|
The practice of buying up domain
names carefully chosen to look like existing site names. Typosquatters
register slight variations of well-known names in the hope that users will
mistype the names of urls they are intending to visit and find
themselves redirected to another site, often one where they will become
victims of mousetrapping. Names like www-msn.com or aoll.com are used
to "steal" legitimate traffic from msn and aol, passing the
hapless and usually ignorant typist on to a series of sites, Usually
offering adult entertainment or gambling services. Typosquating can generate
revenue in several ways, principally by charging advertisers and clients on
a per-visitor basis or for advertisements on portal sires, which often
disappear in a blizzard of browser windows and are never seen by
visitors.
Despite many efforts to stop typosquatting, most companies
still have to rely on expensive litigation against its perpetrators to
prevent the use of the domain names they register. Some companies have done
a good job of obtaining these names for themselves, either legally or
presciently - yahoo.com and yahooo.com are both owned by yahoo, for
example - but less powerful organisations have found that it can be
extremely difficult to stop typosquatters unless trademark infringements are
involved. John Zuccarini registered dozens of names designed to mimic sites
belonging to Yahoo, Dow Jones, Encyclopedia Britannica and JoeCartoon.com
among others, earning up to $1m dollars in the process. He was eventually
stopped by the US courts, which relieved him of $1.9m in fines.
Typosquatting is rare in Europe but widespread in the United States, where
specific legislation called the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
has been introduced to prevent it. (See cybersquatting.) |
