While India and Pakistan have been fighting over Kashmir for decades, they seem to be apathetic when it comes to owning the domain name in cyberspace.
Kashmir.com is up for sale, which means anyone on the Internet can make an offer on sedo.com (the identity of the owner is protected) and buy this domain name.
All domain names -- Kashmir.com, Kashmir.net and Kashmir.org -- belong to third parties (popularly known as cybersquatters).
Even india.com and pakistan.com are owned by third parties, and the Indian Cyber Law and IT (Amendment) Act, 2000, are "completely silent" on issues arising from the abuse or misuse of domain names, according to Pavan Duggal, a cyber law expert and Supreme Court advocate.
A domain name serves as an address on the Internet, and dot com addresses are the most popular. Yet, governments across the world generally prefer to have the dot gov extensions with a second-level domain name like india.gov.in. Even unitedstates.com, for instance, is owned by one P Gordon.
However, some governments utilise the popularity of the dot com address to their benefit. Newzealand.com and africa.com are cases in point.
"If a domain name is being misused or abused, then there is surely a cause for concern. However, these sites can easily be tracked and the person taken to task if the situation demands. Besides, we can always resort to arbitration if we want to reclaim any of these domain names," said Vijay Mukhi, president of the Mumbai-based Foundation for Information Security and Technology.
Domain names serve the same function as a trademark and are entitled to equal protection as a trademark. Problems arise when a company wants to register its company name or well-known trademarks as a domain name on the Internet only to discover that the name has already been taken.
In 2001, Tata Sons, the holding company of India's largest industrial house, the Tata Group, won a case to evict a cybersquatter from 10 contested Internet domain names.
Tata Sons had filed a complaint at the World Intellectual Property Organisation against an Indian agency for registering 10 domain names, which included ratantata.com, tatapowerco.com, tatatimken.com and jrdtata.com.
The Geneva-based WIPO, a United Nations agency, protects trademarks and patents.
Politicians, celebrities and businessmen too have not been spared by cybersquatters. Take, for instance, the name soniagandhi.com. The domain name is owned by one Surya Nethi, who stays in the US. The site gets redirected to indiamagazine.com.
And if you type the address www.azimpremji.com, you get a message: "The ownership of the domain azimpremji.com is solely for ensuring the reputation of Azim Premji, this domain was acquired by KIPL.Net through an open auction initiated by a company based in Spain, in May 1997. The same can be transferred to Azim Premji or his legal team upon inquiry, thank you."
In the case of disputes, one has to approach the arbitration cell of WIPO as the Tata group did. For instance, Pfizer got viagraindia.com successfully transferred from one Bhuto Gohil, while Honda got hondaindia.com from Lokita Enterprises. Even Microsoft had to battle one Azra Khan to get back msnindia.com.
But arbitration does come at a cost. While registering domain names, notes Duggal, is easy since the cost is just between Rs 500 and Rs 5,000, an arbitration would cost anywhere between $1,500 (around Rs 60,000) for 1-5 domains and $4,000 (around Rs 1.6 lakh) for 6-10 domains. But protecting one's domain in cyberspace is surely worth the cost.
