Actress Elizabeth Hurley has threatened to sue a domain name
registrar for allowing the registration of elizabethhurley.co.uk by
a person who registered the name and re-routed its traffic to a
site called cocainesex.com.
Following a written threat from Hurley’s Californian lawyers
that they would sue for $10 million unless the re-route was
disabled, Easyspace.com has capitulated to the demand. According to
a report in Newsbytes.com, the removal of the re-route to
cocainesex.com was done with the consent of the owners of
elizabethhurley.co.uk.
In a statement issued on Tuesday this week, the acting CEO of
Easyspace.com, Erik Young, said he was advised by Hurley’s lawyers
that his company was “party to the unauthorised registration of
elizabethhurley.co.uk.” Young’s statement says that the company has
in the past taken direct action to protect the reputation and
goodwill of celebrities, adding:
"There is a standard procedure our company
follows as an ICANN Registrar and that is what we have done. We
have never been involved in any way whatsoever in causing damage to
Elizabeth Hurley. To avoid anyone else using our company as a
vehicle to attempt anything like this again I have arranged the
registration of all and any available domains that can contain the
description ElizabethHurley. We have no interest in financial
reward and will be pleased to arrange for all names we have
registered today to protect the interests of Elizabeth Hurley to be
transferred at her convenience into her/her agent's
possession."
