can a fan site have the domain name of a celebrity?

[callivert]

I was thinking about setting up a fan site for a particular celebrity. The celebrity's name is not registered as a dot net. The dot com is taken, but there's no site there - it's not even parked. What are the risks of registering a celebrity's name for the purposes of setting up a fan site? In other words, purchasing firstname-lastname.net. I've noticed that some fan sites do this, but what is the legal situation?

[filho]

I think you can register. I know much sites like yours and no one have problems.

[fischermx]

The legal situation, is that until you don't get sued, or at least UDRP, you will be fine :).

Seriously, it is a bit risky, but yet everybody does it.
I think it depends on the artist, and mostly on his lawyers. When they have a team dedicated to prosecute people, they will go behind everything that moves, without letting the artist know each.

Coincidently, I have a fistnamelastname.net website for an artist with a running website. The .com is also taken and not even parked. Sometime ago, someone in the name of the representative approached me, not to sue me, but trying to buy me the name! I didn't know who they are and quoted a large sum :(
They bargained a lot and it was until the last email they told me who they were, and they told me they got a "lastnameonly.com" for the artist, which was better for them.
So I think I'm safe and will survive. Somehow, they passed on the name and allowed me to keep it.

[Leosghost]

check and see if it is trademarked in your juristiction befor investing time in building a site on it ..also run a whois on the dotcom..chances are if the owner is the agent of or the celebrity themselves than the name may well be trademarked ..you may get lucky ..

but the legal risks are greater with the name of a celebrity who has an image machine etc than with "joe smith" ..

[Webwork]

Celebrity URL + Making Money by trading off celebrity's celebrity status = Trouble

Pure fan site + No revenue production of any kind (Yes, not even to cover costs) = Less Trouble.

"Oh, but it's not profitiable"? Sorry, if you are raking in revenue trading off the celebrity's status you have a larger hole in the armor.

Read some of the WIPO and National Arb Forum opinions dealing with celebrity domains before you invest time, money and effort in your project.

[OWizeOne]

y not..

[dipen]

RISK is always there if you playing with a NAME, specially CELEBRITY.

Will suggest, go ahead!

Take another domain and redirect/mask it to this site.

If ever, you get the warning, transfer the site content to this domain. Always, keep a weekly backup with you!

[filho]

What is "WIPO and National Arb Forum"? Sorry, I'm not very good in english language.

[Webwork]

[google.com...]

[callivert]

Thanks,
I looked up the WIPO policy and they've got specific policies on domain names of individuals. First, the name must be used in trade or commerce. Film stars, novelists, etc, fall under this category.
Regarding fan sites:

An active and clearly non-commercial fan site may have rights and legitimate interests in the domain name that includes the complainant’s trademark. The site should be non-commercial and clearly distinctive from any official site.

So you can build a fan site, but it has to be a labor of love. If you put adsense or amazon links on it, you're trading off their trademark. I also noticed that they said "may have rights and legitimate interests in the domain name". They're not making any promises even to legitimate fan sites.
Therefore, my conclusion is, don't build anything on a celebrity domain name, because the celebrity can take it away. Probably the safest thing with a fan site is to put it on an unrelated domain name.