Gavin Orland » Cybersquatting

Cybersquatting

Thursday 22nd January 2009 13:56 in Society, Technology | 62 views logged | No comments

Not enough is being done about the practice of cybersquatting, or name-jacking, domain squatting – this disreputable practice in all its forms.

I’m making music, under the name Eudaimonia, which is a very important word from Aristotlian ethics. I made an offer on eudaimonia.com which is effectively being squatted on – just $100 to start with. Back came the demand: $25,000 for the domain name. Absurd, of course.

Another case in point: richarddawkins.com. Richard Dawkins must have been very annoyed to find that this domain has been “name-jacked”. The person has put up links to his books at Amazon, in order to gain commission, while at the same time posting an essay critical of him. All under his name – under the search people will use for him, not the name-jacker.

These situations seem to me patently absurd. The legal issues may be complicated, but there must surely be scope for improvement on the current system.

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