Mainstream Media (media group)

Last updated

Mainstream Media Limited
TypePrivately held company
IndustryNews media
Founded Bahrain (17 November 1996 (1996-11-17))
Headquarters
Area served
Worldwide
ProductsGlobal network of news portals
Services News publishing
Parent Big News Network
Website themainstreammedia.com

Mainstream Media is a digital News media organization founded in 1996, that operates multiple news portals specific to the regions, countries and major cities in the world. [1] [2] [3]

Contents

History

Mainstream Media EC was incorporated in Bahrain on 17 November 1996. In November 2013 the company name changed to Mainstream Media Limited following a company restructure and the incorporation of the new entity in the United Kingdom. [4]

11 September 2001

The group's Afghanistan news website attracted hundreds of thousands of unique visitors in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the United States, largely because of the understanding Osama bin Laden had launched the attacks from his base in Afghanistan. Afghanistan News.Net received thousands of angry and abusive emails and posts on its chat board, while hackers eventually took the site down, which resulted in the entire Mainstream Media network going down. [5] The United States Library of Congress included Afghanistan News.Net in its 11 September Web Archive of sites portraying expressions of individuals, groups, media and institutions in the wake of the 11 September attacks. [6]

Afghanistan News.Net is also a selected Internet resource on Afghanistan for Berkeley Library. [7]

Servers domain name hijacking

In August 2006 Mainstream Media's two hundred news portals went offline for several days when the domain name on which its Toronto-based servers were hosted was stolen and sold on eBay for $20,000. Mainstream sued several parties in California where the domain, www.fm.net, was registered. Shortly before the case was concluded the 'buyer' transferred the domain name to Afriregister S.A., a little-known domain name registry in Burundi, in Africa, which took the case out of the United States District Court for the Northern District of California jurisdiction. [8]

New South Wales, Australia Police investigated the theft of the domain name and arrested a former Mainstream employee working in the company's Sydney office who had hacked into Mainstream's computer system and transferred the domain to a fictitious person in July 2006. A month later the man sold the domain on eBay for $20,000. He was convicted and sentenced to community service and ordered to pay restitution of $25,800. The money was never paid. [9] Today Mainstream uses its corporate site to host its servers. [10]

Affiliations

Mainstream Media was a forerunner to a broader enlarged group which brought in Big News Network around 2000 and led to the establishment of a network of online newspapers in collaboration with Midwest Radio Network beginning in 2002. At one point in 1999 Mainstream Media through a holding company owned just under 5% of ASX-listed public company Midwest Radio Limited, in which Midwest Radio Network also had a shareholding (39%). [11]

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References

  1. "AME Info Directory", AMEinfo.com, Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  2. World Press. "World Newspapers and Magazines" . Retrieved 18 March 2013.
  3. Konrad-Adenaver-Stiftung. "Media Programme Asia" . Retrieved 20 March 2013.
  4. "Mainstream Media Corporate Information", Mainstream Media, Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  5. Afghanistan News.net. "About Afghanistan News.Net" . Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  6. Library of Congress. "September 11 Web Archive". Library of Congress . Retrieved 11 April 2013.
  7. "Afghanistan and the US: selected internet resources ", Berkeley Library, Retrieved 13 September 2013.
  8. Justia. "United States District Court" (PDF). Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  9. Justia.com. "Mainstream Media, EC, V Peter Riven, et al" (PDF). Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  10. Who.pho.to. "Who's behind that website?" . Retrieved 24 March 2013.
  11. "ASX Announcements", Australian Securities Exchange, 27 October 1999, Retrieved 21 September 2013.