August 11, 2006 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Damien Hirst, a young British artist best known for experimental art involving animal parts, is in dispute with another artist over a domain name. The domain name, www.damien-hirst.co.uk, was purchased by Mr Simon Phillips, who describes himself as an ‘Internet artist’. Mr. Hirst’s contention is Mr. Phillips is profiting from a site which visitors might believe to be Hirst’s official site (which has yet to be launched). Mr. Hirst has given Nominet (www.nominet.org.uk), the “.uk” domain name manager, three weeks to assign the domain to him before proceeding with legal action. Mr Phillips has promised to fight the action and retain the name.
Jonathan Robinson, Chief Operating Officer at NetNames (http://www.netnames.com) comments, "Celebrities must wake up and realize they are just as susceptible to attack from cyber squatters as are big corporations. The Internet is fertile ground for domain name speculators and too many high profile individuals are still leaving themselves wide open to attack. By being proactive and registering and retaining control of web site addresses bearing their names, famous faces such as Damien Hirst could easily avert ugly situations like this."
NetNames manages the domain name portfolios of over a third of the FTSE 100 companies. NetNames also manages the domain name portfolios for Jonny Wilkinson and 19 Management’s clients helping them to avoid cybersquatting and protect their online brand.
