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Question:

Domain name?

rugeleyflu - 2006-07-09 10:03:57 - Internet

Is it legal to buy a domain name of someone famous?

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Best Answer:

Actually it depends, there have been cases were people buy the name of someone famous and then place porn and such on it and they have been taken to court over it, I think based on defamation of character. The term for it is "cyber squatting" Here are a few sites http://www.mgrossmanlaw.com/articles/2000/cybersquating.htm http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectID/60EC3491-B4B5-4A98-BB6E6632A2FA0CB2/111/228/195/ART/ http://unquietmind.com/cybersquat.html

Answers:

yes

of course

yes. but often the content you would put on such a site is protected by copyright and trademarks, so then it becomes questionable if it is worthwhile to do so. Also some websites have lost lawsuits about domain names being used where just the domain name led surfers to think they were looking at an "official site".

Well it is probably legal to buy someone elses name, but they also probably have the right to sue you for unauthorized use of their property. Assuming that the estate of Johnny Cash wants to profit from the property of Johnny Cash and they have good lawyers I don't think it would be a very good idea to use his name.

once u buy a domain name it's yours. If that famous person one day wants to buy it back, u can charge them big bucks!

Actually it depends, there have been cases were people buy the name of someone famous and then place porn and such on it and they have been taken to court over it, I think based on defamation of character. The term for it is "cyber squatting" Here are a few sites http://www.mgrossmanlaw.com/articles/2000/cybersquating.htm http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectID/60EC3491-B4B5-4A98-BB6E6632A2FA0CB2/111/228/195/ART/ http://unquietmind.com/cybersquat.html

yes

of course

yes. but often the content you would put on such a site is protected by copyright and trademarks, so then it becomes questionable if it is worthwhile to do so. Also some websites have lost lawsuits about domain names being used where just the domain name led surfers to think they were looking at an "official site".

Well it is probably legal to buy someone elses name, but they also probably have the right to sue you for unauthorized use of their property. Assuming that the estate of Johnny Cash wants to profit from the property of Johnny Cash and they have good lawyers I don't think it would be a very good idea to use his name.

once u buy a domain name it's yours. If that famous person one day wants to buy it back, u can charge them big bucks!

Actually it depends, there have been cases were people buy the name of someone famous and then place porn and such on it and they have been taken to court over it, I think based on defamation of character. The term for it is "cyber squatting" Here are a few sites http://www.mgrossmanlaw.com/articles/2000/cybersquating.htm http://www.nolo.com/article.cfm/objectID/60EC3491-B4B5-4A98-BB6E6632A2FA0CB2/111/228/195/ART/ http://unquietmind.com/cybersquat.html