Have you worked hard to develop and maintain a brand name or online presence for your business? Would you care if somebody used that brand to promote porn?

Tomorrow is the last day you can opt-out from having your business's name or mark being registered as a .xxx domain name — .xxx is the forthcoming top-level domain dedicated to the global adult entertainment industry.

For example, if you are the proud owner of the Hair Club for Men company, which has its website at www.hairclub.com, and you fail to opt-out of the .xxx domain, you leave the door open to someone else registering the name www.hairclub.xxx. Imagine the fun that they could have with that domain name! It costs only $300 to opt-out, and recovering your name after it's already registered could cost thousands (or worse, it may be unrecoverable).

For more information on opting out, refer to ICM Registry, the company responsible for bringing us the .xxx domain.

The domain name, p2p.com, was estimatedly valued at as much as $200,000 at the time that 23-year-old Daniel Goncalves hacked into the popular domain registrar goaddy.com, and then transferred its registration to his own GoDaddy account. Go Daddy records show that the same IP address was used to transfer the stolen domain as was used to log into Goncalves's Go Daddy account. After waiting 60 days from the date of the transfer, per ICANN (Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Number) rules, Goncalves transferred the domain to another registrar, and ultimately sold it to Mark Madsen, a forward for the Los Angeles Clippers. Madsen had no idea that the domain was stolen. (Full story from newerseynewsroom.com.)

Although 5 years sounds like a long time to go to prison for stealing a "name," Goncalves's conduct in this case was particularly egregious (not to mention stupid). Before striking the plea deal with prosecutors, Goncalves was potentially facing 10 years in prison. What's even more incredible is the fact that Goncalves not only used (presumably) his own computer to complete the transaction, but that it took investigators 3 years to catch him!

Even though the domain was reportedly returned to its rightful owners (a "who is" search only revealed the current registrar, Moniker Online Services, Inc.), it appears that the domain/site remains dormant as of this date.