Lesley Stones, Information Technology Editor
5 May 2003
Johannesburg — GOVERNMENT has begun negotiations to buy the internet address southafrica.com from the US company that owns it in a move which could cost millions of rands.
The dispute over the domain name has raged for two years, with government running up hefty legal fees by challenging the right of the private company, Virtual Countries, to own the name. Now the communications department is willing to pay the company to hand over control.
Although a settlement would prove costly, the department says there is no truth in a statement made in the New Zealand parliament last week that SA is paying 10m.
Envir Fraser, the department's senior manager for e-business, said SA would pay nowhere near 10m, the figure that Virtual Countries first demanded when it was challenged about its right to own southafrica.com.
That was so astronomical that government began legal action to seize control of the address. Now, after several court battles, the parties are back at the negotiating table.
Fraser will not say where SA has pitched its opening bid or where it will draw the line. Nor will he say how much Virtual Countries is demanding, although it will probably hold out for a settlement similar to the New Zealand deal.
"We are not looking at millions of dollars because it is not worth that. It is hundreds of thousands of dollars," said Fraser.
Government sees the web address as the ideal way to promote SA to foreign businesses and tourists. Although state agencies already run websites under the .za or .net domains, they carry nowhere near the global clout of the hugely popular .com suffix.
The battle was a matter of principle to protect and enhance SA's reputation, he said.
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