Damien Hirst called, he wants his domain name back

Artist Damien Hirst is in dispute with another artist over an internet address that bears his name.

The disputed domain, www.damien-hirst.co.uk, is currently registered by Simon Phillips, who calls himself an internet artist.

Hirst has threatened legal action if UK registration body Nominet doesn't order Phillips to return the domain to him.

Hirst claims that the site could be confused with his own official site which will be launching shortly. Nominet has given Phillips three weeks to respond to Hirst's complaint.

Phillips has vowed to submit a strong defence and defend his rights to the domain name.

Jonathan Robinson, chief operating officer at domain registrar NetNames, said: "Celebrities must wake up and realise that they are just as susceptible to attack from cybersquatters as are big corporations."

"The internet is fertile ground for domain name speculators and too many high profile individuals are still leaving themselves wide open to attack.

"By being proactive and registering and retaining control of website addresses bearing their names, famous faces such as Damien Hirst could easily avert ugly situations like this."

Disgraced Tory peer Jeffrey Archer recently won a cyber-squatting case over the www.jeffreyarcher.com domain name.