By editorial@silicon.com, 26 March 2002 17:15
COMMENT Cyber squatting isn't what it used to be. These days there are precedents for those who seek to disrupt ebusinesses by stealing their online monikers. Gone are the days of holding large corporations to ransom for thousands of pounds over a domain name worth a tenner. Unfortunately, no one seems to have told web designer Richard Laverick, who immediately registered www.networkrail.org.uk on the launch of the re-named Railtrack yesterday. Now he plans to sell it back to the government for offers in the region of £1,000. Yet these days the law frowns on such cybersquatting antics, so one would expect the man to be fairly shy about his behaviour. Not so. Not only does he make no attempt to deny he is a cyber squatter, he seems to have been so impressed with his cleverness he phoned the BBC to tell them all about it. Having publicly stated he has no valid interest in the domain, and only registered it after the body was created yesterday, he has absolutely no chance of winning any legal battle. What's perhaps more disappointing is the incompetence of the government in not keeping its online house in order and registering the domain name. However, for anyone that has followed the debate on public transport in the UK, incompetence by central government will come as absolutely no surprise. The news is just the latest (and by no means most significant) in a long line of black marks against the name of Transport Secretary Stephen Byers. Let's be honest, this isn't about to bring the whole thing tumbling down. But as for our friend Richard Laverick, he should probably just get a lawyer. And a life.
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