The full results of the panel's findings are not yet published but it will be an interesting one.
I've probably personally visited facebook.com.au a few dozen times inadvertantly typing the .au on the end.
When I first did it, it appeared to be an established business doing something to do with phone numbers. Unfortunately the web archive doesn't have any records of this site (although one version of the site since then is shown here - http://web.archive.org/web/20070827143139/http://www.facebook.com.au/)
After a while a medium size advertising box appeared on the site which looked a little unusual and was unrelated to the content of the website.
Now, the site is unrecognisable and seems to be owned by another company. I'd suspect that the original owner (who was using it for legitimate use) recognised this massive surge in traffic & ended up selling it to someone.
But looks like the buyer has now been judged to have used it in bad faith.
I can't help but think the original owner could have done a lot better financially if they had just held on to the site & not given in to the temptation of putting ads on or selling to a 3rd party. Although who knows what they got when they did sell it...
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/06/12/facebook-wins-facebookcomau-domain-name/
I've probably personally visited facebook.com.au a few dozen times inadvertantly typing the .au on the end.
When I first did it, it appeared to be an established business doing something to do with phone numbers. Unfortunately the web archive doesn't have any records of this site (although one version of the site since then is shown here - http://web.archive.org/web/20070827143139/http://www.facebook.com.au/)
After a while a medium size advertising box appeared on the site which looked a little unusual and was unrelated to the content of the website.
Now, the site is unrecognisable and seems to be owned by another company. I'd suspect that the original owner (who was using it for legitimate use) recognised this massive surge in traffic & ended up selling it to someone.
But looks like the buyer has now been judged to have used it in bad faith.
I can't help but think the original owner could have done a lot better financially if they had just held on to the site & not given in to the temptation of putting ads on or selling to a 3rd party. Although who knows what they got when they did sell it...
http://domainnamewire.com/2008/06/12/facebook-wins-facebookcomau-domain-name/
