The domain names – thesunonsunday.co.uk, sunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.com were all registered on the 5th of July 2011 – two days before the announcement that NOTW was to die as we know it.
Who are behind these registrations?
The nominet who.is for thesunonsunday.co.uk shows a company named Media Spring as the registration – tellingly listed under the option of UK Individual. With .uk domain names, UK Individual is the only option which allows for the address and contact details of the domain to be public.
The so called, Media Spring are violating nominets guidelines concerning domain registration. Does this suggest they have something to hide?
What does the .com registration tell us?
.com domain names are governed by a different industry body, and thus the who.is is laid out in a similar, but different manor. There are many external companies who offer ‘domain privacy’ services which mask the true identify of a registrar. These are completely legitimate, and perhaps predictably have been used for the registration of thesunonsunday.com
The company used for the identify cloaking, are a UK based company named Mesh Digital based in Guilford. They appear to be behind the domain indentity cloaking service, Identify Protect.org, which is also in use for website such as NTCLibya.org – The Libyan Transitional Council.
Interestingly – Mesh Digital are listing in sister newspaper The Suns Business Directory
Who are MediaSpring?
MediaSpring are the given registrars of thesunonsunday.co.uk
A search in Google, brings up the MediaSpring.com as the first and most prominent result.
However, we are more interested in MediaSpring.co.uk – an ‘Advertising agency service’ based in Cheltenham. The website currently does not load.
INTERESTINGLY…
The exact registered address of Media Spring (which we shall not publish, but is readily available online) is listed as one of the participating hotels / guest houses in News of The World rooms for a fiver offer which includes rooms available for early 2011.
PURE COINCIDENCE?
UPDATE- 09/07/2011 -00.06am
Sunonsunday.co.uk and thesunonsunday.co.uk are now registered to News International. So, it seems Media Spring, whom were linked to News International through a recent hotel offer above, did register the Sun on Sunday domain names, two days before the News of The World was shelved.