My question is what would you do with the domain name ifididit.com? Since the rights to O.J. Simpson's book, "If I did it," are going to be auctioned on April 17, searches for this term will soon begin to peak and interest in the book will follow if it is eventually published. I'd imagine that a fair return could be made just via a simple O.J. centric page with an OJ specific RSS and links to wherever the book is eventually sold. So my question is what would you do if you had this domain? A) Kick yourself for wasting $16 on the private registration of a name comprised of four simple words? B) Park it and make money off of whatever links the parking company places there. C) Develop it as an O.J. specific page with links to the book sales site, other OJ stories etc. in anticipation of a higher profit than with just a simple parking scheme. D) Develop it as a "Hypothetical confessional" site where users could post confessions to things they might have done. D) Sell it, take the money and move on. and if D) what would your choice of selling avenue be? Sedo, Afternic, etc? any thoughts would be welcome
I found the note regarding your question, www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17820865 And unless you are going to purchase those right, such domains will anywas be in potential legal infringment to think of development or anything else. If I had such domain, I would get rid of it, probably at the cost of reg fee because I doubt someone pay more than that, if any.
If "If I Did It" is a trademark, then you might get in trouble. Otherwise I see no potential legal issue around as long as you are not relating the site to O.J. Simpson's book.
Actually, "If I did It" is not trademarked and is only a part of the full book title, and, since the book has never been sold and since the TV special was never aired, the title hasn't even been used in commerce yet so there really aren't any legal hurdles to using the name nor was my purchase of the domain in October of last year illegal. And even if there were legal issues, if a parody site is set up it will enjoy broad protections under the law. The parody could even take the form of an adult site where the phrase "If I did it" could be put to it's logical adult use. So while I appreciate your caution, I do not feel that there are any significant legal hurdles to selling this domain as there exist legal avenues for its development even if I don't own the rights to the book. About the only thing one couldn't do is try to pass the site off as the Official site of the book in a way that would be confusing to the consumer.