Almeida Keeps Web Domain Squatters at Bay???

If you were trying to book tickets online to see Gemma Arterton and Stephen Dillane in the Almeida’s current revival of Ibsen’s The Master Builder, you may have noticed that the theatre’s website has gone donw. Digging into the problem, one particularly inquisitive Whatsonstage.com theatregoer noticed that the domain name, Almeida.co.uk, hadn’t been renewed, registration having lapsed on 24 October 2010. No doubt the Almeida’s techies are onto the problem. Since the site went down, the name was this morning repurchased until the end of 2012.
Since the creation of the internet, there have been a number of high-profile incidents with “cybersquatters”, who nab the domain names of famous people or organisations in the hope of either selling them back to their rightful owners at an inflated prices and/or profitting from misdirecting web users. Victims of the practice have included Panasonic, the Wall Street Journal and Madonna. The Almeida may have had a lucky escape!