Cybersquatters Prepare for Mischief

Cybersquatting is a seedy practice that's as old as dot-com, but the upcoming expansion of domain names could be breathing new life into the practice, while offering seamier elements on the Net an invitation for mischief. In the early days of the Internet, nimble squatters would register domain names of brands, then sell them back to the owners for tidy sums. Rules eventually were adopted to squash squatters, but with as many as 1,300 new top-level domains appearing on the Internet in the next three years, squatting may be in vogue once again.