Illegal registration of domain name is a crime, court told
Illegal registration of domain name is a crime, court told
The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
The illegal registration of a domain name is a crime, not a
civil matter, the president of the Singapore-based Asean
Intellectual Property Association said on Monday in the first
cybercrime trial here.
Murgiana Haq, a Singaporean lawyer, appeared at the Central
Jakarta District Court as an expert witness during the trial of
Tjandra Sugiono, a former general manager of international
marketing firm PT Martina Berto. Tjandra is being tried for
allegedly registering the domain name of the company's main
competitor PT Mustika Ratu.
Haq told the court that usually, if there was dispute over a
domain name, the complainant could file a complaint
electronically (via e-mail), complete with the basis of the
complaint and evidence, to the domain name administrator, the
Internet Corporation for Assigned Name and Number (ICANN).
She explained that ICANN permitted such a cybercrime to be
brought before a court, either civilian or criminal.
"There have been such cases brought before the criminal court
in the United States," she said without elaborating.
Haq also explained that before registering a domain name, one
should state one's agreement with ICANN regulations, including
the statement that the domain name being registered would not
disturb other parties' rights and that it would not be used for
illegal purposes.
She said that there was an indication that Tjandra had acted
in bad faith in registering Mustika Ratu's domain name as it was
a trademark belonging to PT Mustika, which was popular with the
public.
According to Haq, Tjandra had deceived Internet users who had
attempted to find the website of PT Mustika through
mustikaratu.com, since they would be directed to one of PT
Martina's websites, belia-online.com.
"They would assume that belia-online.com was related to PT
Mustika. The company would have suffered damage because potential
business or contacts through mustikaratu.com would have been
transferred to belia-online.com," she said.
Belia is one of Sari Ayu's products.(04)