Occurrences of cybersquatting are growing, fuelled largely by the availability of inexpensive domain names says Janna Lam, managing director of Singapore-based IP Mirror, in an interview with ZDNet Asia.Cybersquatting in Asia is growing and catching up to levels in other parts of the world. “The main cause [for this growth] is the low prices of Internet domain names.”Lam says while cybersquatting is global, along with cheap domain names, it is fuelled by the popularity of the TLD – the more popular the TLD, the more cybersquatters want in on the action.Unfortunately Lam is quoted as saying perpetrators of cybersquatting have now earned a new moniker – “domainers”. While personally I don’t like domainers, I wouldn’t equate domainers with cybersquatters. Sure, some domainers are cybersquatters, and some cybersquatters are domainers. But one is not the other.Lam’s solution – monitor domain names says the article. “Unless [this] is done regularly, it does not really help to solve the problem,” adds Lam. And then “[The] only way to combat cybersquatting is to actively protect domains which the businesses think are important to their business.” These are predominantly associated with trademarks that the organization possesses, such as brand or product names.The full article is available from ZDNet Asia here.
Cheap domain names fuel cybersquatting
Occurrences of cybersquatting are growing, fuelled largely by the availability of inexpensive domain names says Janna Lam, managing director of Singapore-based IP Mirror, in an interview with ZDNet Asia. Cybersquatting in Asia is growing and catching up to levels in other parts of the world. “The main cause [for this growth] is the low prices of Internet domain names.”