BUSINESSBeware of "cybersquatters" stealing domain namesA family physician in North Carolina loses control of his Web site to a company hawking sexual devices and women's lingerie.By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Nov. 18, 2002. Greg Gibbons, MD, was jarred when he looked at his Web site in September and found that it not only looked radically different but also included unauthorized links to pornographic sites selling "sex toys" and female lingerie. Even worse, the Cary, N.C., family physician was powerless to do anything to fix the problems because London-based A1 Web Services acquired ownership of his Internet domain name -- gibbonsfamilymedicine.com -- after he inadvertently failed to renew his right to it. Consequently, A1 Web Services controls the site Dr. Gibbons and his wife, Elizabeth, also a family physician, put up two years ago for their practice.
"When you put 'gibbons family medicine' [on Internet search engines], you still get my information, but they have complete control over it," a frustrated Dr. Gibbons said. "They can put links to child pornography if they wanted to. They can do anything they want. It's not illegal, and there's nothing I can do about it." Dr. Gibbons was a victim of a practice known as "cybersquatting," in which others register domain names of existing businesses that failed to claim or renew rights to them. The objective usually is to resell the name at a big profit, but A1 Web Services has not attempted to sell it back to him. "If that was all they had done, it wouldn't be a big deal. I'd tell them to either jump in the lake, buy it back from them or whatever," he said. "At this point all they have done is put a couple of minor sex links and as much as I hate it, I can live with it. What worries me is that they can do whatever they want with it." The company has an unlisted telephone number and has not responded to several e-mails he has sent them. AMNews' efforts to contact the company were unsuccessful. The firm did not respond to a e-mail request for comment, and the phone number it provided to an Internet domain-name registrar was a private residence. Dr. Gibbons lost the rights to his domain name for two reasons. First, he was not aware the rights he held to his domain name had expired -- most rights are purchased usually at one- or two-year intervals -- because the company he registered the name with did not contact him about renewing it. Secondly, he mistakenly thought he had renewed the name when the company that hosts his site asked him to renew his account with them. He did, assuming that the hosting company also controlled the domain name. An attorney in North Carolina advised him that he could hire an attorney in London to try to resolve the problem. But Dr. Gibbons said he thought that would be too expensive. While he plans to contact authorities to find out what recourse might be available to him, Dr. Gibbons does not have high hopes, and he plans to put up a new site. To prevent what happened to him from happening to other physicians, he advises them to make sure they know when their domain name is scheduled to lapse. "Be sure you get your name for as long as possible and stay on top of your name," he said. "If you lose your hosting company, no problem. You can always get your site back up on the Internet; you can't get your name back." Some doctors may not have to be that vigilant, however. That's because some companies that offer free sites to physicians, including Medem, San Francisco, and Salu Inc., Portland, Ore., will do that work for doctors as part of their service to them. ADDITIONAL INFORMATION:Out of siteHere are some steps you can take to ensure your domain isn't victimized by cybersquatters:
Copyright 2002 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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