Russian iTunes Store infiltrated by .xxx banners after snafu [NSFW]
Russian iTunes users reportedly got a shock today when they discovered masses of sexually explicit content from the .xxx gTLD in their iTunes Store.
According to local reports, attempts to visit a part of the store dedicated to foreign movies displayed a bunch of banner ads for .xxx web sites instead of the expected content.
@arcoolov @markgurman @9to5mac This is NOT a joke. How do you explain replies in the comments? A legitimate issue twitter.com/iphones_ru/sta…
— iphones.ru (@iphones_ru) December 5, 2012
Digging a little deeper, it appears that the images were being drawn directly from xxx.xxx, a promotional directory site owned and managed by ICM Registry, the .xxx registry.
Speculation in the Apple blogs is that an iTunes Store developer inadvertently typed “xxx.xxx” somewhere as a placeholder URL, not realizing that .xxx is actually a live TLD.
There’s a lesson here for new gTLD registries somewhere, I’m sure.
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Really? Where do you work?
Overabundance of caution. I wouldn’t want John Berryhill filing a complaint against me.
A lesson for registry operators? Sure, that’s that they can get free advertising if a programmer messes up.
I think the lesson is for programmers, if the theory holds up.
It’s the Millennium Bug, only better! 😀