A domain name bill by New York State Senator, Betty Little, will be taking effect in 120 days aimed at preventing any individual from registering a domain name - with the intent to profit - that resembles another living person or business. From the press release: "The law provides for a civil penalty of up to $1,000 for each day the violation occurs. In addition, the New York State Attorney General is enabled to apply to the Supreme Court for an injunction, including forfeiture or cancellation of the domain name..." more»
The Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), a non-profit organization based in Washington D.C., is confronting 'cybersquatting', or as defined in the report today, the fraudulent abuse of domain name registration that threatens the future viability of Internet commerce. From today's release: "To effectively combat cybersquatting, CADNA will work at the federal and international levels to make these fraudulent practices difficult to establish and unprofitable to maintain. Among the coalition's goals are to pursue congressional legislation that would increase the statutory damages set forth by the existing Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act..." more»
The Associated Press is reporting today that although the 'iPhone.com' domain name was grabbed long before January 9th, when Apple announced its new gadget, speculators have been registering thousands of iPhone-related domain names such as 'iPhoneJewelry.com' and 'TheAppleMaciPhone.com'. Although the registrations dropped to 25 per day for a while, they have picked up rapidly and more than 350 iPhone related domain names were registered in a day last week. more»
Co-Founder of YouChoose, Mike Dever says in a report released today that a petition has been launched on YouChoose.net at the end of last week against domain name parking". YouChoose is a social network for setting up and supporting 'Pledge Campaigns' and 'Petitions'. Dever says that the campaign against domain name parking and cybersquatting has "immediately attracted hundreds of signatures from concerned website owners. We realize that the issue of domain name parking is very complex..." more»
Business 2.0 Magazine is running a front page story on Kevin Ham, considered as one of the most powerful "domainer", and how he has managed to build a $300 million empire using everything from domain tasting to typo-squatting the entire nation of Cameroon. From the article, "Ham's people installed a line of software, called a 'wildcard,' that reroutes traffic addressed to any .cm domain name that isn't registered. In the case of Cameroon, a country of 18 million..." more»
Starbucks chairman and founder, Mr. Schultz's venture capital firm, Seattle-based Maveron, and H. Ross Perot's investment arm last month plowed $38 million into iREIT, a Houston-based company that has been accused of typosquatting by telecom giant Verizon. But earlier this year, Maveron also invested in Aliso Viejo, California-based CitizenHawk, which makes software that helps trademark holders identify typosquatters and initiate legal action against them. more»
Microsoft is launching a string of court actions in the United States and Europe against cybersquatters, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday.
"Cybersquatting is a growing problem for brands around the world and we hope to educate other brand holders and encourage them to take action," Aaron Kornblum, a senior Microsoft lawyer, told the business daily. more»
The U.N. copyright agency (World Intellectual Property Organization) that arbitrates more than half the world's "cybersquatting" cases saw a 25 percent increase in complaints last year. WIPO received 1,823 complaints in 2006 alleging abusive registrations of trademarks as Internet domain names. more»
Internet domain name arbitration disputes have risen by more than a quarter since January 2005 -- despite the expansion of generic top-level domain addresses like .biz and .info -- as cybersquatters find more sophisticated ways of encroaching on legitimate Web sites.
...Typosquatting, a form of cybersquatting that involves capturing another company's Web traffic by registering misspelled versions of a well-known Internet site or brand name, is driving much of the growth in domain-name disputes, according to intellectual property lawyers. more»
Microsoft on Tuesday launched a new offensive against cybersquatters who allegedly gain illegal profits from thousands of Web sites, such as WindowsLiveTutorial.com and HaloChamp.com, that include the company's trademarked names.
Redmond filed three lawsuits in federal court this week claiming that some Web site operators have registered and operate hundreds of domain names with the sole purpose of reaping "bad faith" profits and in violation of federal and state laws. more»
Europe must reboot its fledgling domain name to avoid a system crash, critics say, after alleged missteps allowed cybersquatters to stockpile trademarks for auction.
...Diana Wallis, a British liberal European Parliament member on the body's legal affairs committee, has asked the Commission to give a "full explanation of how the .eu domain allocation has been handled."
"If the scale of the abuse is anything like what appears to have taken place, this will represent a major EU scandal and commissioners will need to be brought to account," she said. more»
While Congress continues to consider the merits of so-called Net neutrality, an even more soporific but vital Internet legal issue looms, with ramifications for every business online and every user of the World Wide Web: What is the purpose of the database that contains information on every domain name registrant?
This question is being quietly debated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) -- the Net's keeper of the all-important addressing system -- which is meeting June 26-30 in Marrakech, Morocco.
Today, cybersquatters have rebranded themselves as "domainers," says Doug Isenberg, the author of the article over at CNet News. more»
Cybersquatting the domain name of a celebrity and selling it for a king's ransom was one of the great get-rich-quick schemes of the early internet. But since courts now tend to favor the star over the squatter, a new kinder, gentler cybersquatting tactic has emerged.
These days, cybersquatters seek to register a star's domain before that person becomes famous, and then develop a business relationship with the new celebrity, offering website hosting or design work. These so-called soft squatters are registering the domains of hundreds of amateur athletes, musicians and other would-be stars in the hope that one or two of the names will become well-known. more»
Malicious hackers who are able to hijack an organization's Web domain may be able to steal traffic from the legitimate Web site long after the domain has been restored to its owner, according to a recent report.
Design flaws in the way Web browsers and proxy servers store data about Web sites allow malicious hackers to continue directing Web surfers to malicious Web pages for days or even months after the initial domain hijacking. more»
New regulations will make it more difficult for companies to protect their domain names from cybersquatters in China.
Under the new rules, foreign and local firms will need to prove malicious intent and act quickly to have any hope of retrieving stolen domain names, according to a regulatory official interviewed by Chinese news site Sina. The new rules appear to give a green light to cybersquatters who buy up domain names which are similar to brand names in the hope of selling later for a profit. more»
