Today Wayne Smith, the so-called and alleged cybersquatter of "www.bindiirwin.com" fame, posted two comments on this blog. These comments are a response to this article from The Courier Mail:
Cybersquatter takes site
A SERIAL cybersquatter who caused outrage last week after he registered a domain name after Steve Irwin's daughter Bindi has come under fire for doing the same thing to a string of Australian politicians.
Wayne Smith may have relinquished control of www. bindiirwin.com, but he still owns more than 60 other domain names, many linked to anti-Jewish hate sites.
Over a dozen of them are named after Liberal and National politicians.
Those affected include Mark Vaile, Amanda Vanstone, Philip Ruddock, Gary Hardgrave, George Brandis, Russell Trood, Lawrence Springborg, Jann Stuckey, Michael Caltabiano and candidates Glen Elmes, Amanda Wiklund, Lynne Jennings and Ros Bates.
State Liberal Party deputy director Peter Epstein said he was shocked and appalled by the blatant sabotage.
"I just can't believe it," he said.
"We are taking it very seriously – it's unbelievable."
Liberal businesswoman Ros Bates, who ran for the state seat of Mudgeeraba at the last election, discovered the fraud on Saturday when she tried to register her own name.
"I certainly don't want my name being associated with anything that's not kosher," Ms Bates said.
"I'm going to have to wait around 12 months now and then try and register it again before he does."
The dot-com websites cost $6.95 each to register. A number of the websites were set up during the state election targeting Liberal candidates.
Ms Bates said she could only assume that he did it in an attempt to try and on-sell the domain names to make money.
"What it looks like he's tried to do is get every candidate but he's not been able to," Ms Bates said.
She also wondered why he had not targeted Labor politicians or candidates.
Mr Epstein said: "We're obviously very concerned, but want to give him the opportunity to fix it before we take any further action."
As Google, Yahoo and other "webcrawlers" capture the links, the saboteur's domain names appear on their search pages in the top position.
Last month one of his websites carried a message to his critics explaining his motives: "Bye bye Suckers! Time to throw you guys another bone.
"Seeing as you haven't even figured out my goals here. Makes it less boring beating you all the time.
"Try googling 'Bindi Irwin' and you'll understand.
"Wikipedia doesn't get all that many hits to its external links on pages, but is great for webcrawlers.
"I currently have about 340 links listed on your pages.
"When they get to the top of search engines I redirect them. Get it? Ta ta you morons!"
Mr Smith has refused to comment.
This was the first comment:
This was the second comment:
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,20551434-3102,00.html
I just got a phone call from Mr Epstein. He confirmed that the reporter had twisted everything around and basically hyped up a story about nothing. He also invited me to lunch. I'm now awaiting details on where to transfer those domains to.
Wayne Smith has also posted a rebuttal to The Courier Mail article on this Discussion Board (which is where you are redirected if you go to any of the domain names he owns). To view the full rebuttal click here. This is part of the rebuttal where Wayne Smith explains why he purchased the political domains:
Why I purchased the political domains When I joined the Liberal Party I asked if they needed any volunteers. I was told yes and to expect a call from Lynne Jennings the candidate for South Brisbane. While waiting I did some reading on the internet and explored the Queensland Liberal website.
After discovering http://www.LynneJennings.Com was available I decided to register it for her on the offchance that she won and some political satirist purchased it instead. This happened the other year with http://www.PeterBeattie.Com and Labour was not very happy about it. I figured it would put me in her good graces and maybe I'd get a free ticket to a political dinner or something. You never know. I hear they put on a good feed. I grabbed http://www.AmandaWiklund.Com too. I used to live in Wynnum and have been thinking of moving there. She's an ex-military single mum and sounded like she'd make a good Polly if she won.
Then I got curious and checked a few other liberal and national domain names. Incredible! These guys hadn't even thought to register their domain names. Chances were they were too busy and simpy hadn't had a spare moment to consider the ramifications of losing them to some joker who hated their politics. Fair enough. These guys were not candidates but full-time politicians. I might get a couple of free dinners if I was lucky. At the very least a smile and a handshake when I met them at a party meeting and told them about it.
I pointed all of the domains at the official websites of each member and candidate to help surfers find them. This helped to push those websites up in search engines and probably helped the Liberals and Nationals in question get some extra internet attention.
On Election Day I was in West End handing out 'How To Vote' cards for Lynne Jennings. A lovely lady who came around with sandwiches for us. I entertained asking her about how to transfer the domain over but she was very busy and I figured I'd see her again some day. I ended up pulling the longest shift of any volunteer there. Lynne had found it hard to find enough volunteers so I ended up standing around most of the day. I didn't mind. Even a couple of Lynnes relatives lent a hand.
I actually found it quite interesting and enjoyed smilingly handing out flyers and exchanging jokes with the other volunteers from various parties. Anna Bligh came and went early in the morning. Kevin Rudd walked over and asked if I was working hard and I gave him a streetie handshake which befuddled him for a moment. Then he realised I wasn't a labour volunteer.
After the Liberals lost the election I pointed the domains at my message board. I still haven't been to any political meetings so I haven't had a chance to explain to any of these people that I'm sitting on their domains for them.
Now I'm redirecting them all to this message which I hope isn't too long. No hard feelings over the bad press guys. I know what reporters are like. Mr Finnila probably fed you misleading information and clearly none of you know very much about how internet domains work.
Email or pm me at this board and I'll happily transfer them over to you.
p.s All of the political domain names now go to this page. Have a nice day folks!
http://www.lynnejennings.com
http://www.amandawiklund.com
http://www.michaelcaltabiano.com
http://www.georgebrandis.com
http://www.russelltrood.com
http://www.rosbates.com
http://www.jannstuckey.com
http://www.lawrencespringborg.com
http://www.markvaile.com
http://www.amandavanstone.com
http://www.philipruddock.com
http://www.garyhardgrave.com
Again, for the full rebuttal to The Courier Mail article, click here.
Apparently the "cybersquatter" is back to his old tricks.
http://www.lawrencespringborg.com
http://www.amandavanstone.com
http://www.georgebrandis.com
http://www.markvaile.com
http://www.philipruddock.com
I don't think I'll ever believe another newspaper article as long as I live.