Tory party leader David Cameron falls foul of cybersquatters

Advisors neglected to register similar domain names

6 October 2006 11:58 GMT / By Amber Maitland

The leader of the Conservative party has recently fallen victim to cybersquatters after failing to secure alternative domain names to his new blog, www.webcameron.org.uk.

Domains of similar websites, including www.webcameron.info and www.webcameron.co.uk have been snapped up by others, while one, www.webcameron.com, has been up and running for years as the personal web page of an Australian poet.

Rival party UKIP bought www.webcameron.info and used it to host a spoof video of David Cameron. At the bottom of the page, the text reads: “Copyright 1996 New Labour. All words, hand gestures, insincere facial expressions and media stunts used strictly under licence from the Labour Party’s mid-90’s [sic] ‘Spin your way to the top’ guide”. A link to the “web team” takes you to a UKIP homepage.

“It’s a bit of rookie mistake for a politician who’s trying to make a point about appealing to a new demographic”, said Matthew Bloch, director of York-based Bytemark Hosting. “His heart’s in the right place, but he’s got a part of it wrong in his appealing-to-the-kids gesture.”

The Australian owner of www.webcameron.com, meanwhile, has found his site flooded with hits since the launch of David Cameron’s blog.

“I never thought my name was so fortuitous as it has been in the last couple of days”, said Cameron M Semmens in an email to NetNames, a Web domain management company. “I doubt there would be much of a chance of me selling on my domain name – I like it.”