Scam Alert II: Domain Hijacking - The second variation...
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The second variation on the theme is not always legal. When someone takes a trademarked name (or variation of the spelling of one) or a famous person's name, and does the same thing.
For trademarks or close variations, there's a specific procedure for addressing the problem. (See the resource section at the end of this issue.)
For the names of famous people, there MAY be a remedy. But, it can be tricky -- and expensive.
For example, if someone named John Jones registered http://WalterCronkite.com and pointed it to one of "those" sites, Walter Cronkite could probably force the domain away from him.
However, if someone named Steve Cronkite registered http://Cronkite.com and did the same thing, Walter Cronkite would have no recourse. It would be very hard to demonstrate that Steve registered the domain in bad faith. And if Steve's son's name is Walter, the same is true for http://WalterCronkite.com.
If you feel that your name is likely to be typed into a browser when people are looking for information on you, you should consider getting both the .com and .net versions of the domain if they're available.
It will cost you a few bucks to prevent the problem. Fixing it, assuming you win, will cost you hundreds -- if not thousands -- of dollars.
And there's no guarantee you'll win.
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Next: A third version... >>
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