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Politicians Buying Deceptive Domain Names to Battle Opponents

by Amar Toor on September 15, 2010 at 02:05 PM

bobmenendez.com redirected to sharronangle.com
Considering how notoriously image-conscious they are, you'd think most high-level politicians would've secured their own online domain names a long time ago. A recent survey from the Coalition Against Domain Name Abuse (CADNA), however, finds that many lawmakers still aren't doing enough to protect their own names from online desecration.

As the New York Times reports, only about half of all U.S. senators and 40-percent of representatives own what the CADNA calls "FullName.com" domain names. Securing a uniquely identifiable ".org" domain seems even more elusive for today's lawmakers, as only 32-percent of senators and 22-percent of representatives own a FullName.org domain. More worrisome for Congressional candidates is the fact that some of their FullName domains have been bought and maintained by supporters of opposing parties. If you visit BradEllsworth.org, for example, you won't find much information on the Indiana Democrat. Instead, you'll be redirected to BadForIndiana.com, an anti-Ellsworth site maintained by the Indiana Republican party. Or BobMenendez.com, for the New Jersey Democrat, which has been snatched by Republican Sharron Angle to promote her campaign across the country to overcome Harry Reid for the senate seat in Nevada.

While some may use deceptive domain names to further a political cause, others buy them up simply to re-sell them to a politician for a handsome profit. Regardless of motive, though, the practice isn't entirely illegal. Technically, politicians could sue to obtain rights to their online namesakes, as Hillary Clinton did in 2005, but such suits aren't always as successful as Clinton's was. The easy solution for legislators, then, is to simply grab up their domains before anyone else does -- something most have failed to do. "Some political campaigns are more organized than others," says CADNA president Josh Bourne. "I've been amazed on how many congressmen don't have the same sense of brand as businesses have." Branding is one thing, but preventing a Brad-Ellsworth-style mishap is another.

Tags: cybersquatting, DomainNames, government, houseofrepresentatives, politicians, politics, Senate, top, web

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