By Jo Best, 16 June 2005 16:55
NEWS The row over the ownership of the iTunes.co.uk domain name will now see domain name registrar Nominet taken to court.
Nominet recently decreed that current iTunes.co.uk owner, Benjamin Cohen, should hand over the URL to Apple because of its all-conquering music download of the same name. Cohen, however, is refusing to give it up, claiming Nominet has no legal authority.
Nominet's authority may now be challenged in the High Court, as Cohen has served the registrar with papers relating to an application for Judicial Review.
Cohen said he decided to pursue the legal action as Nominet's appeal fee - £3,000 plus legal costs - was too prohibitive; adding he believes Nominet's system favours big business in domain name disputes.
Nominet, however, maintains the High Court cannot rule on its authority as it is not a public body.
Comments
There are 14 comments. Join the discussion
1. Angus
well here is hoping that Nominet is now exposed. They have been ripping off the UK domain community for years now.
2. anonymous
Agree with Angus - lets see Nominet put in their place - they do not act for the good of the internet as they operate their own rules away from the rest of the world
3. anonymous
Just commenting on the iTunes matter - I would very much like to see the whole arguement as it is fundermental to domain ownership
If the person who owns it bought before iTunes was launched for example then he/she should definately be allowed to keep it and negotiate with Apple - if it was a fortunate cybersquat then not
4. joan walsh
I totally agree with the owner of itunes.co.uk nominet are a waste of time - if you have money, you're ok!
WHO ARE THEY!!! They have no powers whatsoever! and their fees are a sad joke!
5. Charles Moncrieff
It is about time Nominet was disbanded and a proper professional organisation was established to deal with domain name registration.
Nominet has been able to get away with playing god for far too long , so I hope common sense prevails and Nominet are exposed as the fakes that they are.
6. anonymous
I hope Nominet prevail, I don't see whether anyone should "suffer" because of this greedy guy, who tried to sell the domain to Napster. Just because it's a big company doesn't give him rights over their trademark.
He registered the domain after iTunes was launched, which is untrue. iTunes came about in 2001, while the iTunes Music Store came about much later, he obviously squat on this domain to make some money later.
This guy is just after a quick "buck" and he shouldn't be allowed to prevail, just because he's up against Nominet (and not Apple you'll note). He doesn't even run it as a legitimate business anyway - if he did, then perhaps we'd feel more for him.
7. Allan Knowles
The Goldfish credit card ran into similar problems when it was launched as Goldfish.co.uk (or com - I can't recall) as it was was registered to a marketing agency near Brum and had been for a number of years. No one at Goldfish (British Gas) or their agencies had done their homework until they launched the card. I believe that they did a deal with the agency but they didn't have a website for some months. Goldfish didn't have a claim as the site had been registered before they got to it and for a different purpose. Just to compoud British Gas' woes, they used their gas supply bills list as their mailing list and got knobbled by the data protection registrar.
8. Nick
So, how come www.iTunes.co.uk resolves to the Apple site http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/ ? Have Nominet taken it upon themselves to redirect traffic?
9. Antony Norris
itunes.co.uk was registered in 2000, iTunes software was released 2001. That does not constitute cyber squatting.
What if I started up a small business with a domain name that Apple had been sitting on for some years, would Nominet hand that over to me? Not a chance!
10. anonymous
itunes launched 2001 as software
itunes.co.uk registered 2000
itunes.co.uk was there first
in any case, the high court case is to review the way that nominet works not deal the specifics of this case see
11. anonymous too
Apple should have done the relevant check prior to choosing their brand name, I mean, everyone else has to check to see if someone already owns that name space. They have obviously decided that their lax planning should be paid for by someone else.
Bad Nominet, bad.
12. Stuart Haining Something4.com
Its outrageous...surely its common sense that if Mr Cohen was first past the post its his property...I can understand Apple being miffed about the lost traffic or potential to redirect to a competitor so they should settle a reasonable amount out of court (plus, if I was Benjamin, a % on every click thru!)
Stick at it!
13. Geep
It's already happened. Itunes.co.uk redirects to http://www.apple.com/uk/itunes/
14. David Craig
itunes.co.uk on a whois shows Apple Inc as the owner. Does this mean the dispute has been resolved? Or that Nominet has changed ownership of the domain without Mr. Cohen's permission?