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Cyber Squatters Grab Up More Than 600 'Pope Francis' Domain Names

Posted by Soulskill on from the there-oughta-be-a-commandment dept.

tsamsoniw writes "Although the newly appointed Pope Francis I has proven himself technologically savvy enough to use Twitter, the Vatican dropped the ball when it came to quickly registering a domain name for the pontiff after his appointment earlier this month: Within hours, cyber squatters grabbed up more than 600 domain names containing derivations of the pontiff's name, including popefrancisi.com, popefrancis.co.uk, popefrancis.org, and popefrancis.fr, according to domain-name company names.co.uk."

4 of 73 comments (clear)

  1. Because the Vatican Has Its Own TLD? by eldavojohn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Although the newly appointed Pope Francis I has proven himself technologically savvy enough to use Twitter, the Vatican dropped the ball when it came to quickly registering a domain name for the pontiff after his appointment earlier this month

    Well, you've put me in the awkward position of defending papal technology. None of this really matters considering Vatican City has its own TLD of .va so it would be a waste of money and resources to try to accumulate every other TLD. I believe .va is tightly regulated to include only 1990s era website technology. The last pope's virtual dedication was done in comic sans as seen here.

    Funny, if the pope was more like the humble carpenter Jesus of Nazareth and less like an enshrined emperor he wouldn't have this problem as there'd be no financial gain to drive extortion. Keep paying your tithes so the Vatican has deep pockets ... or would that be a Louis Vuitton to match his Prada shoes?

    --
    My work here is dung.
    1. Re:Because the Vatican Has Its Own TLD? by Penguinisto · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Err, what extortion?

      The majority of catholics online just go to vatican.va for anything out of the Vatican, and studiously ignore the rest, if they even bother to go at all.

      Seriously - even if every one of those squatted domain names pointed to lemonparty, it would make exactly zero difference to the laity. QED, no financial gain to be had. Overall, it's sort of like saying that the Vatican should have somehow snapped up any and all variations of @Pontifex on Twitter, when there's really no need.

      I guess the confusion comes from thinking that the Catholic Church is like some sort of commercial entity, where brand recognition and trademark protection online trumps all. Fact is, it doesn't - the Church has been around administratively since Constantinople was a living human being, and has had to put up with a hell of a lot more defamation and disparagement over the millennia than a bunch of wannabe blackmailers holding GoDaddy accounts can muster.

      --
      Quo usque tandem abutere, Nimbus, patientia nostra?
    2. Re:Because the Vatican Has Its Own TLD? by CrimsonAvenger · · Score: 4, Informative

      the Church has been around administratively since Constantinople was a living human being

      Umm, Constantinople was NEVER a living human being. It was a CITY.

      Perhaps you meant "Constantine", the man the CITY of Constantinople was named after?

      --

      "I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
  2. I know how to fix this by Nidi62 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Just send the Spanish Inquisition. No one would ever expect it.

    --
    The only thing necessary for evil to triumph is for it to be pitted against a slightly greater evil