I came across a posting on SpyMac today about the itunes.co.uk domain. The title of the posting shows how little Apple fans understand about domain names. Many of the comments are about how Apple has been wronged and that Benjamin Cohen is a cybersquatter. Among the comments:
“The problem I have with this guy is that he claimed to never have heard of iTunes. So what? His ignorance of the fact that he was using a trademark does not make him free to continue to use it. “ – despite the fact that the trademark filing wasn’t public at the time of the registration? And that the service hadn’t even been launched in the USA when Cohen registered it?”
“Assuming he has no legitimate use for the domain name then I can’t see that he has a claim to it. “ – I don’t even need to mention what’s wrong with this statement!”
However, a number of posters understand the issues. Among the comments I agree with:
“I know it is hard to stay objective when it is cool Apple stuff we are talking about but this guy registered the site name before any UK iTunes was public knowledge. When Apple first released iTunes to the world as a free download, the domain http://www.itunes.co.uk was available. Apple just neglected to secure it, instead they only registered the .com domain.”
“Is it considered squatting to purchase a piece of land that you think may have a mall built next to it in 5 years? If so than there are a lot of property investors that are squatters. “
We’ll see what the UK’s High Court has to say in this matter. Personally, I think the arbitrator that decided in favor of Apple will get mud on his face.
omar says
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