The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has called for a "concerted global effort" to ban cybersquatting -- the bad faith registration and use of domain names.

The ACCC has aired its view in a submission to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), which is reviewing domain name issues.

"Cybersquatting can be a significant impediment to consumer confidence in the online world", ACCC commissioner responsible for e-commerce issues, Dr David Cousins, said.

"The Internet is no longer a fledgling medium that shows potential; it is now an established part of business and everyday life. Users have a reasonable expectation to participate in online commerce and other activities knowing that a particular domain name identifying the site they are visiting will take them where they expect to go, and present them with the content they expect to see," Cousins added.

Cybersquatters register a domain name in the hope that someone with a more legitimate claim to the name -- including businesses, well known people or simply ordinary users of the Internet -- will pay large amounts of money to reclaim the name.

Whereas earlier WIPO efforts tried to fix the problem after the event by focussing on dispute resolution, the ACCC's approach is "to prevent cybersquatting from occurring in the first instance", Cousins said.

The commission calls for those registering domain names to show a legitimate interest in these names.

It would also like to see additional generic and second-level domains created to better serve the needs of different types of users.

The ACCC also believes that domain name registrars should be required to keep accurate contact information on domain name holders to assist people to know who is operating a domain name.

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