Cyber-Squatting is by most people referred to as ‘Domain Squatting‘. According to the United States federal law known as the Anti-cyber squatting Consumer Protection Act, Cyber-Squatting is registering, trafficking in, or using a domain name with bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. As a result of this activity, the Cyber-Squatter then offers to sell the domain to the person or company who owns a trademark contained within the name at an inflated price. ‘Squatting’ basically is derived from the act of occupying an abandoned or unoccupied space or building that the squatter does not own, rent or otherwise have permission to use.
Going through this Wiki page will help us understand the technical strategies involved in Cyber-Squatting and the ways of resolving it legally. There is another variant of Cyber-Squatting which is known as ‘Typo-Squatting’ and is further explained by Shantanu Ghosh, VP India product Operation, Symantec, – “A lesser known variation of cyber squatting is typo squatting which refers to the practice of registering a domain name similar to that of a legitimate website. For example, symantc.com instead of symantec.com“.
The broad discussion point is that – How do squatters make money?
Simple. If you make a typing error while typing the name of a site on the internet browser, there’s a chance that you might land on the squatter’s site instead of the legitimate site which you wanted to go to. The squatter’s site may be a revenue source for him with a page which is loaded with ads that generate revenue for them, or maybe a web-page that exploits a browser vulnerability to load malicious code, adware, or spyware to the computer, or a phishing site designed to look like the site one meant to go to. Skenzo is a domain parking company which is owned by Directi. They provide monetization tools to domain owners who want to earn from a parked page.
For instance some parked sites such as -
- www.reddiff.com
- www.mallikasherawat.com
- www.gooogle.com
- www.gulpanag.com
- www.facebuk.com
- www.vickypedia.com
- www.hifive.com
- www.flicker.co
- www.indiatymes.com
- www.inn.com
- www.sifi.com
- www.shadi.com
- www.utube.com
The reason for Cyber-Squatting becoming a global phenomenon is rightly pointed out by Abhinav Karnwal, Product Marketing Manager, APAC Trend Micro when he said, “Cyber squatting has been a global phenomenon and off late is filtering into Asia as well. The main reason for the growth of cyber squatting is the availability of internet domain names at a very low cost.“
As an effort to overcome this problem, many companies now have begun to register domain names based on the common typing errors that people like you and me often make. Example, if you type symanatec.com, we would be re-directed to symantec.com; but there is a limitation that this only works with the domain name. What I mean to say is that if we mistakenly miss the ‘o’ in .com, it becomes ‘.cm’ and we might land on the squatter’s site.
However, it might look to you that Cyber-Squatting is a crime and you might have different views towards whether it really is a crime or not. But, a clarification is needed here that Cyber squatting is not a crime. But in the past, there have been companies who have gone to courts in their attempts to evict cyber squatters. One such example is GREENBERG TRAURIG.
Are you wondering what are the consequences if your blog or site is the target of squatters ? You should better know the harmful effects of Cyber-Squatting and ways to overcome it. The US has made strict laws against Cyber-Squatting which are mentioned here in the form of What to dos‘.
So, what do we do in India? Companies must go to the court. And then, wait for how long? I am not supposed to answer everything. Ain’t it?
Utube.com registered in 1996 and youtube.com registered in 2005. whois cybersquatter here?
@joy
Neither utube.com nor youtube.com is a cybersquatter. The article mentions it is a parked site.
Read this http://blog.domaintools.com/2007/05/utubecom-rides-the-youtube-wave-to-29-million-dollars/
Please, a guy in mask.
In most cases buying typo generic names and company names where they don’t hold a copyright or trademark, the ownership and use of the domain is perfectly legal.
In the case of the .cm domains. All generic names are legal to use. For example the word “work” was around before the internet. So you can own work.com, work.de, work.cm, and you can not trademark or copyright the word “work” itself, on the word “work.com” if you own that extension.
So in short 99% of the people buying the .CM’s at the moment are buying generic names like work.cm, hotels.cm. Perfectly legal and ligit.
Ok, I have got a blog. it is http://www.problogger.in. Ar you saying I am Cyber-Squatting. Because there is an Aussie Problogger already.
But he Registered Problogger.net and then approached the owner of problogger.com.? was he Cyber-Squatting too?
Please Explain. I have been trying to Contact him about it, if he allows me to use the Domain Name as its Problogger.In
Any help Would Be great for me to continue the work on that blog.
if problogger has tradmarked the word problogger then yes you are a cyber squatter and he can sue you (technically).
@Asif:
For your website to be sued in the Court of Law, one has to fulfill few conditions where the important conditions are:
1) The website you have registered was already a Registered Trademark before buying the domain name.
2) The domain name is similar or confusingly similar to the trademarked name, and
3) The domain name is being used in bad-faith.
If these 3 conditions are being fulfilled, then you might be liable in the court of law. Additionally, as it is having a .IN extension, the owner might be able to sue you, if and only if its’ a case of cybersquatting, in the court of law under INDRP (i.e., Indian Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy).
Now you are the better judge to check whether your domain name fulfills all the above conditions or not. Good Luck!
@Author of the Article:
Nicely written but still the topic missed the major part that how one will know whether its’ a case of cybersquatting or not.
Master of Earth