Paper Falsely Accuses Landing Page of Porn Cybersquatting

LOS ANGELES—It simply can no longer be denied that Daily Mail editors would gladly butcher a fact if it means they can make a headline that screams the enduring evils of porn. Case in point, an article published today about a domain for a grammar school that the school let go years ago, which has since been acquired by someone to use as a landing page for dating site links. Not a porn site in sight, in fact, but the Mail in its myopia sees nothing but porn. Not only do they mischaracterize the landing page as containing pornography and being a website, but they also falsely accuse whoever bought it of cybersquatting, obviously unaware of what the term means. A cybersquatter is not one who acquires a domain after the original owner has let it go, but one who acquires an original domain that should by all rights go to another, with the express intent of holding the domain hostage for a tidy sum. Big difference there, but one that matters only if getting the facts straight matters, something that is not terribly high on the priority list for the Daily Mail. And yet another lie—let's just call it what it is, shall we?—perpetrated by the Mail in this one single article—a record?—is the claim contained in the headline—"Parents horrified as cybersquatters take over girls' grammar school website - and replace it with PORN"—that parents were in fact "horrified" at the revelation that the landing page for a domain that was changed three years ago is now being put to other use. In fact, if one reads the article, there is not one representation that even one parent cares a whit. A school spokesman actually makes the point that when the domain was changed, "Parents were informed of the changes to the new name and clearly this was acted upon by the great majority of our parents. We also ensured that any links within the internet had been updated to the best of our ability. "We have received very few contacts from parents about this problem when they have used a favourite bar or history link and they have been most understanding when we have explained what has occurred," the spokesperson added. Addressing the actual domain, the spokesperson also explained, "The school's old address was maintained for a period of time after the switch over, redirecting browsers to the updated home page. But the school dropped its subscription, allowing others to purchase the domain. We are not in a position to purchase this address back until it next becomes available on the market and we are monitoring the availability." It may not be necessary to wait, though, as the landing page has a link at the bottom of the page redirecting anyone interested in acquiring it to a domain marketplace. It probably wouldn't be there if it wasn't available, but our guess is that the school will never reacquire the domain, whose revenue from promoting links to dating sites is probably as negligible as its current value to the school.