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Apple wins control over 'iPhone' porn domain names

The company terminates dispute with a domain name squatter after it gains control of iphonesex4s.com and six other names that contain the term "iPhone."

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Paul Sloan is editor in chief of CNET News. Before joining CNET, he had been a San Francisco-based correspondent for Fortune magazine, an editor at large for Business 2.0 magazine, and a senior producer for CNN. When his fingers aren't on a keyboard, they're usually on a guitar. Email him here.
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Apple has won its dispute with a domain name squatter and now is in control of iphonesex4s.com and six other names that contain the term "iPhone."

Apple filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization earlier this month, aiming to gain control of the names.

The names still serve up sites pushing porn--so you've been warned--but Apple terminated the case this morning. All seven names are now controlled by brand protection agency MarkMonitor, the company that handles domain names for most big companies, including Apple.

Domain Name Wire, which first reported the story, said Apple dropped the case after the domain name owner agreed to turn over the domain names.

The other names involved are:
iphonecamforce.com
iphonecam4s.com
iphoneporn4s.com
iphonexxxforce.com
iphone4s.com
porn4iphones.com

The WIPO was created, in part, to curtain "cybersquatting," which is the practice of buying up domains with names similar to companies, products, and services owned by others. The organization, which is an agency within the United Nations, was created in 1967 as part of a larger program to curtail intellectual property theft and misuse.