If I were to start a site for webmasters to help each other with social bookmarking will that get me in trouble using adsense on the site? Will I feel any major consequences anywhere else? Would I be in trouble if i used the name stumbleupon in my domain?
If you can review your service and review adsense TOS, if you didn't abuse or violate any of their rules, i think its allowed and no problem to make a website just like what you want
There are a gazillion people already doing it. What kind of trouble are you worried about? Going to jail? Get audited by the IRS? I mean really? What Google says is no big deal, go use Adbrite. Stumble Upon probably has some TOS against using their trade name in keyword bidding, but your not gonna do that right? So go have fun and do your thing. Just mentioning a site name on your site is not going to get you in any trouble, if that is what you are asking. I can tell you that bookmarking sites are hip to this stuff though. And your members will probably get banned all the time. But who cares. Have fun, get crazy, take a chance! You only live once. That's about a nanosecond in real time. So go for it!
While it most likely wont matter, it is still illegal to use their trademarked name in your domain. A prime example is the myspace domains way back when. Myspace went after all the support sites that had the trademarked term "Myspace" in their domain. They made webmasters hand over their websites and the law was on their side. I say your chances of running into trouble is 1/10 but if you're really worried about it I would create a unique un-trademarked domain.
To whoever the gutless anonymous crap talker was who "repped" me, here is my response... I know more about the "law" than you think. You can mention ANY website name you want as long as you are not using it as advertising and you display a disclaimer, or you are writing an article or review. No company can do a damn thing about it unless you slander them or use their name for profit. I don't give "advise" anyway, I gave my opinion and it was as valid as your "expert" commentary I'm sure. As far as having some Bookmarking club... It's a bad idea to begin with. People will just get banned and upset and they will quit even trying it. Like I said, it has been done a million times and all these bookmarking sites are well aware that people are spamming them. Which is what it amounts to. I am one of those people who just thinks that if you believe you want to try something, then go for it. All the so-called experts are usually the type that sit around and pretend they know what is and what isn't worthwhile. They never actually do anything themselves, they just talk a lot and give advise. There are a lot of things on the Internet that you might think are "illegal", but in reality they are completely ignored until you profit or challenge someone who is making a profit. Then the "war" begins. Take Pirate Bay as an example. These jokers got a conviction and slapped silly with a multi-million dollar fine and the site is still up and running just like nothing ever happened. So you tell me. Who's "Law" are you referring to? Next time have the guts to say who you are, then we can play the stupid "rep" game properly and I can rep you back. Eat dirt! BTW "Horrid" has two r's in it fool!
no...no....my friend..... not to much thinked..... just do it....but i refer no to put adsense on social boook..... just in case....someone has naugthy thought.....
I don't ever give red rep so it wasn't me, but I do disagree with you on some points. If you're using a registered trademark in your domain name, it doesn't matter what the disclaimer says, or what you're using the site for, the owner of the trademark can legally make you surrender the domain/website contents to them. It's been tried over and over again in court and the law always sides with the owner of the trademark. I think there are a lot of myths floating around the net when it comes to trademarks. Will the trademark owner take you to court if you don't surrender the domain to them? 99% of the time, no they will not, but they have the law on there side if they do decide to. ThePirateBay is a completely different story. They were tried and convicted in Sweden courts where they were slapped with a multi-million dollar fine. One loop hole though is there servers reside in Belgium and Russia which have completely different copyright laws. Now if Belgium and Russia were to take them to court then more then likely that would be the end of TPB.
I have started the site with su instead of stumbleupon as the main part of the domain but I am planning on sitting my original domain on top of it =]
People use trademark domain names all the time. It's called squatting. If you own it first and they want it, then they can buy it or "sue" you... Whatever. Moot point. Chances are you are not gonna find a single domain out there with the words "stumbleupon" in any form what-so-ever. Blah, blah, blah. And our mystery "rep" giver can stick their head where the sun don't shine. This person is a spineless nobody. At least on the second spineless rep they looked up the proper spelling of the word "horrid". (Probably had to find out what it actually means too, I would imagine.) I thought we were talking about a "bookmarking" group site. Didn't realize we were debating the relevance of squatting a domain name. The title was "Social Bookmarking Abuse" not "How can I best Squat a Domain Name." Whatever the case, I could care less really. What other people do is none of my business, I was just posting on a forum. Referencing Pirate Bay.... Care less about that too, hope they die a really painful death. BTW I just bought a 20 dollar domain name that a company wanted bad enough to pay $5000 for. So there you go. Squatting has its privileges. Have a very nice day
Social bookmarking is fine.. just don't over do and make sure that you are providing viable and suitable content that's the most important thing