Nominet celebrates copyright case victory

Nominet, the registry for .uk internet domain names, has won its court battle in Australia over copyright infringement and breaches of Australian fair trade laws by two businessmen.

The domain name registry began the case after it discovered that data mining had been used to harvest its database of .uk domain name holders. This captured the details of many .uk domain name holders and resulted in 50,000 registrants receiving misleading notices from 'UK Internet Registry' regarding their domain name registrations.

The case was against Chesley Rafferty, Bradley Norrish and three companies they ran: Australian-based Diverse Internet Pty and Internet Payments Pty, and Seychelles-based UK Internet.

Prior to the hearing, however, four of the five respondents made admissions to the effect that Chesley Rafferty, Diverse Internet Pty and Internet Payments Pty had infringed Nominet's copyright in the .uk register and the WHOIS database, and that Chesley Rafferty and UK Internet Registry Ltd had engaged in misleading and deceptive conduct in sending 50,000 notices to .uk registrants.

Following these admissions, the trial proceeded against Mr Norrish alone.

Presiding over the case, Justice French found that Mr Norrish had authorised copyright infringement and was involved in misleading or deceptive conduct. "It lies beyond the limits of credulity to suppose that Mr Norrish ... had no idea of [what was going on]," he said.

He described the notices sent by UK Internet Registry as "nothing less than deceitful".

Nominet said the court decision confirmed and enforced its copyright in the .uk register and WHOIS database.

"The existence of these rights allows Nominet to prevent information on its databases being inappropriately used by third parties and reinforces Nominet's authority to impose terms and conditions on the use of the data it holds," the domain name registry said in a statement.

Nominet's solicitor, Emily Taylor, told vnunet.com: "This result is good news for us, the internet industry, registries around the world and domain name holders. It reinforces our copyright and shows we will pursue people who infringe our rights."

vnunet.com could not contact Rafferty or Norrish for comment at the time this article went to press.