This involves US politician Ron Paul, but it's not a political thread and has nothing to do with his political views.

It's a story about domain squatting, the business of registering domain names in hopes of being able to sell them later. Usually, the domain name is that of a company or individual. It's a common practice, and is illegal in the US after many companies (e.g. Lufthansa) and people (e.g. Donald Trump) were forced to buy their own names back at ridiculous prices lest they become attached to porn sites or advertising link sites.

In this latest case, the person whose name was stolen (and used to sell T-shirts) was Ron Paul. The original registrar sold ronpaul.org and ronpaul.com on eBay for $25,000 in 2008. The buyer subsequently offered to sell them to Ron Paul the person for $848,000. That offer was refused, and was then knocked down to $250,000. That's when Mr. Paul sought arbitration.

Here's the arbitration ruling: http://domainnamewire.com/wp-content/paul-2.pdf. It's interesting reading.

The rules are pretty straightforward, and the con artist appears to have met every requirement for being forced to give up (or sell at a more reasonable price) the domain names. However, Mr. Paul lost the case. The ruling was that because the not-Ron Paul domain registrar included a disclaimer on his website (where Ron Paul T-shirts were being hawked) saying he wasn't R.P. and didn't know R.P., that he was therefore off the hook.

Now, I'm sure bapu wouldn't care if I registered bapu.com and leased it to a porn site, as long as I gave him free access. But normal people might take offense. Ian Anderson did when JethroTull.com was hijacked (he won). Imagine Steinberg registering Cakewalk.net. 

Some guy right near Pedro in Vancouver Washington has yours Bitflipper!  Go get 'em!

You can never tell what'll happen to yor good name on the interweb.  Back when I was makin ol Pete Gabriel so miserable with my remix of his Shock The Monkey, Newsweek did a story on us winners and they said I was a dang blues band from California!!!  I have always been myownself and myownself only.  No band would ever have me.  Go figure.

"Where you come from is gone...where you thought you were goin to weren't never there...and where you are ain't no good unless you can get away from it." (By a famous one man "blues band" from CA AR). 

That there's my ol pal Haze Motes speakin through the pen of the incomparable Flannery O'Conner.

The decision is interesting reading. The case is decided largely because it is not a typical incident of domain name squatting. The key finding in favor of the alleged squatters is that they were using the domain name as a "fan site" that was actually promoting the ideology and candidacy of Mr. Paul, and in fact that it was used as a link to his official candidate website,  before there was any attempt to shake him down for an unconscionable purchase price. Thus the alleged squatter had demonstrated legitimate use for the name aside from extortionate speculation. Any disclaimer appearing on the website does not seem to have been dispositive.

You know what sucks? MLB owns the rights to a sight named after me.

Don't you all see the cheat there? You were born with your identity and it was registered at your birth. No one can buy your identity on the internet as a domain name. The internet is just a big phone, a machine with no rights other than mechanical laws of operation. No one and I mean no one, can buy or own your identity as a domain on the internet. You are the owner of your name everywhere, period. Let your voice be heard, lock and load, say, I am me. 

I'm still trying to figure out how credit reporting services can get away with selling information about me and my activities for a profit without compensating me.

Crg


Don't you all see the cheat there? You were born with your identity and it was registered at your birth. No one can buy your identity on the internet as a domain name. The internet is just a big phone, a machine with no rights other than mechanical laws of operation. No one and I mean no one, can buy or own your identity as a domain on the internet. You are the owner of your name everywhere, period. Let your voice be heard, lock and load, say, I am me. 

However, as uncommon as my full name might be, there's at least two others with the same name that I know of (one on the east coast and another in the UK somewhere).  So which of us should be allowed to have the domain if we chose to?  The oldest?  The first to actually want it and register it?
 
Now expand that to someone named John Smith...