Request from reader "Please put me in touch with --> RE: new type of spam (or is there a better name for it)?"

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

From: Ben Edelman [mailto:edelman () law harvard edu]
Sent: Wednesday, January 21, 2004 11:01 PM
To: 'dave () farber net'
Subject: RE: [IP] new type of spam (or is there a better name for it)?


Hi Dave,

Can you put me in touch with the author of the message below?

I'd like to write an article about this problem generally -- not necessarily
about his hijacked domain(s) specifically.  And I'll find hundreds or
thousands of domains with the same problem -- putting the wrongdoers in the
spotlight and perhaps applying additional pressure to encourage them to stop
this practice.

Recall (from coverage on IP) my prior work on the subject of expired domains
subsequently used for pornography:

  Domains Reregistered for Distribution of Unrelated Content:
  A Case Study of "Tina's Free Live Webcam"
  <http://cyber.law.harvard.edu/people/edelman/renewals>



Thanks,


Ben Edelman


-----Original Message-----
From: owner-ip () v2 listbox com [mailto:owner-ip () v2 listbox com] On Behalf Of
Dave Farber
Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 11:15 AM
To: ip () v2 listbox com
Subject: [IP] new type of spam (or is there a better name for it)?



Dear Prof. Farber,

If you choose to post this message, please remove my identifying info. All I
need at this time is extra visibility for the hijacked domain...

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

My professional organization (ZZZ) uses URLs like this: ZZZ2001.org,
ZZZ2002.org, etc. for our annual conferences. To avoid perpetual charges,
after each conference is over, we stop paying for the domain name.

It turns out that some opportunistic spammer has bought the domain names for
some of our recent conferences and has done something very nasty to them -
namely, preserve most of the text (including names of organizers, etc.) but
replace all hyperlinks with pointers to porn sites. It has been suggested to
go after them and claim copyright infringement, but any attempts to contact
them have been unsuccessful so far.

My sysadmins tell me that this sort of behavior is not uncommon on the Web
these days. My recommendation to our executive committee has been to stop
using such disposable domain names and instead use ZZZ.org/ZZZ2001, etc. as
conference URLs (using httpd aliases to point to the actual site).

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