Cyber squatting

If a Middle Eastern business owner came home from his summer vacation to find a stranger sitting on his patio with a business proposal, he might greet him with the typical Arab friendliness toward surprise guests. But if turns out that the stranger has pried open a backdoor and occupied the home, demanding payment to vacate the site, the owner would be outraged and unceremoniously evict the strange visitor. However, when it comes to the websites of newly announced projects, regional business owners are often in a pickle when it comes to guarding their property. Researching the registration rates of online domain names by Middle Eastern companies, a UK-based marketing and public relations firm uncovered that many business owners seem rather careless in setting up their online presence. The three-month study conducted in the second quarter of 2007 by the firm Ultimate Media found that of 2,000 firms who have