to vulgar domains, many registrars are letting anyone register any name they want, no matter how disgusting it is.
"Who are we to decide what you can and cannot register?" said Patricio Valdes, president of Parava.net, which is accepting dot-info preregistrations through its Naame.com website. "It would be like if we were to monitor the content on your website."
So far, Naame.com hasn't gotten a huge number of requests for obscene domains. However, requests are already in for a few vulgarity-laced addresses, including fuck.info and shit.info, among others.
Joyce Lin, who runs 007 Names, a site offering dot-biz pre-registrations, is equally nonchalant about the submissions she receives.
"We do not review them first and then take out those names that we don't think are proper," she said. "It can sound terrible, but it's the customer's choice."
The hands-off attitude is a sharp contrast to the approach taken by another registrar, Register.com, which won't allow preregistrations containing the short list of seven dirty words popularized by comedian George Carlin.
Attempts to register sites containing those terms at Register.com generated only automated return messages stating that the domain "is restricted by the registry."
Register.com spokeswoman Shonna Keogan said the registrar has had an automated filter in place to screen out obscene domains for about two years for dot-com, dot-net and dot-org domains. The company chose to extend the practice for the dot-biz and dot-info extensions.
Officials at Afilias, the consortium managing the rollout of the dot-info domain, said they don't have rules in place regarding registrations of obscene domains. It's up to individual registrars, Afilias said, to decide whether to screen out vulgar submissions.
That open registration policy is a bit different from the procedure used for dot-com. Up until 1999, Network Solutions, once the sole registrar for dot-com addresses, didn't allow registrations of obscene domains. Only a few registrants, who applied before the rules took effect, could have these domains.
These days, Network Solutions (now part of VeriSign) says it no longer blocks applications for unseemly dot-com addresses. Dot-biz and dot-info registrants can also request whatever name they want.
For domain name holder Betty Ray, proprietor of the website Fuckertown.com, NSI's acceptance of obscene domains came a bit too late. When she attempted to register Fuckertown.com with the company in 1999, her request was denied. She ended up registering the name with a Spanish registrar.
Ray was pleased to discover that she wouldn't have to go through the same trouble registering Fuckertown.biz. However, she wasn't surprised to find registrars taking a more laid-back approach to dirty domain requests.
Given the fact that people are free to say and show all kinds of disgusting things on their websites, Ray said, it makes sense to give them equal freedom with their domain names.
Besides, she added, dirty words are pretty tame compared to a lot of other awful things floating around cyberspace.
"You can find directions to make nuclear bombs but you can't say the word shit? I mean, come on," Ray said.
