PerthNorg

Wayne Smith the BindiIrwin.Com guy Innocent.

Two years ago I published a story here trying to explain my side of the BindiIrwin.Com purchase I made. It was very popular for a few days. Members voted it to the top of the site and I received calls from Media Watch and a major Podcaster. Nothing came of either of those. The article itself vanished later, after the owner of PerthNORG received a letter from the Sydney Morning Herald which originally broke the "story" of my purchase. She told me.

I've since realised that not many people understand domain registration. The law is on the side of Cybersquatters and these domain dealers routinely gobble up celebrity domains like they are MnM's. Tom Cruise lost his domain to a cybersquatter and it took him 10 years to get it back. He was lucky. Most people lose. His win was due to a technicality related to the types of product advertised on the TomCruise.Com site. Kevin Spacey lost his domain to the same Cybersquatter in a pivotal court case and so did Bruce Springsteen. Domains with no obvious application are worthless but an unclaimed celebrity domain is like $10,000 lying on the pavement. The first person to pick it up legally owns it. I like to read and I've worked in the security industry so I knew all this but apparently most reporters don't. Neither do the general public I've learn't.

 At the time I was living on the streets of Brisbane. I had been living out west but after losing my job and having my car break down I could no longer stay there. I lived too far out of town. So I hitchhiked to Brisbane and slept in parks living out of rubbish bins for a time. Eventually I discovered where there were food kitchens and church vans for the needy. I don't need money to survive but I'll accept government money when offered. When you live on the streets its very hard to get off them. Rental places want references and 6 weeks rent in advance. Employers want a phone number which you don't have.

It was very cold in winter. Many homeless people(there are a lot of us nowadays) go into public libraries to keep warm. There are newspapers and yes free internet. I was reading Yahoo news when I read how Steve Irwin had died in a tragic accident. I was shocked as much as anyone. I used to work as a volunteer for Steve Irwin at Australia Zoo alongside the crocodile team. I knew about Bindi and Bob ofcourse. Whenever anything about Australia Zoo appeared in the newspapers I naturally read it because I had worked there and visited the place many times. I'm not a celebrity fan myself. It was the crocodiles I wanted to get close to. But naturally the press talked about the Irwins more than the animals. I only ever spoke to Steve a couple of times in the course of my work. He was a genuinely nice guy who loved life. I liked him. Everybody did.

I wanted to know more and did several rapid searches. I tried typing in several website names. I had assumed there would be more news at TerriIrwin.Com but there wasn't. It was one of those spam pages full of ads that you see everywhere. I tried BindiIrwin.Com and couldn't believe my eyes. It wasn't even registered. The Irwin's manager John Stainton had neglected to secure it. I knew for a fact it would be gone that day. Somebody would buy it. All you need is $6.95 at the domain trading house I use. I don't sell domains personally. Never have. But I knew if I didn't buy it some entrepreneurial person would. I had enough in my bank account and made the transaction. Then I went to Suncorp and put my last few dollars into my credit card. Yes, I have a credit card. I wasn't born homeless and I'm a hard worker when I can find work.

I purchased TerriIrwin.Org and BindiSueIrwin.Com since the press at the time constantly referred to her as Bindi-Sue. I didn't know which name she would become famous as so I bought both. Then I was broke. The BindiIrwin.Org and BindiIrwin.Net domains vanished that same day and are still owned by some religious guy. I think Australia Zoo probably bought TerriIrwin.Com but I have no way of knowing. I had no thought of what I would do with those domains at the time. I just wanted to keep them out of the hands of domain hunters. I didn't even know that people who made advertising revenue and on selling money from domains were called cybersquatters.

For a few days I considered what to do. I sent an email to the zoo letting them know I had it. Didn't get a reply. I decided to give Terri the domain and sent another email to a reporter familiar with the Irwins requesting details for transfer. She forwarded it on to the Discovery channel. Then I forgot about it. The memorial service at the Crocoseum was more important than some domain names and they knew where to send the transfer details. While waiting I redirected the domain to Australia Zoo but stoppoed when stories appeared in the media about fake wildlife warrior websites scamming people. So I redirected the domain to a free forum I ran. Anyone can make them for free at places like proboards. I never suspected the media would run with a story about nothing.

The Sydney Morning Herald wrote a story calling me a cybersquatter and abhorrent. They also claimed I the linked the BindiIrwin.Com site to anti-jewish sites. All untrue. I don't even own any websites. I always use free services. The f**kisrael.org reference was to another domain I owned. The proboard did have a political forum with comments by me critical of the 300 children who were killed by Israel in the Lebanon war but I closed it to viewing before redirecting BindiIrwin.Com there. I'm not an idiot. In fact its the journalists who are idiots for not properly researching this story. I still handed over the domains despite the enormous beat up in the press but never bothered about asking for a job.

I immediately posted replies at my forum which I happened to be logged into when SMH began libelling me. A board member sent me an email with a link to the story which was still being written. I poured over his "story" and corrected all the mistakes. Assuming he would rectify his errors. Two years have now passed and I'm still waiting for an apology. All the other newspapers copied the SMH piece verbatim with the occasional embellishment of their own. If I had wanted to profit from a little gfirls fame then I could have done so perfectly legally but I chose not to and have been demonised for doing the right thing.

My reply to the Sydney Morning Herald.

http://projectorion.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=stories&action=display&thread=1055&page=1

Soon afterwards I was again attacked by another reporter named Richard Finnila who accused me of buying Liberal and National domains for profit. I was actually a liberal volunteer and had secured those domains for the party. Political domains aren't worth anything anyway. Because politicians can come and go. Again I gave the domains to the people I'd promised them to. Again I got no apology in the press.

Reply to Richard Finnila.

http://projectorion.proboards28.com/index.cgi?board=stories&action=display&thread=1063

A person can only be used as a punching bag so long before hitting back. They had no clue what they were talking about. I was called ABHORRENT on the front page of a major newspaper and the story spread internationally. I want the apology to also appear on page one. I don't care if it takes me twenty years.

http://www.liberalnationalparty.com

http://www.liberalnationalparty.org

http://wwwliberalnationalparty.net

http://www.liberalnationalparty.info

They tried to pull the same stunt on me again but this time I didn't secure the domains for anybody else. I'm keeping them forever and I'm still waiting for that apology. Fairfax lies.