Regarding the 999whateveruniversity URLs, I have had a quiet word with the
offenders, mentioning the possibility of having to deal with the legal
departments of the entire HE community, and they have stopped using the URLs.

Regards,
Alasdair
---------------------------------------------------------------
Alasdair McKee
Information Services Co-ordinator
Information Systems Services
Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YW
01524 593661
---------------------------------------------------------------


> Date:    Tue, 22 May 2001 14:06:32 +0100
> From:    "Emmott,Stephen" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: is all publicity good?
>
> Dear All,
>
> Following on from Maurice's e-mail (see below), I have sought legal advice
> via our IPR people. In summary (and this is my summary of legal advice and
> not legal advice in and of itself):
>
> * Challenging the name is is not guaranteed to be a fruitful exercise given
> that the domain name is unlikely to be confused with the real domain name of
> the institution.
>
> * A collective action may be more appropriate given that the initiative is
> targeted at a group and that this may well target 'an absence of good faith'
> with respect to the company in question.
>
> * Any victory with respect to one name could quickly be undermined by use of
> another name e.g., 123london...
>
> * The real test concerns the use of this domain name and the content
> accessible via it i.e., is the use detrimental to the institution concerned?
>
> * Consider a complaint to Nominet and possibly a written complaint to the
> company in question.
>
> In conclusion, risk assessment is key.
>
> Best wishes,
>
>         Stephen Emmott
>         Manager, Website Services
>
>
>
>
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: Maurice Crockard [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> > Sent: 17 May 2001 10:38
> > To: [log in to unmask]
> > Subject: is all publicity good?
> >
> >
> > You may already be aware of a raft of sites with URLs along
> > the lines of
> > http://www.999angliapolytechnicuniversity.com/index.html
> > but a colleague has just alerted me to them.
> > We're all there and google searches are retrieving these
> > sites. I've asked our Company Secretary for his advice on
> > what steps to take, if any.
> > Any other views welcome.
> >
> > Kindest Regards
> > Maurice
> > ----------------------
> > Maurice Crockard  Tel: +44(0)1245 493131 x 4774
> > Web Manager & Information Strategy Co-ordinator
> > Strategic Information & Planning Unit
> > [log in to unmask]
> > "Living is easy with eyes closed, misunderstanding all you
> > see" (Lennon,J)
> >
>
> ------------------------------
>
> End of WEBSITE-INFO-MGT Digest - 18 May 2001 to 22 May 2001 (#2001-18)
> **********************************************************************