town domain names

kavav

I know this subject isn't usual for IoffL.

The company celtic.com - an irish products shop site - has registered the .net .org and .com domain names of hundereds of towns villages and places all over ireland. Is this legal?

Here are some of the names you can see them all by trying to register for email at Celtic.com:


abbeyleix.net adare.net adrigole.com ardagh.net
ardee.net arklow.net askeaton.net athenry.com
athlone.net athy.com bailieboro.com balbriggan.com
ballinasloe.net ballinrobe.net ballinspittle.com ballybofey.com
ballybunion.net ballydehob.com ballyfermot.com ballyferriter.com
ballyhaunis.net ballymun.com ballyporeen.com

spongebob

perfectly legal

most gone except the .org 's

M

BigEejit

Its true that they have registered most of the townland domain names but if they dont sell any of them for exhorbitant sums then very soon they will run out of cash and all the domain names will be available again....:D

rymus

I emailed this complete shower of bastards some years ago as I was developing a non-profit website and wished to use one of the domains they have in their ample collection. Granted that I couldnt afford to pay them much for the use of the domain, I thought they would offer me a sub-domain or something loaded with advertising. The reply I got from them went something like this.

"Dear Sir,

Thank you for your email. However we would not consider allowing third party use of our domain and would not consider selling the domain to offers of less than $500,000.

Sincerely,

Some Yank"


I felt like vomiting in disgust. I hope whoever is married to this person turns out to be a transexual! Celtic.com can ride me sideways

byte

Well they haven't reged my town yet!

Repli

they also regged www.blanchardstown.com ...

jmcc

Yep I am very familiar with this company. The main guy is Irish or of Irish extraction. He was at one of the internet shows in Dublin a few years ago trying to flog e-mail accounts. It had also become apparent that they had registered sinnfein.com and they guy was rather jumpy every time someone dressed in black came to talk him. (Unfortunate given that this is the working uniform colour of most Sysdamins/techies/BOFHs)

Apart from Nua and Mayo-Ireland's land grab of the late nineties, this company has the greatest concentration of Irish related domain names (towns/cities/villages/expressions).

Regards...jmcc

124124

I am not sure about Ireland, but most of the countries have introduced cyber laws declaring 'domain name napping' or 'domain name squatting' illegal.

I am not sure about the town-name, but Sinn Fein, for sure can challenge the present owner and get it back.

There was a time when Internet was uncivilised and any one could register say www.bbc.com, but now this is impossible because BBC actually holds the rights of that domain even if they haven't claimed yet.

I could be wrong now, feel free to correct me here.

Cheers.

124124

I remember, in 1996 or 1997, www.bbc.com was not owned by actual BBC.

The then owners of bbc.com had a declaration on the first page reading 'if you are looking for BBC, the news site, please visit www.bbc.co.uk. - or something to that effect.

But as of today, www.bbc.com is actually owned by BBC itself.

spongebob

Originally posted by 124124
but Sinn Fein, for sure can challenge the present owner and get it back.

Would that be Continuity Sinn Féin, Provisional Sinn Féin or Sinn Féin the Workers Party, the elected rump of which is now Headed by Pat Rabbitte since last week.

Should they maybe 'powershare' the domain or else have it come into each of their parties website on a pseudo random round robin basis ?

One wonders, one should probably wonder further in the Webmaster forum

M

Bard

Sad to see my own home town's .com (donabate.com) is owned by a domain hoarding company and on offer for a "measly" $20,000.

... and yeah, - this is more of a Webmaster forum issue, surely...

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Its not illegal but is reprehensible especially if somebody has a very legitimate use for the site in question as oppossed to hoarding it for auction purposes.

of course you always have the option of registering a .ie if you are an organistion or group with a valid claim in the eyes of the IEDR- but then again they are like palm trees in their decisions.

ando

im sure you could take them to court and take back the domain name if you had a reason to use it and the court felt that you had more of a right to own it. Maybe I'm just thinking IE domain names, but I always taught since a new law came in that you would certainly lose the domain name if you had no real reason to keep it (ie, use it).... it reminds me of eircom taking up wireless licences

Victor

Most .ie place names are likely to end up being owned by town / borough / city / county councils and presumably with use by community groups e.g. http://www.dublin.ie/dublin_portal.asp

Originally posted by 80project
of course you always have the option of registering a .ie if you are an organistion or group with a valid claim in the eyes of the IEDR- but then again they are like palm trees in their decisions.

Da wa?

steve-hosting36

IEDR will only register place and town names to councils / corporations / state bodies.

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Victor,
I was referring to "Palm Tree justice"

go look it up

Paddy20

Nothing surprises me anymore. It seems the forces of Evil are winning hands down in Ireland at the moment?

But he who laughs last laughs the loudest, and it will not be that shower of s****.

I note that they have even registered my hometown of Ballybofey as ballybofey.com, maybe some org "mentioning no names ? "should legally challenge the slobs!.

They had better not show their ugly mugs or morals in my Town as Name and Shame is one of my fav acts of revenge, works a treat in this neck of the woods?

paddy20:mad:

jmcc

Originally posted by ando
Maybe I'm just thinking IE domain names, but I always taught since a new law came in that you would certainly lose the domain name if you had no real reason to keep it (ie, use it).... it reminds me of eircom taking up wireless licences

IEDR have never really enforced any kind of 'use it or lose it' policy. Basically looking at .ie at the moment, it is more like a dotbomb cemetry than a national domain space.

Regards...jmcc

Bard

Originally posted by steve-hosting36
IEDR will only register place and town names to councils / corporations / state bodies.

They're right to do that too, tbh...

although I don't think www.ennis.ie (the "Information Age town" site) quite qualifies,... does it? I could be wrong...

124124

www.castlebar.ie is quite a good site IMHO.

Oh yeah, they have more-than-justifiable amount of space set aside for photos (even though some captions are as silly as "Look at the dirt on the road" or "This stone was covered with snow last December" etc) generally its a very useful site with a decent viewer-base.

vinnyfitz

What has this thread got to do with IOFFL?

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Originally posted by 124124
www.castlebar.ie

Our web server is located in Castlebar, County Mayo in the West of Ireland. Why not host your site here too?

Is that likely...how do I find that out?


--
And yes this has nothing to do with IOFFL, whcih is why various peeps have *already* recommended it should be moved

steve-hosting36

http://visualroute.visualware.com/

b20uvkft6m5xwg

Cheers for that Steve-

Thats a cool little page alright- already had some fun checking various sites
Lightening fast as well!!

--
According to the info they do indeed host in Castlebar-
Just seemed a little odd-

Terminator

Originally posted by paddy20
Nothing surprises me anymore. It seems the forces of Evil are winning hands down in Ireland at the moment?

But he who laughs last laughs the loudest, and it will not be that shower of s****.

I note that they have even registered my hometown of Ballybofey as ballybofey.com, maybe some org "mentioning no names ? "should legally challenge the slobs!.

They had better not show their ugly mugs or morals in my Town as Name and Shame is one of my fav acts of revenge, works a treat in this neck of the woods?

paddy20:mad:

You don't half make me laugh sometimes (in a good way) you belong in a Discworld novel.

jmcc

Originally posted by 80project

According to the info they do indeed host in Castlebar-
Just seemed a little odd-

Yeah there are still some hosting companies who continue to defy the norm and host in Ireland. We hold the line against Eircom. Let's home Eircom's karma balances out soon.

Regards...jmcc