Hello, I need an advice here, I bought a website for my girlfriend back in 2001 which was her name and last name, I never did anything with it since we broke up shortly after buying the website, so it stayed parked on godaddy, well it is still parked there as of right now, never got rid of the domain, I've been charged every year for it, I should have cancelled it but never did, anyway, just a few days ago, I received an email from some guy and an attorney, telling me to stop using the website to make profit, or to to gain money out of it and misleading people,, appeantly, there a singer that happened to have the same name, so she is famous and I think they have .net versus .com which i own, she bacame famous a few years ago, now they are telling me to give up the domain name because I am using her name to make profi since she is famous, if I don't do it, they will sue me, they already sent me something that i have to sign to give them the domain, I HAVE NEVER USED THE WEBSITE for anything, it's been parked all this time, can anybody advice me here, I don't know what to do, I dont' really care for the website but for them to tell me a bunch of BS just so that they get the domain, it's just not right, I think I have the right to own anything as long as I don't mislead people, but I am not doing any of that.... any help would be appreciated... thanks
I bet GoDaddy has ads on that parked page about the singer. Do you make any money off those ads or does Godaddy? If you want to keep the name then unpark it and make sure its not running any ads. I am not a lawyer - but I'd reply with the defense/explanation you've outlined above and state that you have earned no money from the ads (if true). Tell them that you will disable the ads and that while your plans are uncertain you expect to let it expire when it comes up for renewal. Hopefully they will make an $ offer instead of hoping to pick it up on the drop - but in no circumstances can you say this or offer to sell it to them - otherwise they can claim that you are cyber-squatting and will have a better case against you at a UDRP hearing.
since you are not cyber squatting , and the site you registered was before that singer got famous , she can't to shit , search this forum for a same thread with GAIL in it, it is is interesting thread and you will find perfect answer in it. found it look at the 10th post http://forums.digitalpoint.com/showthread.php?t=1684428&highlight=GAIL
Well, it think there were godday's ads there, I unparked it and bought a 3 months hosting with them, so there are no more ads, but I never made or thought about making any money off those ads I never knew about, I am sure godaddy made money, but not me, here is the thing, the guy that actually hired this attorney, told me that He wants ownership of the site and he's been trying to get a hold of me for years, funny! I never got an email from him untill now,,, last email I got from him, he stated, I WANT THAT DOMAIN NAME, I said it wasn't for sale, then he goes....very well, expect an email from my attorney,....
If you can prove you bought the domain for another person with that name ( I think you could just prove that the person exists with that name), AND that you purchased before this singer got famous, thre is nothing they can do. I'm no attorney, but this whole thing sounds "fishy". Who's this guy that says he wants the domain name? Why did he hire the attorney, and not the singer herself. I think you have every right to that domain name, SO DON'T LET IT GO. Obviously someone wants it badly, so make some money off it and sell it if possible. This is if all the above is true.
thanks for the info, Just want to add that their attorney actually sent me a certified email and first class certified letter to give up my domain and i have like 6 days to surrender, they are making me feel like criminal. between the attorney and threats from guy that actually wants the domain, very umcofortable,,, what would happen if I don't respond to their demand?
The person that actually wants the domain is the singer's promoter/manager, he owns the .net domain,...as far as proving I bought this for my ex, I have no idea where she is at now, he broke up back in 2001, but despite that, there are way too many people with the same name and last name, I just happened to own the domain,
JM2010, Since you have been approached by an attorney with a certified letter and all, I would post in a legal forum of some sort. I know you don't want to share the singer's name, but can you find out how long she has had a record contract, and is this a fairly common first/last name of this singer? In your case, I would not feel like a criminal. I would feel like someone is trying to steal MY PROPERTY.
JM2010 you have nothing to worry about they cannot file a case, theses are threat tactics being used , at the most they will file ICANN dispute or URDP something like that wait for mjewal to respond here he can tell better. your domain was registered before that singer got famous , plus it is based on a generic name , not you are in no way running any site off that domain which is linked to that singer . if it was me i would tell them to stfu . tyler_durden nice to see you here dude
I am not sure about the record contract, but I googled her name and there are way too many people with the same name, of course, they are not famous.. this is BS, I am just not sure what I am going to do about this, you are right, they are trying to steal my property,.. but since they got money, they think they can take my property, I just need some good information as far as what to do, I don't know if i should worry about it or not...
