A number of politicians and political parties have become the latest victims of "cyber squatting", writes John Collins.
"Squatters" reserve a particular internet domain name, usually for the purpose of selling it at a higher price later. The latest to have their names captured include Fianna Fáil, Sinn Féin, Fine Gael leader Enda Kenny, Tánaiste Mary Harney, Minister for Justice Michael McDowell and Minister for Transport Martin Cullen.
Last year, the European Commission introduced an .eu internet address to compete with the US's .com. Internet addresses such as www.michaelmcdowell.eu or www.maryharney.eu could be purchased for as little as €12.50. In some cases, it could now cost thousands of euro for the named individuals to buy back these same internet addresses.
Registered trademark-holders and others who could prove rights to a particular name were able to secure their .eu address during a restricted period which started on December 7th. Taoiseach Bertie Ahern - or rather an official in his department's Information Society policy unit - is the only member of the Cabinet with the foresight to have done so.
Others were not so lucky. www.sinnfein.eu is now registered to a company in Sweden, while both www.greenparty.eu and www.labourparty.eu, which could legitimately have been registered to political parties in a number of European countries, have been registered by a company in Cyprus.
The addresses for both Martin Cullen and Pat Rabbitte were registered by the Irish Daily Star.
A spokesperson for the newspaper said they had been registered to stop them being used for pornographic websites and would be returned to the individuals in question if requested.
Under regulations, parties or individuals who wish to reclaim their name have recourse to an alternative dispute-resolution process which is cheaper than the courts.
Philip Nolan, a partner in law firm Mason, Hayes and Curran, said that international experience with other internet domains had shown that politicians were not always successful in such cases.
Since April 7th, any individual or company with an address in the EU has been entitled to register any address that trademark-holders have not previously secured. This is known as the "landrush" period of the new domain and over 1.5 million addresses have been registered.
The contract to run the .eu domain was won by EURid, a consortium of the national internet registries in Belgium, Sweden and Italy. Many internet experts have been critical of the way it handled the launch of the new address.
Michele Neylon of Blacknight, an Irish internet services company, says EURid's infrastructure was not able to handle the massive surge in traffic it received on April 7th.
The phenomenon is not just confined to the political domain, however. Dublin.eu has been taken by a company which is believed to be ultimately registered in Belize, said Mr Neylon.