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Filing a Domain Name Dispute?
0backlash0 writes "I work for a not-for-profit that's involved in community media especially radio, television, and increasingly, the internet. We exist by and for the community, which is to say that we're not a large organization. Someone has registered a domain name that we used to own: kdhxfm88.org The name appears to be registered in "bad faith". Because of our size, we can't exactly afford to hire a team of lawyers to take care of this for us. What can we do and how do we do it?"
Nothing like sufing slahsdot at work and having a URL that takes you to Euro Teen Sluts on the home page.. Thanks Guys!
Your best bet is arbitration, since the domain pretty obviously has nothing to do with their real business.
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
I for one would have liked a warning that the current owners had set up a porn site on there. The post naturally makes one wonder what is currently on the site, and some people are going to check it out who would prefer not to end up at a porn site.
What the hell kinda domain name is that? hard to remember, hard to spell correctly and no sex appeal.
In all the vastness of the universe and all the possible domain names to choose from, you picked that one? Maybe it's time to let it go and find a new domain name, any lawyer looking at that one is just going to laugh and ask why you'd want it back.
This whole story has got to be extremely clever spam from that porn-shop.. You let the domain lapse, its gone, and now the new owner has hordes of horny geeks checking it out. I'm no conspiracy theorist, but hey this is too much.
air and light and time and space
Back when I worked at Qualcomm, I was going to register eudora.org when it's renewal came and went unnoticed and unpaid. But I was told that I'd likely have to give it back at the drop of an even semi-legal hat (or not even: "Give it up or pack your office" would have worked just as well). I was going to use the domain for all the tech support junk, plugins, etc that didn't make it on eudora.com for whatever reason. It was going to be a community-type site, not for profit or anything. As far from "bad faith" as you can get. I was told that the intent of the site wouldn't matter and that they would almost certainly get it from me.
IANAL, but I think unless you can show that you had a claim or that your business will be hurt or whatever (think Coke registering pepsi.biz) then you probably won't be able to get it back. You could try the nice guy route, though. Ask them if they would sell it to you (throw in a 50% "finder's fee" for them) and offer to host whatever email accounts hey have for a year while they transition (careful of spamming, though). Probably won't work, but it never hurts to be nice anyway. Sadly, I think you're S.O.L.
-B
Ash and Hickory, straight-grained and true, make excellent bludgeons, dandy for the cudgeling of vegetarians.
You already own kdhx.org, and if that's not enough, neither kdhxradio88.org nor kdhxradio.org nor kdhx88.org is currently registered. You don't really need kdhxfm88.org, so if you forget it, the squatter will have wasted his money.
(I see that he's put a porn pointer at the address . Is that what you're really upset about? That's a different question than the one you asked. If you're a nonprofit and you can't afford a lawyer, find out what `pro bono' means.)
-Tom Duff
IIRC there's something in the ICANN guidelines about .org registers now necessarily being a non-profit, etc, etc. Perhaps someone could shed more light on this. Appeal, by all means.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Hah, well that porn site will be slashdotted in a few seconds, so this whole discussion is really a moot point :)
I betcha this "0backlash0" character is actually the guy that currently has the domain registered and is running the porn site on it. He's invoking a slashdotting to get his banner ad hits up. :-)
The first thing you should do is send them a cease and desist letter. Send it registered, and let them know of your copyright. Let it be clear that they could be liable for up to $100,000 in damages. Here is an example: http://www.ejacking.com/letters.cfm It helps to find out if they have any other names hijacked. This works for most US citizen's who have an ounce of intelligence. If this doesn't work you need to start the process at icann. http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
The vast majority of the responses I have seen are saying that it will be difficult if not impossible to get your domain back. This is simply not true. The party that has the more "legitimate" need will win. Legitimate means corporate or profitable. Surely the porn-peddling domain hoarder will not be able to win over someone who controls an organization with a name very similar to the domain. Not when you consider all of the past domain disputes and how they were decided.
