Adam, two separate issues.  You are arguing from a standpoint of morality.
The other posters are arguing from a standpoint of ethics and legality.

It makes no difference whether you like or dislike the content of the .com
site.  Would you have the same support of Telstra's arbitrary action had the
incorrect URL been a Harry Potter site dedicated to those same 10-14
year-old girls to which you refer?

The facts are, as far as I can understand them:

1	Telstra sponsored the competition to the tune of $3M
2	Telstra leapt onto the winner and promoted their website.  However,
somebody screwed up big time, and advertised the incorrect URL.  The subject
matter of that URL is irrelevant.
3	Somebody, apparently Telstra, arbitrarily hijacked that URL by
creating a spurious DNS entry for a domain name over which they have neither
authority nor jusrisdiction, and thereby punished the owner of the hijacked
URL.

Telstra have no interest in protecting the sensitivities of their audience.
They're trying to salvage what they can from their sponsorship investment -
and doing it very badly.  Either Telstra should compensate the .com site
owners or compensate the Idol winner.  As it stands now, Telstra should
compensate both. Either way, Telstra is the guilty party here.

You cannot justify the legality or ethics of such an action on the basis of
whether you like or dislike either of the victims.

Ron Stark



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Adam Matthews [mailto:adam§echo-host.net] 
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2004 3:44 PM
> To: dns§dotau.org
> Subject: RE: [DNS] Marketing 101
> 
> I think its quite obivous in this case that Telstra had to do 
> some form of
> redirection. The amount of 10-14 year old girls that watch 
> the show would be
> quite startled and go crying to their parents when they see 
> the content, I
> don't think telstra have done anything wrong and if I was in 
> their position
> I would do the same thing.
> Don't even see how its arguable that they did this..... 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: trent§sos.net.au [mailto:trent§sos.net.au] 
> Sent: Wednesday, 24 November 2004 3:35 PM
> To: dns§dotau.org
> Subject: Re: [DNS] Marketing 101
> 
> I don't think it was missed at all.
> I read the reply asking whether other sites could be 
> redirected for money as
> being sarcastic remarks used to make a point against Telstra's dubious
> behaviour. Not suggestions that this would be a good business model.
> 
> Did I miss a huge chunk of posts?
> 
> Trent
> 
> David Goldstein wrote:
> 
> >Isn't something being missed in this thread? It doesn't 
> alter the issue 
> >of the ethics of the redirection and whether it is 
> justified, but isn't 
> >this case 'special' because Telstra are involved in the 
> website itself?
> >
> >So the issue of getting Telstra to do a redirection for any other 
> >website is not going to happen, as they have no interest in your 
> >website.
> >
> >The relevant part of the story in the Oz is:
> >"The ad campaign was meant to be a triumph for Telstra, which paid 
> >$3million to sponsor Idol and release the song online exclusively."
> >
> >So any issue that deals with the decision being family 
> friendly and any 
> >other crap is not relevant.
> >
> >David
> >
> >--- magic2147§optushome.com.au wrote: 
> >  
> >
> >>On 24 Nov 2004 at 10:43, Paul Foxworthy wrote:
> >>
> >>    
> >>
> >>>If anyone in Australia happens to run an ad that
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>mistakenly has a .com
> >>    
> >>
> >>>instead of a .com.au, will BigPond commit to
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>changing their DNS to "fix"
> >>    
> >>
> >>>the problem? If not, what's so special about this
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>case?
> >>    
> >>
> >>>If anyone finds two sites blah.com.au and
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>blah.com, where the .com site
> >>    
> >>
> >>>has content that not everyone might like, will
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>BigPond commit to changing
> >>    
> >>
> >>>their DNS to "fix" the problem? If not, what's so
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>special about this case?
> >>    
> >>
> >>>Can I get Bigpond to redirect visitors looking for
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>blah.com to my own
> >>    
> >>
> >>>blah.com.au by *claiming* that blah.com has
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>objectionable content?
> >>    
> >>
> >>>Given BigPond's obvious concern about the issue,
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>are they encouraging
> >>    
> >>
> >>>other ISPs to take similar action?
> >>>
> >>>      
> >>>
> >>I am sure that Stephen Mayne from Crikey would be delighted to get 
> >>such service. Sloppy, lazy media types (I know that it's  
> >>tautological) are always rendering the site as "crikey.com"
> >>rather than crikey.com.au. People who visit "crikey.com" are  
> >>confronted by a "this domain is for sale" site playing off 
> the online 
> >>news service and Steve whatsisname.
> >>
> >>I am sure that even as I wirite Ziggy and the good folks at 
> Sensis are 
> >>looking at ways to deliver more traffic to .com.au sites that share 
> >>the same "prefix" as .com domains - and charge for the 
> privilege. In 
> >>fact thinking about it you should be able to demand that 
> requests for 
> >>any gTLD site be directed to a .au domain. auDA could  be 
> commissioned 
> >>to auction the repointing rights off. I am sure that this would be 
> >>seen as family friendly and would be endorsed by both 
> Family First and 
> >>the Federal Government.  And the great unwashed would never need to 
> >>know that the internet is indeed world wide.
> >>
> >>
> >>cb
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>    
> >>
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> >> 
> >>    
> >>
> >
> >Find local movie times and trailers on Yahoo! Movies.
> >http://au.movies.yahoo.com
> >
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