Published: Friday, 11th July, 2008 12:33pm

Butler sweeps Peeblesshire porn away

Comments (0) | Print | Email

The historic name of Peeblesshire is to be rescued from the depraved clutches of porn peddlers.

Perverted website producers are using the name Peeblesshire at present to hawk their wares.

Last month we reported how Peeblesshire.com carries no content that is relevant to the area such as information or pictures of the region’s breath-taking scenery or beautiful attractions.

Instead it warns visitors to the site of images and videos of a sexually explicit nature.

But a Glaswegian entrepreneur is at present attempting to acquire the name and put it to its proper use as a tourist site.

Tom Butler buys Scottish geographical domain names from largely unscrupulous foreign owners and instead fills them with more reputable content.

He said: “In 1995 when the internet exploded a lot of people began registering geographical domain names knowing that in years to come they would be worth money.

“Most of them use the names for gambling or porn. I’ve bought and turned back into tourist sites, place names such as Largs, Helensburgh, East Kilbride and Dunoon. The people who own these sites acquired them for free by just registering them and they sell them for five figure sums.

‘I’m in negotiation at present with a South African company about purchasing Peeblesshire.com for a large sum of money.

“The site should be advertising tourist attractions, restaurants, and hotels not porn and gambling sites.

The ownership of domain names is big business worldwide with some companies in America owning up to 4000 names. These names are then sold for massive sums as these companies speculation is proved right.

Tom has bought a whole host of Scottish names from foreign owners. He said: “I bought Dunoon from a Russian, Inverness from an Italian and Largs from a Canadian. Tourist boards and local businesses haven’t a clue that they are missing out on so much business because of this.

“I’m just glad to bring Scottish names back into Scottish hands and put them to proper use.”