What Katie.com Did Next

By | August 2, 2004

Can someone be turfed off their domain by someone bigger?

The experience of Katie Jones, recent mother and owner of an online chat site in the UK, has been well documented elsewhere. (Katie.com is the name of a book about the ordeal of a teenager sexually molested by a man she met in an Internet chatroom. Katie Jones is nothing to do with the book, but has been the owner of the address katie.com since 1996.) Jones’ latest report on her website suggests that she is being unfairly pressured by the publishers of the book that carries her website’s name to donate the website to them. (It is not entirely clear in the posting as to whether the lawyer who contacted her was working on behalf of the author or the publisher, or both.) Anyway, if true, this does seem to take things too far.

I’m no lawyer, but one can’t help wondered how things would look were the roles reversed. If a big player owned the website address, would there not be large amounts of money changing hands by now? Or at least, would not the publishers have changed the name of the book, and not been trying to browbeat her into handing over the domain name?

For Jones herself, I can well imagine the discomfort caused by receiving hundreds of emails, either from individuals detailing their traumas in the mistaken belief they are talking to a fellow victim, or from folks abusing her. It’s nothing compared to what the Katie of the book endured, but that is not the point. It’s easy enough to say, ‘why don’t you just change your email address and drop the domain name?’ but why should she? Why should an individual be hounded from her sentimental slice of online real estate if she doesn’t want to?

I sought a comment from the lawyer linked to in Ms Jones’ latest posting, Parry Aftab, who is described in her online bio as ‘is one of the leading experts, worldwide, on cybercrime, Internet privacy and cyber-abuse issues’ as well as ‘being called “The Angel of the Internet” for her extensive work in Internet safety and cybercrime and abuse prevention around the world’.

Aftab had posted a message to her blog on Thursday saying she was working with Katie Tarbox, the author of the original book, and an organisation called WiredSafety to “help create a place where children who have been victimized by Internet sexual predators can go for help and support”. The program will be called Katie’s Place. A logo of the new, as yet unlaunched site, is prominently displayed at the top of the WiredSafety homepage. Aftab is executive director of WiredSafety, ‘the world’s largest Internet safety, help & education organization’.

Aftab declined to respond in detail to Jones’ account of the telephone conversation or the case, writing: “Katie Jones’ statements are either false or misleading. She obviously has an agenda. And I frankly don’t have the time or energy to be part of it.”

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