Long before she began forming her campaign for governor of California, Meg Whitman got cybersquatted.
Media speculation in early 2008 that the billionaire former chief executive of eBay would seek the state's highest office prompted a Santa Monica man to nab rights to several Web sites that evoke Whitman's name, including WhitmanForGovernor.com and MegWhitman2010.com
Whitman spent much of last year trying to get those sites back. Her early attempts to negotiate failed, and she lost an Internet arbitration because her extensive business and political activities did not make her name "commercial" enough to warrant protection. She then initiated costly and potentially fruitless litigation that, had events run their course, might have concluded after California's gubernatorial election. In the end, though, Whitman's substantial checkbook solved her problem. She settled with the cybersquatter out of court for an undisclosed sum.
Not coincidentally, the cybersquatter's windfall came on the same February day that Whitman formed an "exploratory committee" -- a precursor to a full-blown campaign organization. Whitman is just one of many candidates to face the phenomenon called political cybersquatting. Politicos make inviting targets because they often launch candidacies well after media and public speculation begins, giving cybersquatters a head-start to buy-up sites. For instance, BarackObama2008.com was acquired only hours after the then-senator's eloquent address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. RudyForPresident.com was snapped up just eight days after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
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