Cybersquatting and the Rightful Owner
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I remember the day I bought my domain name from 123 reg. Magic Quill was gone, as were several of the variants I favoured. I decided on maryglaspole.com which is fortunately an uncommon name and the address was still available. I decided to call my website Magic Quill Creative Writing Collection. What made me come to that decision? well as a creative writer I thought it was quite imaginative. I was also in the know that Magic and Quills featured prominently in the wonderful literary creations of JK Rowling; Harry Potter! So anybody looking for muggles might Stumbleupon me!
That is a pretty subtle attempt at self-promotion. Waiting under the JK Rowling table for anything that might happen to drop off! Some web users however are a bit more unscrupulous in their business dealings online. Suppose that jkowling.com, HarryPotter.com or something similar became available as a domain name. The author had been a little busy of late and forgotten to renew her site subscription. Imagine if I had come along and bought it, then attempted to sell it back to her or put it up for auction to the nearest bidder? These people can afford it; I say to myself, the woman is richer than the queen after all.
There is much debate over Cybersquatting and many cases have gone to court. Is this activity as bad as somebody breaking into your shop, changing the locks and selling your merchandise? Er…yes! But cases for cybersquatting have been won.
In 2001 Jeff Burgar was taken to court by Bruce Springstein over the domain name www.brucespringstein.com which Burgar had in his possession. Bruce’s defence argued that the singer’s name was protected unregistered under common law. However Burgar won the case arguing that it was a legitimate Springstein fan club he was hosting and the site posed no threat to the singer’s reputation.
Springstein is not the only one who has had to lose out. Steinway pianos lost www.american-steinway.com.
How does it stand morally to go onto a web hosting site and look for big names with the intention of buying them? Unless you are Lady Gaga, Virgin Media or BP what right have you to buy their domain name? Every right. But be prepared for an inconvenient court battle if the real Slim Shady gets P*ssed off!!
