Africa News Service

Africa News Service, Jan 19, 2001 p1008019u6373

South Africa Tourism Authority Fights For Internet Domain Name.

Johannesburg (Business Day, January 19, 2001)

Battle for control of an internet domain name has broken out between the South Africa Tourism authority and a Pretoria-based internet service provider.

The authority believes it should have the right to use the internet address southafricantourism.com, but the name has already been registered by Atlantic Internet Services, one of South Africa's largest private internet access providers.

Now the authority is considering taking legal action in a bid to win control, claiming that Atlantic has hijacked a site government should own.

Tourism opportunities for the country are being "held to ransom" by Atlantic, says Andrew McKenzie, MD of WildNet Africa, which provides internet services to the tourism authority.

McKenzie claims that Atlantic has consistently refused to relinquish the name to the tourism authority unless it is paid to do so.

"Atlantic has clearly stated that it regards the situation as an opportunity to make money, and has repeatedly asked for a reasonable offer' to be made to purchase the domain," he said.

"WildNet is pressing a charge of theft against Atlantic."

Atlantic MD Neil Fourie says he may hand over the address, but he is first taking legal advice from internet and trademark experts. He also questions whether WildNet is genuinely acting on behalf of the authority, or whether it hopes to win the website for itself.

"I am not cybersquatting. If I can help to promote tourism in SA I will, but I am not convinced that WildNet isn't trying to get hold of the name for itself," Fourie said. "I may give the name to the government for no financial gain, but I won't give it to a private company."

Yesterday a spokeswoman for SA Tourism could not confirm whether it had authorised WildNet to pursue the web address, or whether WildNet was acting on its own behalf.

"This is a sensitive issue and we cannot comment," she said.

Atlantic first registered southafricantourism.com in 1999 on behalf of an SA travel agent. Fourie said the travel agent later cancelled its subscription with Atlantic, leaving the web address behind. "We look at every domain name which is cancelled by a client and if it has any value we take ownership. Nobody else was interested so we kept it."

At the moment, the address links straight through to Atlantic's home page, which hosts websites for a number of SA companies. Atlantic might work with some of its clients to turn the disputed site into a fully fledged tourist resource, said Fourie.

Rather than chasing a name which was being used legitimately, government should register all other relevant names before cybersquatters move in, said Fourie.

Government is already embroiled in a battle for the domain names southafrica.com, which was registered by US-based company, Virtual Countries.

By Lesley Stones

News Provided by COMTEX (www.comtexnews.com)

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws