Ok, so i found a domain name that is of a pretty big game site. They have most of the extentions registered, but one they did not. If i was to buy that and make it like a mobile version of that site, using php to grab parts of the site and stuff to display it on mine. Basically, its their site, mobile Would that be legal? Edit: I decided to just go ahead and buy it, then I emailed them directly asking about it
That is so horribly against copyright law you wouldn't stand a chance if you were sued. Why would you even want to do that? Get your own domain, get your own content, and go from there. If they say its ok, then you are good. If they don't, then I would ask them to provide you the domain registration fee you paid for it and transfer it to them.
Unless they have the domain name trademarked, you can use that name. However, stealing their content will cause legal issues. Most will not take you to court but they could get your site shut down through your hosting company and your domain could be froze. Stealing any content is a copyright issue and could cause more problems than it is worth.
In the email I told them my full intention Its a MMORPG site, its like its a news site I am giving the user the ability to basically check the highscores, see the news (the huge news articles are posted probably once a month, little one line status information basically whenever there is technical problems) They will also be able to look up characters, etc So its not necessarly stealing the content, if loading highscores and stuff is considered stealing and they decide to take action, quite a bit of sites are shutting down. So I emailed them telling everything I plan on doign and I hope they like it.
In the US, there are automatic common law trademark rights established upon first usage (no filing is required) - this type of usage would certainly be trademark infringement unless you had express permission to use it.