The Beijing 2008 Olympics may still be fresh in our minds, but some people have already moved on and are looking towards the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Unfortunately for the Chicago Olympic bid team, the Chicago2016.com domain name has already been snapped up, and they want it back.

A good domain name can be key to having a successful website or not. Of course, content is still king, and likely always will be, but there’s no doubting the fact that a good domain name can help massively increase traffic and viral potential for a Web destination.

Which is why cyber-squatting exists, where some intelligent but ever-so-slightly sneaky individuals buy domains in the hope that they will one day be worth thousands, or even millions, of dollars to an interested party. But, there’s a fine line between cyber-squatting and merely getting there first, and that’s the issue currently being debated surrounding Chicago2016.com.

Stephen Frayne Jr., a 29-year-old MBA student, nabbed the domain back in 2004. Then in 2006, Chicago decided to launch a bid to host the 2016 Olympic Games, a bid that is currently being competed with by Tokyo, Madrid, and Rio De Janeiro. The winning city will not be announced until October 2nd, 2009, but that hasn’t stopped the Chicago bid team crying to mummy (the courts) and asking for their ball (domain) back.

According to The Chicago Tribune, Patrick Sandusky, a spokesman for the city’s Olympic bid stated:

We certainly see Chicago2016.com as the logical default domain for our site, and we believe having someone else control it is misleading for people seeking information about Chicago’s bid.

I can tell you this is absolutely not about free speech, but about the natural domain for our site, and the domain name that is rightfully ours.

Chicago has filed a complaint with an international arbitration organization in an effort to win back use of the Chicago2016.com domain. But Frayne isn’t rolling over and capitulating without a fight. He has asked the US District Court in Chicago to halt the arbitration proceedings and wants damages in to the bargain.

The big thing in this case is that rather than just sitting on a dead domain and waiting for the money offers to roll in for it, Frayne is actually using it as a website forum to discuss the Chicago bid. Frayne insists that the domain was always going to be used to discuss and generate debate over whether the Olympic bid is a good use of taxpayers’ money and officials’ time.

I have to say that I’m on Frayne’s side in this. Although he probably knew exactly what he was doing when he bought that exact domain, the fact that it’s now a functioning website in its own right should surely prevent any allegations of cyber-squatting being accepted by the courts.

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Entry was posted on Friday, September 19th, 2008 at 5:04 pm under Internet, Legal, Opinion.

Read more entries by Dave Parrack.
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