Naughty domains snapped up

By CHRIS BARTON

All seven banned "Anglo-Saxon biological terms" released by the Internet Society early yesterday were registered as Internet domain names later in the day.

Someone also immediately put one of the offensive words in a website address which redirected surfers to Telecom's home page. John Lynch, of Masterton, who registered a 'c' word which pointed to the Telecom site, would not say why he wanted the ****.co.nz domain, but claimed he wasn't responsible for the prank.

"It's nothing to do with me. It's been taken care of," he told the Herald.

Wairarapa-based Internet provider Wisenet, which hosted the Web address, moved to remedy the situation - but not before the site also redirected users to the Land Transport Authority's Internet address. Because of the way the internet works, it takes some time for corrections to addresses to work their into the array of routers and servers that are its backbone.

Keith Davidson of Wisenet said he demanded the names be removed from his company's servers. One of two society councillors who voted against lifting the ban, he thinks he may have been targeted for this stance.

"I have asked the names be removed within 24 hours or I will remove them myself. I've already taken the redirects off," he said.

His company also publishes the daily newspaper Wairarapa Times-Age He refused to comment on whether the redirect from Wisenet servers to Telecom was caused by hackers or people within the company.

ISOCNZ chair Peter Dengate Thrush said while the society disapproved of what had happened, it wasn't caused by lifting the ban on offensive words.

He said someone using the internet in a misleading way - by pointing domain name servers to someone else's site - could happen regardless of whether the words were banned or not. But he acknowledged it could now occur in an a more offensive manner.

Mr Dengate Thrush said while registering domain names was the responsibility of the society, the hosting of them on web sites was outside its control.

He suggested the offended parties may have remedies under the Fair Trading Act or the indecency provisions of Crimes Act.

But he admits it's also unclear whether the pranksters have broken any law by their actions.

Neither Telecom nor the Land Transport Authority could be contacted last night.

Mr Dengate Thrush said while the seven banned words had now been registered there hadn't been a rush to register domains using the words in combination with others.

A domain registration costs $74 for the first year.