In the new economy, the question 'What's in a name?', has taken on a new meaning. The answer can be millions of dollars, thanks to the inflammatory and, some would say, unethical practice of cyber-squatting, alias cyber-piracy.
Either way, it means buying or distorting a prestigious Web site domain name.
The target is usually a celebrity such as Madonna or a big company such as Liverpool Football Club. In a spirit of extortion, the cyber-squatter may tell the target that if they want their name they will have to pay some ridiculous sum which may look tempting if the cyber-squatter posts embarrassing pictures on the site.
The cyber-squatter who baulks at trying to extract money may just quietly enjoy the buzz of owning a slice of a powerful entity's identity and bragging to those without a Web site. Either way, in the mind of the victim, the cyber-squatter is just a technological terrorist who deserves to be dumped in a dungeon. The most notorious is John Zuccarini.
If you are a touch maladroit on the keyboard you may already have unwittingly brushed with this mysterious figure. He is responsible for thousands of dubious domains deliberately spelt wrongly and easily reached through a slip of the finger as you type an address.
Mr Zuccarini reportedly earns as much as US$1 million annually through his devious dyslexia. In a variation on the extortion ploy, he charged advertisers between 10 US cents and 25 US cents each time an Internet user clicked on one of their advertisements posted on his site. As a result, every microsecond, someone launches a law suit against the maverick who, ironically, portrays himself as homeless, thus hampering attempts to bring him to justice.
However, earlier this year a United States court ordered him to stop cyber-squatting and hand over more than US$1.8 million in ill-gotten gains.