How the fuck does this qualify as insightful? Let's look at it again, in instant replay:
"If you let the domain expire, and someone else registered it, I say you're going to have a hard time *taking it back* from its now-rightful owner."
No, he's not going to have a hard time taking it back, because according to ICANN's UDRP, these other people are acting in bad faith-- they are not the "rightful owner" that you mistakenly assumed. The rules are easy to search, and are here: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm. But I'll quote it for you, since I'm sure no one will actually go read it.
Describe, in accordance with the Policy, the grounds on which the complaint is made including, in particular,
(1) the manner in which the domain name(s) is/are identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark in which the Complainant has rights; and
(2) why the Respondent (domain-name holder) should be considered as having no rights or legitimate interests in respect of the domain name(s) that is/are the subject of the complaint; and
(3) why the domain name(s) should be considered as having been registered and being used in bad faith
So, seems pretty clear-cut here. Gee, you think the porn site's name isn't confusingly similar? You think they have legitimate interests in the name? You think they somehow weren't registering in bad faith?
As long as I'm apparently the only person who bothered to do some research on this first, including the original submitter, why don't I point out the procedures spelled out in detail here. Note that the single largest roadblock for a small non-profit is going to be the $1500 fee. Is the domain name worth $1500 to you? If so, read up, and you'll probably get it after a few forms and a money transfer. If not, use one of the gajillion other names available to you that's easier to remember than kzhszdfwelsdafjsdfzlldfm.org or whatever.
I remember a case where once the "squatter" offered to sell the name back to the owner, he lost all right to that name. So by offering the "buy this domain" link, they have forfeited there rights. Look here for more information. See the header "Bad Faith"
m.kelley
life is like a freeway, if you don't look you could miss it.
Yah... I've got the strange feeling that the 'company' which owns this domain isn't from Armenia, but rather put that there to make it seem harder to get a hold of him.
"And what makes me say that?" you ask. Well, I did a little search on google and came up with this discussion about someone else who had (roughly) the same problem. Now... if you move through the responses, you'll find this response which lists the contact information about the guy who owned this other domain name. Now the name of the company is different, but if we scroll down, we'll see this:
Administrative Contact:
Master, Web admin@segod.com
NameRegister.com
5 Tpagrichnery St.
#33
Yerevan, AM 375010
AM
208.978.3555
208.978.3555
and this:
Domain Auctions
5 Tpagrichnery., # 33
Yerevan, ARMENIA 335010
AM
Same address, same number, different company name... but if you keep going down, you'll find this:
Administrative Contact:
Web Master admin@segod.com
http://x.segod.com
5 Pechatnikova St., #33
Yerevan, 375010
AM
Phone- 208.978.3555
Fax- 208.978.3555
Same phone number, same zip/postal code, same street number & apt number, but different street name. Now, I'm no statistician, but I seem to think that the odds of this happening are very low to be almost non-existent. That, and the area code for Armenia is (374-2) according to a 1998 web page with contact info for a company that is located on Tpagrichnery St. Oh, and the fact that Pechatnikova St. only pulls up matches involving domains being bought after they lapsed.
So, not only does a low-life, porn displaying, domain auctioner have your domain, but he seems to be a low-life, porn displaying, lying domain-auctioner.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
Ok, if you check out this comment you'll find out that the domain is owned by a company called Buy This Domain. And that they're listed as being in Armenia, but have an Idaho area code.
Now, I was browsing around google, and I came up with this WIPO doc, dated August 14, 2001.
It deals with a case sort of like the one mentioned here, where the complaintant (sp?) let the domain lapse for some reason, and another company bought it up. Ok, so I can hear you saying "What does this have to do with this case?" Simple, the defendent was Buy This Domain (then using a different street name, but otherwise the address is the same), seems after being given the notice that the domain was going to be disputed, they offered to give it back to the original owner. That's right, they gave it back.
