Who owns the Wikileaks domain names?

There is some confusion over who runs the Wikileaks.org domain, the organisation's main address that was taken offline on 3 December.

Even some of its providers admit they do not know who owns the addresses, including its new home wikileaks.ch.

The .org name was registered by a third-party organisation, which specialises in masking the identity of the owner.

The organisation owns many more addresses, whilst volunteers have also set up their own wikileaks site.

However, some names, including wikileaks.net, wikileaks.com and wikileaks.us, are owned by Wikia - a company founded by Jimmy Wales but separate from Wikipedia.
Jimmy Wales, the founder of Wikipedia, told BBC News, this was because of a technicality.

"When Wikileaks first started they issued a press release describing themselves as 'the Wikipedia of secrets'," he said.

To protect the name, Wikia registered a series of Wikileaks addresses, which were sold to Wikileaks a few years later.

However, Wikileaks has never completed the transfer, said Mr Wales.

"We've been bugging them to do it since they hit the news," he said.

"We try to tell people we have nothing to do with Wikileaks everyday.