‘Squatters’ hijack Italy EU website

Date: 28/05/03

By Peter Chapman

SILVIO Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister, has been dealt a blow as he and his country gear up for taking over the presidency of the EU on 1 July.

It seems that the Italian presidency's showpiece website, detailing all the goings on at the heart of the Union, has had its intended site name hijacked by cybersquatters.

Italy planned to use a variant on the standard presidency website address, eu2003.it, based on the traditional formula used by predecessors Greece, Denmark, Belgium and Sweden. Unfortunately, Berlusconi's minions failed to secure the site name, which has already been snapped up by a company based in the Benelux region.

Instead of news and views about forthcoming EU meetings, websurfers logging onto eu2003.it are treated to a picture of Osama bin Laden, the fugitive leader of Arab terrorist network al-Qaeda.

Rome has declined to comment publicly on the affair.

However, in private, officials confirm that Berlusconi's publicity team has now set up an alternative address at http://www.ueItalia2003.it after failing to reach a deal with the owners of their first-choice site.

Cybersquatting is a common headache in the internet world, often resulting in legal cases brought by companies over alleged breaches of intellectual property rights.

The cybersquatters buy up the right to use a website that they have no direct link with in the hope of selling it at a profit.

"Clearly that is something that has to be combated," said Per Haugaard, a spokesman for Erkki Liikanen, the enterprise and information society commissioner.

He said the issue would be a priority as the EU bids to set up its own "top level internet domain name" by the end of the year. The top-level domain name is the last part of the website address - for example, .com.

Once the .eu domain name is available, companies or citizens will be able to register their own sites, ending with the .eu tag.

Haugaard said the Commission last week selected EURid, a non-profit making Swedish, Italian and Belgian consortium, to control the allocation of websites and email addresses using the .eu suffix.

The EU executive expects EURid to tackle issues such as cybersquatting as part of its remit.

The .eu deal will include a 'sunrise period' giving people a chance to jump the queue to register their own names or company names before others get a chance.

EURid must also register with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), the California-based body that has ultimate control over all internet domain names, Haugaard added.

Approval by ICANN is expected to be a formality.