The Hindu Business Line : .in domain latest victim of cybersquatting

THE domain name rbi.in belongs to registrant Caliberplus Inc in the US, while nse.in has been registered by one Nadir Sen Emarad, also in the US. Even indian.in has not been spared!

A search on the .in domain name registry site (www.registry.in) reveals that the indian.in domain has been registered by Junlong Zheng in China. Has the domain-grabbing menace finally hit the .in domain name registration programme, India's ambitious initiative to strengthen its identity in Internet space?

Sample this. Key domains like rupee.in and bse.in have been registered by registrants in the US and Switzerland respectively.

A casual search for bjp.in identifies the domain's registrant organisation as Squinty's Republic and the registrant country as Canada, while hanuman.in has been registered in Germany by Markus Wild.

However, the National Internet Exchange of India (NIXI) - the designated registry for .in domain names - is quick to defend its registration process.

Mr Amitabh Singhal, Acting CEO of NIXI, said: "All domain names, except those which have been reserved for use by the Government, constitutional bodies and the registry, are open for registration on a first-come-first-served basis. This is a standard global practice."

Stating that it becomes difficult to establish identities in cyberspace, Mr Singhal said that the registry cannot get into the business of verifying applications.

"It is not as if disputes will not arise on names in due course, but they will have to be addressed by a dispute resolution body which will include a set of arbitrators. NIXI, along with the Government, is in the process of putting in place a mechanism for dispute resolution and a policy on universal dispute resolution is being finalised."

"Also, NIXI will take a serious view of instances of cyber-squatting."

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