Porn purveyor hijacks newspaper domain

Johannesburg, 10 Jun 2004

South Africa`s newest daily newspaper, ThisDay, is in the midst of a domain name battle with a UK resident who is using it to offer escort services.

According to a recent report in the Mail & Guardian`s online edition, UK-based Donald Waldron registered the domain name www.thisday.co.za, offering to return it to the paper if it either paid him money or gave him R400 000 in advertising space.

He is using the Web site to offer South African escort services and other explicit content, which ThisDay claims is impugning its reputation, so it is going ahead with legal action to reclaim the domain name. In the meantime, ThisDay`s news is published online at www.thisdaysa.co.za.

According to Calvin Browne, a director at UniForum SA, which is the administrator for the .co.za domain, the organisation simply provides the infrastructure for registering domains.

"In much the same way as Telkom provides the infrastructure for people to make telephone calls, but is not involved in the actual business of making the call, we provide the infrastructure for other people to register domain names," says Browne.

"Legally, we can`t do anything about the situation until legal papers are served, although we are expecting these to be served in this particular case fairly soon."

He says that once there is a legal case under way, UniForum will likely suspend the ability for updates or deletes on the disputed domain, but that it cannot do anything else until the court has made its decision.

"Legal council should also remember to seek a court order for the transfer of the domain name, rather than seeking its deregistration, as if it is deregistered it becomes available to whoever chooses to register it first," he says.

"Of course, if they are not the first to register the name, they will then have to start all over again with their legal actions. This is why it is imperative that their lawyers request the domain to be transferred to them."

While the earlier report suggested Waldron claimed that since he holds the domain name, ThisDay was welcome to come and fight him for it in the UK, Browne suggests this will not be the case.

"The co.za domain is South African, therefore a local court would have jurisdiction in this matter, meaning that he would have to fight the case in this country," says Browne.

"Of course, if he chose not to fight the case out here, we would then in all likelihood deregister the disputed domain."