The case dates back to January 2003, when Nominet discovered
that its WHOIS database – which lists domain names and their owners
– had been subjected to unauthorised data mining. The details of
registrants were 'scraped' from Nominet's database and 50,000
registrants received misleading notices from an outfit calling
itself “UK Internet Registry”.
The unsolicited notices resembled invoices and tried to sell
.com names to the holders of .uk names.
At the time, Nominet warned its registrants to disregard the
notices and began an investigation, which traced back to two
Australian suspects, Chesley Rafferty and Bradley Norrish, and
three of their companies – Diverse Internet Pty Ltd, Internet
Payments Pty Ltd and Seychelles-based UK Internet Registry Ltd.
Rafferty and Norrish, together with their three companies, were
found liable in September 2004 for copyright infringement and
breaches of Australian fair trade laws by copying data from
Nominet's WHOIS service, and issuing misleading domain name
registration notices.
Nominet has now been awarded damages for copyright infringement
of AUS$810,953, with additional damages of AUS$500,000 to reflect
the “flagrancy” of the breaches. This latter award is one of the
highest additional damages awards ever made by the Australian
Courts, according to Nominet.
The defendants are also liable for the costs of the
proceedings.
"We take protection of our intellectual property and copyright
ownership very seriously, both as the core of our business and in
protecting our .uk registrants from domain name scams,” said
Nominet’s CEO, Lesley Cowley.
“This judgment not only recognises the value of Nominet's domain
name register but also underlines the responsibility of legal
systems worldwide in tackling internet scams. By fighting, and
winning, this case we are very clearly showing that scamming is a
serious industry issue which will not be tolerated,” she added.
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