Domain Dispute Arbitration Question
 

this is the situation - there's an adult model who has been creating a name for herself with a stagename for a year, i.e. Crissy Thomas, it's her business name, that's who she is and sells herself as. The domain name CrissyThomas.com has been registered for several years and has never had anything on it - email contact info on the domain bounces - the registrar can't contact the registrant.

would the girl have any shot at getting the domain if she went through the domain dispute arbitration process?

:sleep



:helpme

I am no lawyer, and I usually side with talent. BUT from what you have said, the domain has been registered for years, and she has been pushing her name for a year. If what you say is correct, I would go with the domain holder.

what if she was a singer or a lawyer or an interior decorator doing business with that name? i thought there were rules now against domain squatting - the domain is 6 years old and according to webarchive.org has never had anything on it.

probably no shot at getting the domain unless the current owner has some bad faith future use that misleads surfers into thinking the model's site is there.

i figured that - the registrar hasn't been able to contact the registrant to give the cash offer to him/her - aren't the rules that the registrant must have accurate and up to date contact information?

If she was any of those things under that name, for however many years, if her years under the domain are greater than the time that the domain was registered, I would say it is hers.

From what I know, the only way around this, is if you make the stage name for the person, if you make the name for the person and they don't come up with it themselves then it belongs to the owner of the person who came up with the name.

In a case where the domain was registered before the person, you will most likely have to fight it out in court. Easy court case would be if you can prove you had it before the persona was existing. And this is where you get into legal issues that could go either way. Settlement, might be possible, but really, either party could see it worth fighting for and you could end up just spending countless dollars in money.

she's willing to pay for the domain - it's worth more to her than anybody else unless somebody named Crissy Thomas becomes a huge celebrity or runs for the Presidency.

the problem is the registrant can't be reached to make a fair offer. and i thought that was against the rules of owning a domain these days.

I don't know about those rules. But, if she does have proof she used the name before the guy now owned it. And she can prove it was her that caused him to buy it, then I would just fight it in court and say the domain is as good as hers.

No match for "CRISSYTHOMAS.COM".

Also, the email be wrong on some older domains. Try domaintools.com and buy the report of the domains the person owns, and see if you can get a more up to date email address that way.

i just used that name as an example :upsidedow

good idea - thanks

Working with a girl in a similar situation right now..just shot for playboy.
She uses a very unique stage name and wasn't very wise to the biz so she didn't try to register her name.com until a month or so b4 the playboy shoot..it was registered about 3 months prior by someone who as of yet hasn't responded to any form of communication.

She was using the name professionally prior to the name reg so she may have a good case for a squatting complaint.
She is willing to pay a fair amount for the .com (she reg'd all the other major extensions) but no response yet. Its not the end of the world, she can use the .net but as we all know..cant beat the .com

i know the feeling. it's very frustrating. sometimes even raising the offer repeatedly does not get a response. it's like , ok here's a super-premium for the domain- fucking answer me...

good luck-

Yes, if the registrant doesn't verify a complaint about invalid whois, the domain can be deleted.

you bastard i just paid 5 grand for it from some guy so i could blackmail you into buying it from me :1orglaugh

I think models should have SOME ability to get their own domains. As a model myself, I though of my name, registered the domain, then went to work. I guess some don't think the same way.

ha that actually happened to me once - only cost me 75 bucks but somebody suckered me in to believing that there was this amazing new porn starlet that nobody knew about except for the people who were on the set that day, her first shoot - so i went and registered her domain name. she never existed.:Oh crap

GFY isn't the useless place most people like to paint it as - I asked a question and got some good and informed feedback :thumbsup

if i had made the same thread on any other board in the middle of the night i'd have waited for hours if not days to get any feedback.

how about TM?

If you have it - you will win.

We had the same Dispute with worldwidewives.com(TM), so we won.

It only matters if the domain was created after the TM, or after she started using that state name. If the domain existed beforehand, you'd still have no chance.

Unless the owner has the same name it's odd that he/she would register it and never use it.


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mutt hit me up i can help u
4549239

I thought the contact info had to be valid also. Make a report that it is not and I think you can get it that way. I remember reading about it on here

it is a bit sneaky but if the registration information is wrong then it will be an uncontested claim

as long as you have the paperwork in place . ie a full and valid trademark the name in question then based on the rules you should be able to take the domain away from the owner even if they have a legitimate right to it.

should cost you no more than 10k total.

http://domainnamewire.com/2007/02/28...email-address/

GoDaddy took a domain, FamilyAlbum.com, from its' owner and another customer re-registered it through their back order thing - the phone and mail address were correct on the WHOIS but the email address was no longer valid.

2) Why was this domain removed from the original owner?

?We cancelled the domain name registration on this domain name because the customer did not respond to our email request to update the information. In fact, we did not hear from the customer for more than eight weeks after our initial contact attempt. Per ICANN regulations, we are required to collect valid information. Per our Registration Agreement, we will cancel the name for invalid Whois if the information is not updated within the appropriate amount of time.?

You may have a case with the whois info. As far as your initial premise, imagine the mess the internet would be in if we could jack domains from eachother that way.

Squatting has more to do with 'bad faith' imho.... Good luck to your girl.

don't want to jack a domain from anybody, but if the owner isn't reachable then going this route is the only way - can't believe anybody wouldn't respond to a fair offer to buy a domain, the offer I made was not chump change - if I owned that domain I'd be happy to receive the offer and reply back I want double the offer price.

I know Mutt, I'm not saying you. Just saying that if we could challenge domain owners that way things would be messy. Your rep speaks for itself.

I suggest you get a lawyer involved in this matter. There are a couple of things that can be done to obtain the domain. Some have already been mentioned in this thread. A couple of other suggestions are to trademark the model's name, which will provide you with the legal action to obtain the domain.

Another way is to get a registrar, like Moniker as a third party involved, so you can buy the domain. They may be able to help you, as they have the connections to other registrars.

:2 cents: Good luck!

Purple Haze

It sounds like she has a shot at getting it

There are several domain companies that register every firstname + lastname .com from baby name databases :)