2008"We posted the VeriSign Secured Seal on the payment pages and found that completed sales rose by approximately 10% in comparison to the previous weeks results"
Warren Jonas, Head of Service Management Opodo.
X-Factor's Leona hijacked by cybersquatters
7 December 2006
LeonaLewis.net up for auction on eBayX-Factor star Leona Lewis has been hit by the latest trappings of fame – celebrity cybersquatting. An eagle-eyed cybersquatter from Norfolk, going by the nickname of “pomeranianpuff", is trying to cash in on the singer’s new-found fame by putting the valuable leonalewis.net domain name up for auction on eBay, just as the talent show reaches its final stages.
Official records show that the cybersquatter swooped on Leona’s web address on 11 October, just as she was chosen for the last 10, in the final stages of the competition. With Leona the bookies’ favourite to win with odds as short as 1-5, the cybersquatter looks set to clean up. Leona’s MySpace web site has now been visited over 95,000 times, showing just how valuable her official web address could be.
Jonathan Robinson, Chief Operating Officer of NetNames which manages the domain name portfolios for a third of the FTSE 100 companies and celebrities comments, “You would have thought someone as business savvy as Simon Cowell would have had the foresight to protect Leona’s online profile. Celebrities’ names become their brands and failing to secure all the obvious domain names has left this budding star open to attack online. This mistake could come back to haunt Leona, just as it has fellow divas Celine Dion and Mariah Carey, ironically with whom she has already been compared."
Other cybersquatted pop stars include:
Robbie Williams, who found www.robbiewilliams.info linked to an Oasis fansite. In August 2002 the United Nations copyright agency ruled that cybersquatter Howard Taylor from Southamption had no legal right to the domain name and it was handed back to Robbie.
Sting also found himself stung by a cybersquatter and lost his right to sting.com. The star had to settle out of court, paying a huge amount for the domain, after a court ruling decided that the star had little right to the domain – Sting’s real name is Gordon Sumner.
Bruce Springsteen, Mariah Carey, Kevin Spacey and Celine Dion found their domain names registered by serial cybersquatter Jeff Burger who used the domain’s to link to his own www.celebrity1000.com. Kevin Spacey and ‘The Boss’ Bruce Springsteen both lost legal action for their domains www.brucespringsteen.com still points to an unofficial website.
About NetNames
NetNames is part of London listed Group NBT plc (LSE: NBT). Through its industry leading domain name management service, NetNames Platinum Service, the company is responsible for managing and protecting online brands for international corporates, including in excess of 30% of the FTSE 100. The company provides domain names, website hosting and email services for a range of customers – from the home user up to enterprise level. NetNames is an ICANN Accredited Registrar with the ability to register domain names in all available suffixes worldwide. The company is headquartered in London, with offices in New York, Nice, Frankfurt and Madrid. For further information, visit www.netnames.com.
For further information please contact:
Ivan Ristic, Hotwire, tel: 020 7608 4647
Email: ivan.ristic@hotwirepr.com
