I was wondering how legal it is to register a domain name such as, say, http://www.gοοgle.com/ (It is NOT the same as http://www.google.com!) What if the domain is just sitting there, and not being used for spoofing? Or maybe even as a joke/prank with disclaimer...
It really depends on the name. You run the risk of cybersquatting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybersquatting You run the risk of being sued for trademark infringement. Most large companies are protective of their trademark. Registering a domain with their trademark isn't usually a good idea unless you have lots of money to spend in legal fees.
I used to own BMWExperience.com. BMW ended up coming after me a few years after it started to become successful. I wasn't ready to fight the unlimited pockets of BMW, so I gave it up. Not worth it.
Friend of mine lost his domain name that contained word "nintendo". If you do a search on DP, you'll see several webmasters who had eBay people after them after they've registered a domain that contained that word. You'd have companies with unlimited resources against you and you would be clearly in the wrong by using their trademarked name. Some webmasters won against such big companies (paypalsucks.com for example) but vast majority loses.
If you are trying to profit from a business' trademarked name, you're probably going to get in trouble by registering a domain that contains a trademark. This is especially so if it's a big company - like Google. But if you're criticizing the company, you might get away with the domain name. This involves the concept of nominative use of another's trademark. You can use a trademark when you're not using it in a trademark way and you need to use it to refer to the person's product. At the end of the day, be careful! You don't want to waste your money just to end up having to abandon the domain when pressed by a powerful company.