Texas A&M administrators would rather not imagine the possibilities of a porn website called The Wrecking Crew.So to keep that name ingrained in Aggie lore as Texas A&M's spirited football defense and not a gaggle of scantily clad men with pecs that jiggle, the university shelled out a few hundred bucks to block registration of wreckingcrew.xxx."Our trademarks are extremely valuable to Texas A&M," said university spokesman Jason Cook. "The last thing we want is for these valuable trademarks to be associated with the porn industry."The dot-xxx domain names, in an effort to exercise greater control over pornography online, opened up to the public last week, and Texas A&M snapped up more than a dozen to deprive the porn industry from capitalizing on the Aggie brand. A period beginning in September allowed trademarked organizations to purchase domain names.It's a decision being made across the country by universities, which have always been skittish about their reputations, even on matters not involving the flesh.The University of Texas at Austin blocked about a dozen names such as hookemhorns.xxx, texas.xxx and bevo.xxx for about $200 apiece."The way we view this is as an insurance policy," said UT spokesman Gary Susswein. "It costs us something up front but we avoid the problem of having our reputation ... tarnished by websites we can't control or don't support."Texas Tech also registered some domain names, but immediate details weren't available. A check shows redraiders.xxx has been taken.Texas A&M spent around $3,000 to $5,000 to register or block roughly 15 sites, including texasam.xxx, homeofthe12thman.xxx and texasaggies.xxx.At Texas A&M, no one got in a room and decided which domain names to register or block. Instead, Cook said, they decided to simply protect their dozen or so federally protected trademarks, which also includes mascot "Reveille" and "Aggieland."This issue received renewed attention last week because of the domain names going online to the general public, but Texas A&M recognized it early this year, said Shane Hinckley, the university's assistant vice president for business development. He also is past president of the International Collegiate Licensing Association, and warned his counterparts of the potential problem.Saying he doesn't want to be known as the "porn czar," Hinckley said the dot-xxx domain registration was just one part of the university's licensing protection effort that aims to guard its trademarks."When it comes down to it, the way you have affinity with something is through its brand, and we take that responsibility seriously," he said.
