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Fandom vs. Fandom.com

Posted by michael on from the fandom-menace dept.

Marx's Ghost writes: "This is an interesting article about fan sites being threatened by Fandom.com, whose claim of being "by the fan's, for the fan's" doesn't hold up in view of their bullying tactics. Should provoke some people who are concerned with poor definitions of cyber-squatting. What should really constitute cyber-squatting?" Claiming a trademark on a descriptive term like "fandom" and then bullying other fan sites ... what a great business plan.

3 of 154 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Trademark Dilution by Zachary+Kessin · · Score: 4
    Basicly the major differnece here is that the term "Fandom" has been in use for a long time. The Kleenex folks invented the word Klennex and therefore have some level of legitamacy when they say "Kleenex" is a brand name and the generic term should be used. Fandom.com does not have any such grounds.

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  2. Well done: you are FULL of shit. by nagora · · Score: 4
    People like you are the reason the domain name system is collapsing.

    The comparision with Ford is misleading. A closer example would be if someone owned "cars.com" and someone else started "cars.tv". If you take out a domain name which is a single, non-trademarked generic term (like "Fandom") then though titties if someone else uses it, mate.

    And, anyway, the whole point of the TLDs (generic or country codes) is to divide up the namespace and allow this sort of thing. The reason it doesn't work is twats like you don't understand or honour it.

    Taking your approach would mean the removal of TLDs: we would just have www.ford or www.ms or whatever, since you are saying that owning a domain in one TLD should be equivalent to owning it in them all.

    TWW

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    "Encyclopedia" is to "Wikipedia" what "Library" is to "Some people at a bus stop"
  3. Re:No sympathy for Fandom.tv by Aeonite · · Score: 4

    :Choosing the exact same domain name and
    :registering in the TV domain is sure to
    :cause some confusion.

    Then what's the point of having a .tv extension anyway, or, for that matter, .biz, .name, .info, or any of the other new ones? If my name is Marty Fandom and I register fandom.name, are they going to come after me? Adding TLDs is pointless if you can't use words that are already being used with .com, .net and .org.
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