The question is how much time and money you are willing to spend defending your right to hold onto a domain that you aren't even using.
I don't think he has to spend any money, and someone just "notified" him that this domain name is valuable. As what "allthatjazz" wrote, they will file disputes but I can't imagine anything could/would happen. It will take two minutes to realize this domain was not picked to "squat" on for this singer, and he genuinely owns it. I do think it may be a bit helpful if something is/was ever on this site. Has it always only been parked, did you have your gf's picture up or anything else at any point? If so, see if there is any record of it in Alexa's tool to view past webpages. That would be the icing on the cake to prove it never was purchased for this singer's name, but it doesn't sound like you can probably check that. Once they lose the dispute, charge them for the domain name and make a profit. Don't let someone just steal this away, it is valuable to someone obviously. Even if you sell it for a few hundred dollars, it's way more than you would ever make from the site since you aren't planning to do anything with it or ever have.
My only issue here is that, even if I don't use the website which I haven't, they can't take it away from me, it's mine, I am not willing to give up something that is mine just so I avoid legal issues or spend money to depend myself, I have done nothing wrong to them, I should be suing them for making false statement and threating me the way they are doing it right now, its abvious that they are making this up, this guys clearly stated HE WANTS THE DOMAIN NAME.. basically he told me, give it up or see you in court,,,
post the singers name here plus the lawyers contact mail and copy pate that mail if you want we can make this to such blogs where this will really hurt them in bad publicity , cause they are are trying to steal something which is legit yours , they will back track on that only like the lilly allen fiasco last year . the best way to stop them is by giving this a web wide bad publicity to that singer and believe me they hate that
I'm not so sure about that part, "bad publicity" is still publicity. What if it got picked up by a news site/press site? I bet the bigger deal he makes of this, the more he can actually get for the site in payment. This domain had no value to him 24 hours ago, push the value to the max! JM2010, Per your comment "I am not willing to give up something that is mine just so I avoid legal issues", RIGHTLY SO. I honestly consider it theft in this case, by a bully who really can't take it from you. My guess is they are trying to "scare" you and get it for free, before they have to pay you for it. It's probably only an 1/2 hour wage for the attorney to sign the prefilled document he prints out from his PC. Why not try it first?
You already noticed there are a lot of people with that name. You could set it up as a family page, with news about anyone with that last name. Link to every page about people with that name. Give top linking to sites which are for specific families ("Descendants of John Smith"). You can add more social networking features if you have widgets and time to supervise ones which require supervision. I think the key here is that you registered the domain before the singer became known. Look for the singer's first published album or song, perhaps on Amazon. I'd tell the lawyer that the domain was registered for personal reasons and has never been associated with whoever they are talking about. Just the facts. Don't try a wisecrack about lighting your shoe on fire, as that only causes problems. Don't tell them to stop bothering you, as that could forbid further messages from them, and you need more letters for your collection. If the singer becomes famous, you can later auction off the set. Incidentally, do you really have proof that this person really represents the singer? Maybe they're someone who is trying to steal the domain from you. If you haven't sent paper mail to the singer's agent, you might try sending him a short paper letter saying that someone seems to be trying to use the singer's name to get a personal domain which you have owned for years.
hope they are just trying to scare me and drop everything, but that I don't know, I have 6 days to "give up the domain" or be sued, i really hope they stop, this is like a bad joke, and I can not post her name here, I don't want to push the envelop.
hmm Sending her a messege is not a bad idea, you might be right, it could be someone else trying to make money off her name, I have read a lot about her in the past two days, so now I know a lot and I know she is on twitter.com from time to time , maybe i just send her a messege and see what happens
I just sent an email to the guy that wants the domain, i just said that i hope it was joke and for him not to make false statements and stop threating me to give him what belongs to me, and he responded back and said, this is not a joke, I cced my attorney, you can now continue talks with me,,, I received an email from his attorney right away, he goes, you need to hire an attorney and educate yourself as to applicable internet laws regarding such use, ...