So, although IANAL, I'd say just begin the proper actions against them, and see if they cave again.
"I won't mod you down - I feel the need to call you a twit explicitly, rather than by implication."
An interesting note: Any radio station at that frequency would have to be non-profit. The FCC has reserved frequencies below 92 MHZ (88-92) for non-profits only.
88.1 is the first FM broadcast band frequency (even though I have seen radios go as low as 87.5), and 107.9 is the last frequency (I haven't seen a radio that tunes above that).
Here in Las Vegas, we have radio stations at both extreme ends of the dial, and they both rule.
Just because it CAN be done, doesn't mean it should!
I think it's worse than that. He's probably putting up something that is specifically meant to be offensive and annoying, to further encourage KDHX (and other domains he registers) to pay him off. I doubt KDHX really cares about the domain -- they let it expire after all. But it's not that they don't get to use the domain, it's that the domain is offensive and slanders their organization. I think they would easily win any case against this guy -- not just to get back the domain name, but a libel/slander suit against him. If they were actually to try to do this, they would want to contact other people who have also suffered this extortion, to pool resources.
The server appears to just be on DSL (a traceroute stalls on netblock-66.51.198.150.dslextreme.com, which is probably some firewall just in front of his computer). Which makes it seem even less like a real porn site.
DSLExtreme is a DSL provider in California, apparently. From them you may be able to track down who registered the domain, who is presumably also hosting it. From there you can send a cease-and-desist letter directly to the actual owner, using his actual name, and not falsified information in the WHOIS database. Or if you really felt like it you could sue him (and more power to you).
Also, you can probably get DSLExtreme (whoever they are -- they seem like a normal sort of provider) to shut down his access. I somehow doubt the site fits in their terms of service. If nothing else that'll stop him for a while, and it'll annoy him.
I decided to let the name expire and then re-register it with a better registrar. I thought it wouldn't be a problem, because it was an obscure name.
Well, this same scumbag who took your old domain now has my old personal site, and is using it for porn ads. Apparently he is using a bot to repeatedly check for newly expiring domains, hoping to capitalize on the traffic from people's old bookmarks/search engine listings. I'm calling this "expire-squatting".
I filed a complaint with the FTC because of this and because he was using hostile "mousetrapping" javascript code to force open new windows whenever you close one. The FTC had previously shut down another one of these jerks, so I thought it might help.
Well, the FTC sent me back an email saying that they don't investigate individual complaints, but will act if they see a pattern of fraudulent behavior emerge.
So, go report this at the FTC website, and maybe you can push this over the threshold for FTC action.
I strongly recommend you use Google to find any sites on the net referring to that domain. Most likely, many of them are outdated URLS, and that is what this pr0n site is depending on for traffic. Get those links cut, and cut the traffic, and they'll be less likely to hang onto the address.
If it is, it's one of the more ingenious.
Sumbit a phony story to slashdot, making up some bogus story about a stolen domain name, set up a porn ad on the domain, and wait for the hits to roll in.
Pretty smart. I bet these folks made a bunch of money from the posting of this article.
I'm currently involved in a domain name dispute, as a guy who has been accused unfairly.
Contrary to what some of the folks here seem to be saying, you do have a legitimate beef. Especially since these guys are clearly intending to sell the domain - hence, the nondescript porn and the "click here to buy this domain" link.
Ask around any lawyer friends you know, and see if they know anyone who does trademark / domain name dispute cases. Then contact that person and ask if they know anyone who would be willing to take such a case on a pro bono basis, or for a "de minimus" fee.
As a final note: brush up on ICANN's Uniform Domain Name Resolution Policy. The policy makes it pretty clear that a domain can be considered registered in bad faith if:
The "click here to buy" link is clear evidence of (i), and the selection of name is a pretty clear evidence of (iv), unless these people are seriously going to make an argument that they just liked the name.
Oh - IANAL, but I know far more about the law now than I ever wanted to.