IP: Olympic Battle Over Domain Name == ain't life fun -- djf

[David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 18:03:41 +1000
To: aim () apic net
From: Glenn Barry <gbarry () sydney net>
Subject: [AIM] AU: Olympic Battle Over Domain Name
Sender: owner-aim () apic net


Internet Domain Name Battle.
By Glenn Barry
gbarry () sydney net




The Australian  Sydney Organizing Committee For The Olympic Games
(SOCOG) has bought into the Internet domain names debate by threatening
a Sydney Australia ISP with a number of legal actions over the
domain name sydney2000.net


The domain name sydney2000.net was registered by the Asia Pacific
Internet Company (APIC) <http://www.apic.net> with INTERNIC in the
USA on November 1st 1995. In June 1996 the Australian Federal
Government passed the "Sydney 2000 Games Protection
Act 1996 - No 22 of 1996." The act under which SOCOG
propose to take action can be found at
http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/s2000gaipa1996378.txt


At 7.31pm on May 19th 1997 SOCOG served by fax a notice that it Intended
to sue APIC under the provisions of the Act as well as the Trade
Practices Act 1974 for "misleading or deceiving" and Common law for
"passing off". The letter demands that APIC comply with a series of
undertakings:-


1.  That APIC will, by itself and/or agents, immediately desist and
refrain from
(a)  offering for sale email and home pages at the domain name
"Sydney2000.net; and 
(b)   making any other commercial use of the domain name "Sydney2000.net
 
2.  That APIC will, by itself and/or its servants or agents, immediately
desist and refrain from:
(a)  offering for sale email addresses and home page addresses at any
other domain name in breach
     of the act, and
(b)  making any other commercial use of any domain name where such use
would be in breach of
      the act.


That APIC will, by itself and/or its servants or agents, by no later
than 30 May 1997 supply a statutory declaration which sets out the full
details of the sale of any email or home page addresses at the domain
name(s) reffered to at points one and two above, including details of
the person. Address, internet address and the amount such domain names
were sold for. - 


Not content with attempting to force the disclosure of confidential
information and the invasion of the privacy of the ISP’s
subscribers, SOCOG say they "expressly reserve (s) it’s position in
relation to damages and in respect of any other claims it may have".


The action raises an number of issues for the Internet community.
Including the question, can governments legislate to override top level
addresses issued by INTERNIC? Complicating the issue is the fact that
there are at least two other Sydney2000 addresses. Sydney2000.com is
owned by InterNex Information Services of New York and Sydney2000.org
owned by Network Wizards of New York. 


In the case of the latter two addresses they are beyond the reach of an
Australian Act of Parliament and the Act itself limits the jurisdiction
the Australian states and territories. In fact there is nothing to stop
hundreds of domain names featuring Sydney2000 by simply adding country
identifiers so that a Sydney2000.net.nz would also be beyond the scope
of the Australian legislation. The solution for the ISP it would seem
would be to sell the address to an offshore operator who would then
operate the addresses and web pages in another country.


It would seems the SOCOG people were happy with the address
http://www.sydney.olympic.org/ and made no attempt to use or reserve the
address Sydney2000. Now, a considerable time later they are attempting
to gain control of the address by heavy handed legal action.


Sydney 2000 has further meaning beyond the Olympics (The legislation in
fact will expire on December 31st in the year 2000) in that it is also
the post code (Zip Code) of the Sydney business district. This in itself
could represent a commercial value to an ISP far beyond the ephemeral
nature of the Olympics.


SOCOG has so far refrained from suing companies with street addresses
ending in Sydney 2000 and the Australian Postal Service for issuing
these addresses. 


Sydney2000 is a component of an Internet address on the world wide web.
Thus a Internet user subscribed to an Internet Service Provider with a
registered domain Sydney2000.net  could be identified at having the
email address JohnSmith () Sydney2000 net, the same person may have indeed
have a street address John Smith 10 George Street Sydney 2000. This
could be used as an email address as per this example 
JohnSmith () 10 GeorgeStreet Sydney2000 net, so the SOCOG organization seems
to believe that they could claim that this was a breach of the act
although it is the came information and words. 


An individual determined to have an email address related to the Sydney
Olympics would have a number of options all far beyond the reach of the
Australian legislation. For example a quick Web search for "Free Email
Address found  http://www.forevermail.com/ where for US$18 per year you
could have the address sue_-me () SydneyOlympics2000 org, a further search
finds the email service 


http://netscape.iname.com/iNAME/SignUp.iNAME where is a few seconds the
email address sydney2000 () innocent com was registered and this reassuring
message appeared


All email sent to sydney2000 () innocent com will be automatically
forwarded to your existing email address whether it is at home,
work, or school ... anywhere in the world. If you move or change
providers you can update your destination address online ... anytime.


Nor is it any trouble to set up an Olympics homepage beyond the reach of
Australian Legislation and you can even use the name of the Sydney
Organizing Committee as in http://www.suresite.com/cgi-bin/psp.SOCOG


The Internet business community should watch this one with interest. If
local laws in restraint of free trade and the accepted procedures of the
Net are so easily overturned then no business will be safe in
cyberspace.