Stephen Ryan pulled a fast one on the Irish domain registry (IEDR) last week by listing 'porn. ie' as a top-level domain name which automatically changes to the porn. ie sub-level domain when visited online. Ryan is billing the site as "Ireland's Original Porn Website".

The 29-year-old Dubliner tried to register porn. ie with the IEDR several times, only to be told addresses must not be offensive or against "generally accepted principles of morality".

To register a website in Ireland, the name must relate to a company, organisation, club or association. Ryan registered ORN as a business name with the Companies Office in April. In documents filed, he described the business as an "art group focused on digital media".

In a newspaper interview last summer after his first rejection, Ryan said he wasn't a pornographer. He wanted to be "clever and quite arty" and construct a website with beautiful photographs. As of Friday, however, his site was carrying graphic videos.

When contacted by the Sunday Tribune, Ryan said he had decided to put explicit content on the site to prove a point.

"The IEDR isn't concerned about content, it only has a problem with the name, " he said, explaining that it had no problem with him registering orn. ie and uploading pornography, but did object to his registering porn as a name.

Ryan said the site wasn't a business venture and was created to illustrate double standards in relation to pornography in Ireland.

"If you can go out and buy this stuff in the shops, why can't you put it online?" he said.

David Curtin, chief executive of the IEDR, surmised that Ryan's registration was probably mischievous but added that the domain registry has no authority to vet content, and p. orn. ie was a business with advertising.

IEDR has almost 84,000 top-level domains registered on its service and is considered one of the safest and most secure registries worldwide.

The Irish registry is planning to change its rules in coming months to allow personal name registrations such as JoeBloggs. ie, although applicants will have to prove their identity.