Tina takes on cybersquatters

Tiny Tina ... you can be sure there`ll be only one website / File

AUSSIE songstress Tina Arena has wrested an internet domain bearing her name from cyber-squatters in a decision that could help other entertainers assert their presence online.

A panel has ruled in favour of the 39-year-old diva who has sought to claim www.tinaarena.com.au from Melbourne-based business Enigmatic Minds, which registered the site in October last year.

An alternative dispute resolution organisation overseeing the complaint said Arena`s counsel had successfully satisfied all conditions of Australian domain policy necessary to enact a transfer of the site name to her.

Presiding panelist Sara Delpopolo said the respondent`s domain name was identical to Arena`s trade name, that Enigmatic had no legitimate interest in the domain and that the company had registered the site in bad faith.

Enigmatic claimed in a disclaimer on the website that the service “had not yet launched” but that when it did, it would “offer products, services and activities related to the domain name”.

However, Ms Delpopolo dismissed these claims and said the respondent was relying on the singer`s reputation built up over the past 30 years in generating future profit.

“By the respondent`s own admission, it was the complainant`s fame and reputation that causes the respondent to register the domain name,” Ms Delpopolo said in a written decision.

“Use of the domain name by the respondent of offering “official goods` is misleading or deceiving internet users into believing the respondent is authorised, affiliated or has the approval of the complainant when this is clearly not the case.”

The singer - born Filippina Lydia Arena - kicked off her music career as a child in the 1970s on the television show Young Talent Time and matured to greater success in the late 1980s and 1990s with hits such as I Need Your Body, Chains and Heaven Help My Heart.

She appeared in the opening ceremony of the Sydney Olympic Games in 2000 and has recently enjoyed popular success in France with a number of French-language hits.