Last February, MySpace popped the champagne corks. It could go ahead and use the MySpace.co.uk domain name - after securing it in a decision by Nominet’s dispute resolution service - from a small UK ISP which had registered the .co.uk in 1997, two years before MySpace.com launched. Total Web Solutions (TWS), a company in Stockport, near Manchester, had started off using the domain for hosting sites. Then recently the domain started serving ads to social networks, a questionable move. But a Nominet appeals panel has today handed the domain back the tiny ISP. What happened?
Myspace.co.uk was originally used to offer email services and websites to subscribers, so TWS had insulated itself from an action for some time. But MySpace’s main argument to Nominet centred on the most recent use of the domain, which sent MySpace.co.uk visitors to a parked page with advertisements for social networking websites including MySpace. MySpace Inc says the practice started in July 2005 when News Corp took it over, boosting its fame, but TWS claims it was “at least” before June 2005.
Secondly, at issue was when and how the .co.uk domain had become “abusive” to MySpace.com. TWS did admit that the ads changed to “reflect the fame of MySpace.com… but that had happened automatically as a result of the algorithms used by parking company Sedo.” MySpace Inc. argued that TWS should have controlled the ads. TWS said this did not constitute a “change of use” of the domain. The Nominet appeals panel said they were “reluctant to place any duty on a registrant, who has merely had the good fortune (or maybe ill fortune) to register a name in good faith…” so long as they don’t exploit the situation. It found that TWS had not changed the use of the domain and handed it back.
MySpace can go no further with the Nominet DRS arbitration process in the UK, so it’s the end of the line unless it intends to pursue an action through the courts. A MySpace Inc. spokesperson has declined to comment.
Of course, the MySpace.co.uk domain is now effectively worthless since TWS would no doubt be unwise to do anything with it now. It is currently displaying a blank page. MySpace continues to use uk.myspace.com/.
[There's some more detail on this story on TechCrunch UK]
Kind of lame of MySpace in my opinion. That had the domain years before, so let it be.
Bebo and Facebook are the dominant social networks in the UK. MySpace is largely a US phenomenon.
http://www.myspace.com/uk goes to a profile of someone
That’s not what domain kiting is about.
I don’t know what to call what TWS is doing, but it’s obviously acting in bad faith when ads about MySpace appeared, and the domain is not being used for anything else.
Kiting is the practice of registrars taking advantage of the 5 days add grace period (AGP) that registries provide to delete a name without having to pay for it, and immediately re-registering it.
Can’t myspace use a geoservice to show the uk version of the site if its viewed by a UK ip?
The problem here was that the domain was in continuous use by TWS and its customers for 6 years prior to myspace.com being created and the time it was effectively stolen by Murdock and crew with the assistance of Antony Gold, one of Nominet’s so-called expert panelists who tried to rewrite the rules and claim that email was not a legitimate use of a domain name.
Was the domain name registered in bad faith? In order for that to have happened, TWS would have had to have known about myspace in the US 6 years before they came into existence. Unless TWS has a time machine, that just didn’t happen, and is very easily proven.
Was TWS in the wrong for “allowing” SEDO to display MySpace.com-related ads on their page? That’s the grey area. In my opinion the answer is no. After all, it was TWS’s name before it was Murdock’s. The FACT is that Murdock and crew are the usurpers here, not TWS. MySpace.com chose to use a name almost identical to myspace.co.uk to offer services which were similar to those already being offered by TWS on the domain, or had been in the past.
I am very glad to see this BAD ruling reversed. It almost restores my faith in Nominet.
TWS could have sold the fortune to MySpace, if it did not do that stupid thing.
Why can’t they sell it now? Everyone would be happier doing that than what’s happening currently.
I think myspace should buy that domain name.
I think that this is all a load of crap. Just leave it alone and everyone will be happy.
That’s what i think.
noooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!