Would The Real Morris Iemma Please Stand Up?
Morris Iemma, the Premier of New South Wales (Australia) and leader of the state's Labor Party, has fallen victim to the competing Liberal Party, which registered MorrisIemma.com and recently launched an aggressive pre-election video on the domain.
Mr. Iemma's actual website is located at MorrisIemma.com.au. It is not known why the politician had failed to register the .com version of his own name when it was still possible to do so.
Andrew Bartlett, a Senator from Queenland (Australia) asks on his blog:
This sort of ambush marketing is something that both major parties and their supporters do from time to time and I suppose one could see it as all part and parcel of electoral contests. However, it does strike me as a bit below the belt. There are plenty of chances to validly attack your opponents without having to rely on cybersquatting. What do readers think? Is it an unfair tactic or a fairly harmless attempt to find another way to get a campaign message out?
The Daily Domainer thinks it's not a wise thing to do as it leaves the Liberal Party open to cybersquatting accusations. Mr. Iemma's actual website seems cheesy enough and probably does an excellent job of repelling potential voters all by itself.
The politician does stand a very good chance of gaining control of the domain name under ICANN's UDRP rules, should he choose to go down that route. The rules require a complainant to prove the following three elements:
- The disputed domain name is identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the complainant has rights. (As Premier of New South Wales, notorious or not, it can hardly be disputed that Iemma owns the right to his own name.)
- The respondent has no right or legitimate interest in respect of the disputed domain name. (The Liberal Party is actually his competitor and is attacking him.)
- The disputed domain name was registered and is being used in bad faith. (Obviously, that's the case here. The domain is used to disparage Iemma - see Google Cache here and current version here.)
This episode will certainly teach an important lesson to all politicians and, in fact, to everyone in the public eye. It has become pretty much essential to register your own name in all available domain extensions to prevent such an incident from happening to you.
I checked out both sites and think that his own site actually does more damage than the impostor's. He tries really hard to keep a straight face! Do Australians actually fall for these sleazeball politicians?
Why didn't he register the .com domain himself?
As you say he can probably get the domain back through UDRP arbitration. But such an action might actually hurt his image even further as it could be ridiculed by the opposition. (Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on Australian politics)
[...] eye, should preemtively register their own domain name. Melinda Kantner and Australian politician Morris Iemma are just some of the individuals who had to learn this lesson the hard way. Related [...]