Abandoned campaign Web sites go X-rated
 

http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguid...ornsites_x.htm

WASHINGTON ? Do political candidates know where their cast-off campaign Web addresses are?
If they don't, they had better check and see. The sites may have been taken over by online pornographers.

Click on the old Web addresses for a Colorado congresswoman, a Kentucky Republican running for the House, and former Montana supporters of Howard Dean and instead of candidates' photos and links to campaign events, Web surfers will get an X-rated eyeful.

"It's just outrageous," said Rep. Marilyn Musgrave of Colorado, a conservative, family-values Republican who has become known across the country for sponsoring a constitutional amendment that would ban same-sex marriages.

"You know good and well that they desire people going to my campaign site would get a little shock," she said.

"It's a shame it's out there, but it's a fact of life," said Justin Braswell, campaign manager for Geoff Davis, who is running for Congress from northern Kentucky. "Geoff Davis supports limiting access to that type of filth."

Both Davis and Musgrave have unadulterated Web sites for their 2004 campaigns. But they failed to renew the Web site addresses used by their 2002 campaigns.

Those old addresses went into a pool where they were snatched up by a domain reseller. That reseller is offering to sell them again for $500. In the meantime, the addresses are parked at a porn site.

This happens to a lot of expired Web addresses and candidates shouldn't take it personally, said Kieran Baker, spokesman for Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, a nonprofit organization that manages the domain name system.

"It happened to a 9/11 victim recently with a Web site dedicated to her husband," Baker said. "She forgot to renew it and lost it and now it's a porn site."

Other than buying the address back, if it's for sale, there's nothing an aggrieved former owner can do, Baker said.

The pornographers don't care who owned the old Web addresses or whether their previous visitors are likely to be uninterested in their X-rated wares, said Phil Noble, the editor of Politics Online, a newsletter about how the Internet is used in politics and public affairs.

"It could be an old address for someone selling flea collars for anteaters. If it has enough traffic, a porno guy will grab it," Noble said. "If they can hijack a little bit of that traffic to their site, they'll do it."

Yet people in the adult industry still dont understand why many politicians are trying to close our businesses down.

This news story is a prime example.

The sort of webmasters that take domains that children can potentially be visiting need to be driven out of the industry, its not god for those of us who do actually care that children shouldnt be subjected to online pornography before they become adults :2 cents:

Regards,

Lee

First of all, kids shouldn't be roaming around on the internet because they are going to get to porn sites regardless of what domain name it resides on.

Second, if these candidates rented a building that later housed a porno shop all their old business cards, phone book records, etc. would still point to the address of a porn shop. Same goes for online. If you're worried about who sets up shop at your old virtual address then you best not move out.

Very good analogy there.