By Malcolm Maclachlan,
In the wake of the mass killings at a Colorado high school, some Internet users have sought to snap up domains and keywords related to the event to keep them from being used in inappropriate ways.
But they weren't fast enough to stop one domain name speculator seeking to make money off of the tragedy.
On Tuesday, students Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold murdered 12 classmates and a teacher at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., before shooting themselves. Before the day was over, people were registering domain names related to the Trenchcoat Mafia, the outcast clique at the school of which the suspects were members.
An ISP in New Hampshire called Redhorn grabbed the domain trenchcoatmafia.com. By Wednesday morning, it had posted a statement on the site.
"We have registered the domains trenchcoatmafia.com and thetrenchcoatmafia.com to beat anyone who would want to use them for profit or immoral reasons," the statement read in part. "I knew there would be some bad people who would try to get this domain."
Beating the ISP to the punch was Jose Troche, a domain name speculator in Norton, Mass. Troche registered Trenchcoatmafia.net and Trenchcoatmafia.org on the day of the killings and is apparently trying to sell the domains to the highest bidder.
In his Network Solutions contact listing, he wrote, "Troche, Jose domain name for sale." Troche claimed in published reports he was seeking to discourage domain name speculators. He also said that the reason his contact information read "domain name for sale" was because he had previously registered another domain that way.
However, a spokeswoman for domain registrar Network Solutions, said "that is not possible." NSI spokeswoman Cheryl Regan said "There is no default. That information has to be keyed in per registration."
Furthermore, the domain Troche.com -- identified as the reason for listing the newly registered names as for sale -- does not carry the "for sale" designation in the contact information, according to NSI website.
Regan also said NSI discourages speculation. "But basically, the only way we can go after people is for nonpayment."
Earlier this month, the company did just that, purging the rights to 18,000 domains held by speculators and "cybersquatters" over nonpayment. But until Troche lapses on payments, Network Solutions can't take the domains from him or prevent him from selling them, Regan said.
They can't even take the .org address from him. There is a common misperception that only nonprofit groups can register a .org address, Regan said.
One Internet entrepreneur has taken a hit in the pocketbook because of all the attention. CyberTrenchcoat, an adult site that resides at a similar URL to those associated with the killings, has temporarily shut down operations because of all the traffic it was getting.
A statement on the site said it has nothing to do with the Trenchcoat Mafia and it shut down so parents and children concerned about the tragedy would not inadvertently view adult material. It also featured links to numerous filtering-software companies.
While Network Solutions cannot make judgment calls on who should own a domain, the same is not true for Centraal's RealNames system. Within 24 hours of the shootings, it had shut down one registered version of the keyword.
It allowed another company to keep an altered version of the keyword to post a memorial site. ZipNow, a Web hosting company, registered the RealName Trench Coat Mafia Memorial.
Drew Park, a programmer with ZipNow, said it had similar motivations as RedHorn -- keeping the keyword out of the hands of speculators.
"We have no direct monetary gain from it," Park said. "Hopefully, people will realize it is heartfelt."
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