Hijacked Iwi and Hapü on the Internet

Last year a number of Iwi had their Internet names hijacked or attempts to hijack have taken place says Maori Internet pioneer Karaitiana Taiuru ( the lead person for the creation of .maori.nz and kaitiaki for .iwi.nz).

The worst case of hijacking saw one company hijack 18 iwi names then offer them for sale at up to 100 times the price it cost to purchase. The hijacking occurred within 24 hours of the implementation of the Internet 2ndLevel domain .maori.nz in September last year.

Karaitiana Taiuru ( www.taiuru.maori.nz), Te Rangikaiwhiria Kemara ( www.aotearoalive.com) and Ross Himona ( www.maaori.com) threatened legal action against the company in whom in turn agreed to return the Iwi names to their rightful Iwi.

To date only three Iwi names remain kahungunu.maori.nz , wanganui.maori.nz and ngatiawa.maori.nz . Karaitiana Taiuru said, It is imperative these names are returned to the rightful iwi. If not they could well lapse and go back to the public pool for another hijacker to hold the iwi to ransom.

Several other companies have hijacked numerous Iwi names and have had them for several years. All Iwi names that end in .iwi.nz are safe but it is the iwi names that end in other domains such as .maori.nz and .net.nz that are not safe and are being hijacked.

Iwi names are often hijacked with the intention of being sold back to the iwi for huge amounts of money, often over 100 times the purchase price. It is urged that all Iwi read the documents and protect themselves until such a time that such acts are illegal.

As a result of the hijackings Karaitiana Taiuru has created a number of free resources for Iwi and hapü to prevent further hijacking of names. The resources can be downloaded freely from http://www.taiuru.maori.nz or by writing to PO Box 13120, CHRISTCHURCH.

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