Australian Steam URL redirects to EA Origin online store
By Tim Colwill on December 28, 2012 at 10:21 pm
We’ve just been alerted to the fact that somebody has apparently pulled a fast one. If you try to visit steampowered.com.au you’ll see it for yourself, as you’re redirected it to EA’s Origin store.
A WHOIS lookup on the domain shows it’s registered to someone called “David Harry” at Netfleet.com.au, with nameservers operating out of Fabulous.com, so it doesn’t look like an official EA job but rather the work of some delightful internet humourist.
So! There you go. Well done, whoever that was.
Source: Thanks, Alex!
EA: “The lion’s share of PCs on the marketplace” could not run EA Sports games
Not enough high-end gaming PCs to support the engine, among FIFA players.
EA E3 wrap: Dragon Age 3, Mirror’s Edge 2, and DICE confirmed to make Star Wars Battlefront
Plus we FINALLY get a look at multiplayer Battlefield 4!
DICE boss teases “surprises” at this year’s E3 conference
DICE boss says they have "a couple of surprises" up their sleeves (it's Mirror's Edge 2, come on).
You can use the following bbCode
[i], [b], [img], [quote], [url href="http://www.google.com/"]Google[/url]
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.
facebook
twitter
google+
rss
The URL once you arrive mentions Affiliates. Is it possible to have an affiliate deal with Origin, and if so then has the owner of this URL deliberately used the Steam au one hoping to pick up accidental Steam traffic thus giving him more Affiliate referrals?
Damn lack of edit..
http://store.origin.com/store/eaapac/en_AU/home/?sourceid=Origin_AFFILIATES_APAC_AU_MC61293
Well-done indeed!
I’ll bet Valve goes and buys that domain for a hefty price
If anyone is interested in actually connecting to Steam, go to the IP address, not the URL.
http://208.64.202.68/
gore12321, its just the .au that makes it not work, steampowered is always just .com
Valve should be able to invalidate the registration of the domain pretty easily. The “.au” domains are managed by AUDA and are highly restricted (http://www.auda.org.au/policies/auda-2012-04/)
.com.au must be:
a) an exact match, abbreviation or acronym of the registrant’s name or trademark; or
b) otherwise closely and substantially connected to the registrant, in accordance with the categories of “close and substantial connection”
Unless “David Harry” owns a registered Australian business named “Steam Powered” it should be an invalid registration.
Also:
8. A registrant may not register a domain name for the sole purpose of resale or transfer to another entity.
So that seems to restrict domain squatting.
Hah, a bit of digging uncovered this: http://au.linkedin.com/in/davidharryme
Our Haystack Pty Ltd
April 2004 – Present (8 years 9 months)
We buy & sell domain names with a focus on type-in traffic domain names being .com, .net, .org, .co.uk & .com.au and continue to focus on keyword optimisation.
Quick search for what domains he owns: https://www.google.com/search?q=“acn+114976546″
First result is “everydayreward.com.au” obviously squatting on Woolworths’ reward and credit card service, why hasn’t someone taken this “business” down already?
i7r7,
Why would he even publicly advertise that?
Because it’s not illegal, just really really immoral (Like alot of other common business practices)
This is the Australian Steam site for anyone wondering. http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=au
I’m not sure if I should think of this guy as a lowlife tosser or a bit of a genius for exploiting easy money.
Probably a tosser. He’d be one of those guys that buys URL’s about tragedy’s on the day they happen so that he can sell them to people setting up memorial sites at a later date for a higher cost.
Doesn’t surprise me that EA would hire the services of someone like that. They;re a perfect match.
looks like this “David Harry” is ducking his head and redirected the domain to Steam.
It’s redirecting to here, for me: http://store.steampowered.com/?cc=au
It’s redirecting to GoN for me WTF! http://www.steampowered.com.au
:P
Next it will be directed to a infomercial site for a steam mop.. or a model train company..
“steam powered” isnt exactly tradmarkable… he should be able to do whatever he wants with his domain.. altho why you would want to go anywhere near origin is beyond me….
I doubt it’s about any trademark, the fact is that it’s Steam’s australian site, presumably owned exclusively by Steam. I really wish that buying URL’s with the clear intention and company history of selling them on was a chargable offence. That said, the link to steampowered.com.au seems to work now.
redshirt,
Dammit, clearly I’m rubbish at making links here. steampowered.com.au