Aussie denies cybersquatting in World Cup domain seizure - News - Business

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This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
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Aussie denies cybersquatting in World Cup domain seizure

By James Pearce, ZDNet Australia
June 20, 2002
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/business/soa/Aussie-denies-cybersquatting-in-World-Cup-domain-seizure/0,139023166,120266112,00.htm

Queensland entrepreneur Anthony Dever recently noticed the worldcup.com.au domain name was up for grabs, and seized the opportunity.

After registering the business worldcup.com.au through the Queensland Government Office of Fair Trading, he established a site with some affiliate links and placed it for auction on eBay. The official seller is Hosting Buzz, a Web-hosting company founded by Dever in March this year.

-I just noticed it was available to be registered, and thought it would be a good investment,' Dever told ZDNet Australia. He expects to get between one and two thousand Australian dollars, and said he has received a lot of interest from the UK. Currently the auction stands at AU$560, with four days left.

Although some people see this activity as approaching cyber-squatting, Dever does not take this view. -I feel the fact that no-one had registered the name and no-one has the direct right to the name mean its up for grabs," said Dever, adding that there are 15 organisations in Australia that include -worldcup" in their name.

In the seven days the site has been up it has received over 6,000 unique visitors, despite a complete absence of advertising. According to Dever, this indicates the power of an intuitive name that people type into the URL.

He expects traffic to go down after the FIFA Soccer World Cup is over, but points out that with Australia hosting the Rugby Union World Cup in 2003 the site will continue to have relevance.