Mike D. claims Chiz squatted on his domain?

Jove Francisco and I discussed about the technical merits of this story where Senatoriable Mike Defensor is claiming the opposition (apparently Chiz Escudero) is behind the hi-jacking or cyber-squatting of his domain, mikedefensor.com.

I did some digging before I gave the go signal to Jove to run the story on his blog. We’ll just look at the WHOIS info of the domain first. From DNSStuff, we get this whois registration information:

Domain Name………. mikedefensor.com
Creation Date…….. 2006-08-03
Registration Date…. 2006-08-03
Expiry Date………. 2007-08-03
Organisation Name…. MD MD
Organisation Address. KL
Organisation Address. KL
Organisation Address. KL
Organisation Address. 50400
Organisation Address. KL
Organisation Address. MALAYSIA

Admin Name……….. MD MD
Admin Address…….. KL
Admin Address…….. KL
Admin Address…….. KL
Admin Address…….. 50400
Admin Address…….. KL
Admin Address…….. MALAYSIA
Admin Email………. [email protected]
Admin Phone………. +60.163558044
Admin Fax…………

Tech Name………… YahooDomains TechContact
Tech Address……… 701 First Ave.
Tech Address………
Tech Address……… Sunnyvale
Tech Address……… 94089
Tech Address……… CA
Tech Address……… UNITED STATES
Tech Email……….. [email protected]
Tech Phone……….. +1.6198813096
Tech Fax………….
Name Server………. yns1.yahoo.com
Name Server………. yns2.yahoo.com

Same is true with michaeldefensor.com.

First, the domain was only registered over 5 months ago, August 3, 2006 thru Yahoo! Domains. The Registrant (domains owner) was wise enough not to put his name and exact address although it hinted Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Second, in the domain name space, it’s a first come first server basis. Certainly, he shares his last name, Defensor, with so many other people and obviously he’s not the only guy around Christened with the name Michael or nicknamed Mike. So, one could argue that another guy named Michael Defensor regsitered those domains.

Ok, for the sake of argument that those domains were registered just to capitalize on the popularity of Mike D., there’s still no empirical data to prove that Chiz Escudero or one of the guys from the opposition did it. And if Mike’s claim is true that they’ll use it for a smear campaign against him or the administration, the real owners of the site should have done it by now.

Thirdly, cyber-squatting have been a part of the internet economy. People register names, generic or otherwise, in bulk in the hopes that one day these domains would have a bigger value than what they originally paid for it (around $8PHP 469INR 678EUR 8CNY 58/each a year). So Mike D’s name seems to be valuable now that elections are closing in.

What to do, what to do Mike?

You vast resources and legions of advisers would have already told you to contact [email protected]/[email protected] and ask the Registrant-owner that you are willing to buy the domain from them. They might give you a price from $100PHP 5,869INR 8,475EUR 95CNY 728 to a few thousands green bucks depending on how eager you want your domain.

If you can prove that there’s no other Mike Defensor who can claim name to the domain, you might want to try out ICANN and go for a UDRP (Domain-Name Dispute Resolution Policy). Google it if you don’t know how to file for one.

Again, Mike can always get his own dotPH domain — mikedefensor.ph is still available!

Again, as I told Jove, it’s a cunning political tactic to throw the dice on the opposition. Don’t they always? So, the battle for internet domination by politicos is just starting!