Canvey man stripped of Olympic website names (From Echo)
Get involved: send your pictures, video, news and views by texting ECHONEWS to 80360, or email us »
Canvey man stripped of Olympic website names
2:30pm Wednesday 28th April 2010 in News
A CANVEY man who registered an array of website names in a bid to “cash in” on the London 2012 Olympics has been ordered to hand them over to Olympic bosses.
David Tiley, 49, of Station Road, registered 12 almost identical internet domain names such as 2012londonolympictickets.co.uk in the days after it was announced the capital would be hosting the games, back in 2005.
The London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games decided to complain to Nominet – the organisation that deals with disputes involving the use of internet domain names.
Valuable web addresses can sell for thousands of pounds, but Nominet expert Anna Carboni ordered Mr Tiley to hand over all 12 for nothing.
Giving her judgment she said: “In view of the timing of the original registrations, immediately following the high-profile public announcement of the successful bid to host the 2012 Olympic Games in London, it is highly likely that the respondent registered the domain names with a view to cashing in on the event.”
Most of the names lead to blank websites, but two take the user to websites offering tickets for sale to West End shows and strip clubs.
Both feature the word Olympic spelt incorrectly and had a link to a site which claims to offer 2012 London summer games tickets.
Ms Carboni said Mr Tiley was undoubtedly aware of the value of the domain names and the strict controls that would be put in place on who could sell tickets. He could also have made money from advertising in the meantime.
She said: “I find the complainant has rights in respect of names and marks, which are similar to each of the domain names and that the domain names, in the hands of the respondent, are all abusive registrations.”
She ordered Mr Tiley to transfer all the registrations to the organising committee for the games.
Comments(12)
southendcritic
says...
7:17pm Wed 28 Apr 10
ripping him off!
he should appeal !!
vangebasildon
says...
7:21pm Wed 28 Apr 10
.
Buying/reserving domain names and selling them on to interested parties has been around for as long as the internet has.
Miss D Meaner
says...
7:55pm Wed 28 Apr 10
ukman
says...
9:14pm Wed 28 Apr 10
152
says...
9:48pm Wed 28 Apr 10
Says the person who sold Arriva Arrivabus.co.uk
perini
says...
10:52pm Wed 28 Apr 10
maddriver
says...
11:53pm Wed 28 Apr 10
Look at the number of sites that have official sounding names ripping off people for the World Cup. The person in question will simply sell the sites to the highest bidder and that leaves people open to all kinds of fraud.
People who are interested in the Olympics will soon complain if they are ripped off by a dodgy site which has been sold in this way.
As for the copyright of the Olympics - whether you agree or not those who hold such copyright are legally entitled to protect their integrity
Nebs
says...
8:56am Thu 29 Apr 10
.
£303,000,000. That is what they are paying (unless it has gone up again) to build the 2012 swimming pool.
.
Original planned cost of the Olympics was a tad over £2,000,000,000. Actual cost will now be in excess of £12,000,000,000.
.
I'm looking forward to attending the Olympics, but whoever was in charge of preparing the budgets (I use the word "was" as I can't believe they will still be in post after a mistake this big) needs to be sent back to school. Still, it's not their own money so I doubt if they are bothered.
vangebasildon
says...
9:07am Thu 29 Apr 10
This is earth calling
says...
2:24pm Thu 29 Apr 10
What about all the businesses that had either 'millennium' or '2000' in their names 10 years ago? They were just picking up on something that was all the buzz at the time.
maddriver
says...
5:02pm Fri 30 Apr 10
This is earth calling wrote:No-one is suggesting the man in question was trying to doing anything wrong personally. The point is he registered the sites, presumably with the intention of selling to the highest bidder.
This seems a bit daft. I can't see that he was actually trying to sell any dodgy tickets, just using the name. What about all the businesses that had either 'millennium' or '2000' in their names 10 years ago? They were just picking up on something that was all the buzz at the time.
Anyone who bought the sites could then misuse them.
Island Mac says...
6:54pm Wed 28 Apr 10
Nice.