Is it enterprising or flagrant infringement? …
                          You be the judge!

Recent news uncovered a hidden story that is causing a
lot of concern to many Australian artists who do not have
a web presence. It came to light that many of
these artists' names were used to register websites
bearing these names by some enterprising entity that
has no connection with them nor their authorisation.
While this is a fairly rife phenomenon overseas it has
not proliferated down under, until now, that is. That sort
of practice is commonly known as "Cyber Squatting" and
aims to resell these registered websites at a much higher
price to the original name owners to make a nice profit.

Almost 120 well known names were used in this incident
including some of the most illustrious in Australian art
history, spanning from early colonial days to now. These
websites are currently "parked", a term used to indicate
that they are reserved and can't be used by anyone else,
that will surely cause problems if an artist, whose name
has been included, wants to use his name to launch his /
her own website. There were many cases of this kind,
especially in the US, that went to court challenging these
flagrant infringements and have been subsequently won,
albeit at a high cost.

One primary reason for such brazen
and shameless attempts is the very rapid growth of the
Internet that has outstripped the adequacy of present
laws to deal with such matters. To remedy this situation
legislators need to step up the effort to devise new laws
directed specifically towards new technical developments
and the ways it impacts our rights and way of life.
Meanwhile, if you are an artist that wishes to protect your
name, and many rely on their name to sell their artwork,
I suggest that you must register a website bearing this
precious asset…please do it now!