something of the night - a little bit of politics

HOW TORIES POLITICK: Leaving aside the unseemly mucking about with photos that blew up in the Tories' faces in Dorset at the start of this week, elsewhere in the county there's been more evidence of desperate behaviour by the Conservatives. Tory candidate for Winchester George Hollingbery is cyerbsquatting in a site bearing the name of his Lib dem challenger.

Hollingbery, when confronted with this trickery, resorted to the sort of Year Five smirking that reminds everyone why having this bunch in power would be such a catastrophe for the country:

[Oaten is] "an experienced politician...[who] should have bought all of his own web addresses".

Well, perhaps. On the other hand, Hollingbery's behaviour would appear to be clear breach of the rules:

In order to have the domain name transferred or cancelled, the trademark holder must establish (1) that he has a legally recognized trademark in a name that is identical or confusingly similar to the domain name; (2) that the current registrant of the domain name has no legitimate rights in the name; and (3) that there has been some evidence of bad faith or abuse.

Yep, all three would be ticked there, then. All the parties have done this sort of thing in the past, of course. It doesn't make it any less childish.