Unless your name is also the exact same one, you might have to give up the domain name if he comes after you for owning his name.
I don't believe he can sue me to get my name, that makes no sense at all. Does anyone agree with me? I don't think there are any international laws that prevent me from owning this domain even if it's his name. What do other people think about this?
unless the name is copyrighted ( wich would be almost impossible ) you could register anybody's name imo.
If the person is well known, it can be a trademark, as yes they can recover the domain under certain circumstances. Their argument is going to be that you had no legitimate reason to register the name (I'm assuming this isn't your name) and that you did so to ride the goodwill he has established for the domain. What you certainly can't do is put content related to this person on the site. Madonna took the valuable domain "Madonna.com" because the person who owned it put content related to the singer on the site. Had he used the domain for a site about religion, he would have been fine. I think he also lost about a million dollars in legal fees. When you use a persons full name, it makes it a lot easier to prove infringement. Even if you were sued and won, you would be out tens of thousands of dollars in legal fees which you can't generally recover. You should also read up on cybersquatting laws which can carry a fine of $100,000.
My thought was to use the domain to sell videos and dvd's, movie posters, etc that starred the actor. The site right now is setting up to be a fansite for Chow Yun Fat. I just don't see anything wrong with this. I'm not squatting it but am actually trying to create a legitamate business. The actor is a Hong Kong actor and not an American citizen. This really doesn't make sense and can't be right.
I wouldn't spend a lot of time or money on the site. Trademark infringement has nothing to do with being a legitimate business or not. You are attempting to generate review off the goodwill of someone else - which means you can be sued for all revenue the site generates, damages, and have the domain taken from you. It also has nothing to do with them being an American citizen or not.
I totally agree with what's been said so far. There are many instances of celebrities filing lawsuits and winning their domain names from people, sometime coming with additional financial penalties.
If that's the case that you can't gain from someone's name, then why are their books on 'Unauthorized Biographies' of celebrities written all the time? These books don't profit the celebrity at all and only the author. So why can't the same apply to websites? The site is about a subject. The subject just happens to be a celebrity.
You can argue all you want about how unfair you think the law is, but this is a clear case of trademark infringement and courts have ruled many times on this. Register www.theunauthorizedchowyunfatwebsite.com and you would have an argument.