Site squatter caught in the buff Local nudist Web site baffles visitors seeking The Campus

Author: Tess Russell

A few weeks ago, as I was gathering materials for an internship application (a task undoubtedly familiar to most of you), I attempted to print some writing samples from The Campus Web site, www.middleburycampus.com. Pressed for time, I carelessly typed www.themiddleburycampus.com into the browser and waiting impatiently for the simple, comforting blue-and-white graphics to load. Instead, I found myself face-to-face with the garish greens and yellows of a site that I was quite embarrassed to be confronting on a very public computer.

"Welcome to Naked in Vermont, the official home of nudists and skinny-dippers in the Green Mountain State." Despite my reservations, I was intrigued, and after a furtive glance around to ensure that my fellow librarygoers were at a safe distance, I scrolled down the page to which I had been redirected: www.nakedinvermont.com. Following the proclamation that "Nudism is becoming an American phenomenon!" was a manifesto espousing the "awesome" and "wholesome" nature of the practice, as well as pictures from last June's annual Naked Bike Ride. All but one of the participants (a dreadlocked man clad in modest cargo pants) seemed to be true followers.

After forwarding the link to a few of my co-editors, I decided to do some preliminary Web research to see if I could uncover the mystery of our doppelganger URL and quickly discovered that www.themiddleburycampus.com was being held by the domain management service www.godaddy.com. I was curious to see if I could find out what other sites were being hijacked, so I contacted the Abuse Department at Go Daddy.

Melanie C., a rep for the company, explained the company's privacy policy.

"For customer confidentiality reasons, we do not disclose specific information regarding customer account information," she wrote in an e-mail. "We routinely work with law enforcement locally and internationally when appropriate … we would recommend you seek a court injunction as the most effective way to handle this situation."

Jonathan Holda, an intellectual property lawyer with the firm Ober Kaler in Baltimore, Md, confirmed that these situations can sometimes be easily fixed.

"Unfortunately, this sort of thing happens a lot, but domain proxy services like Network Solutions or Go Daddy usually have very little tolerance when it comes to infringement," Holda said.

"Generally, once we get involved, they will contact the person who has registered the offending site and often that party will abandon the site. If they still remain delinquent, the domain service would then turn their name and information over to us, and we would pursue them directly."

Finally, I decided if I wanted the naked truth, then I would have to go directly to the source -"Mr. John," the founder and owner of the Web site who declined to release his last name. Mr. John explained the purpose of his site in an e-mail.

"Naked in Vermont is there to give Vermont nudists, nudist visitors to Vermont as well as potential nudists and skinnydippers access to information and others who share the lifestyle and related interests," he wrote. "[Our activities] include naked hiking groups, barebecues, swimming and more than anything, a lot of skinnydipping throughout Vermont."

John admitted to owning only three additional domains: www.worldnakedbikerideburlington.com, www.hikingnaked.com and www.nakedinbrattleboro.com.Just hours after I contacted him, www.themiddleburycampus.com had mysteriously started routing to The Campus' site. His response to this? "LOL."