Is there any possible future legal trouble if I buy domain names that have celebs or athlete's names in them? (ie brittneyspears.com, its taken but it is an example) EDIT: I'm not going to sell the domain (anytime soon at least). I know this person will be future in say 2-5 months so I want to make some money when the name is run through SEO's.
I have seen lawsuits over sites with domain names like that. Even companies have sued. I know some people made alot of money when net first took of buying domain names and selling them back to companies or people. I bet celebrities would say that thier name is copyrighted and go after you. Just what i think would happen. I would not bother if they go after you it would cost more than it is worth.
What will be the consequences though? (just take away domain or use for money?) Also: Can I use an altered version of the domain? That don't link directly to the person, but rather something about the person. (ie: www.NameLastnameFans.com).
Well the consequences will probably be taking your domain away. If you made money with that domain then it's a whole other ball game because they can also sue you. One example Ringo Starr took ringostarr.mobi from a fan. So yes you do lose. Skinny
If it's being used in "bad faith" then they can legally take the domain away from you. Unless you manage to turn thr site into a huge one, they probably won't go after anything else.
You are more likely to have problems with a commercial site (generates any type of revenue - advertising, donations for bandwidth, sell links, etc.) vs. a true fan site that doesn't generate any revenue. Anytime you ride the goodwill of a trademark, you run the risk of being sued. In addition to having the domain taken, they could sue you for all revenue the site has ever generated, damages, and if the mark is registered, treble their legal fees. I think in most cases where anything is done, they will just attempt to take the domain - but there is always a risk of the above. You are also apt to have more problems when you just use the their name - although adding words to a trademark does not get around infringement.
Well... I don't really want to use the domain for anything bad. It will be a fully informational website, which will keep the visitors interested and hopefully click some ads. . (videos, photos, bio, forum, etc.) I don't really care if I get the domain taken away. 10usd, big deal. I just don't want to pay any money on top of that . I'm looking to make money. I don't really care about the person that much to make a site and spend time on them.
"Anything bad" - a "positive" site doesn't get around trademark infringement. You could say they are the greatest person that ever existed and it wouldn't give you any legal right to use the trademark. In fact, a domain that wasn't positive "FamousCelebritySucks.com" would not be infringement as the courts have ruled this as free speech and that the average person isn't going to believe it's connected to the celebrity. You also need permission to use celebrity photographs or videos and there is a very genuine risk of being sued for copyright infringement if you just take pictures off the web. The celebrity usually doesn't own the rights to photographs and it's the photographer (or agency) who will sue you - and they get to set a usage fee (several thousand per image isn't uncommon). The celebrity has no say in this situation.
seriously????????????????????????????????? Ehhh.. I'm probably going to take the risk and buy the domain(s) anyway. Sounds like I can make some money. (I was wondering about those ipodsucks nintendosucks and other sites. How they get around the tm?) Also: I remember a few years back that someone had made websites about quite a few basketball players and put adsense on them. This guy probably made crazy money. He had same style page for all of the stars, must have had like 10 because they were interlinked. (i remember because I was noob and I was wondering what the hell google had to do with those links. probably clickbombed him? clicked at least 3 diff links...)
i assume that if you only have a name and not promoting them in anyway just by having the domain them they cant do much as 1000's of other people have the same name then itwould be a global law suit unless it is a made up performers name
That depends on the country having any possibly applicable law. In the US, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (ACPA) can allow a complaining party to file an "in rem" action to wrest control of the domain name without securing monetary damages. If successful, it can be enforced on the US-based registrar or US-based Registry. Unfortunately I lost the link to one such decision. So far I can recall it was in a district court in Virginia, which is where the VeriSign COM NET Registry also happens to be in. It's enforcing the decision to someone overseas that's the real question. But some parties like a challenge.
That wouldn't be a good idea,but if you would like to take the risk It depends on how strict those name holder,you could easily lose your domain name if they know you doing something not good on it.