I'm working with someone who is a very well known authority in his field.
He had a partner (outside the US) who used to help him with a few aspects. Well, (bad) things happened and the relationship went south (a large amount of money was stolen, etc..).
Well, the ex-partner let his domain lapse. I know there is nothing I can do about it since it is not trademarked and could be considered a generic term.
He did, however, create a site based on my friend's name.com . The site uses his articles without his permission and is selling products that my friend does not endorse. He also posts articles that my friend did not write although he's putitng his name on them.
Obviouly this is a pretty clear cut case. This person is misrepresenting my friend and exploiting a past business relationship they had.
My question is how much are we looking at to forcibly acquire the domain? I understand the YMMV policy and the TOS against giving specifics (web sites etc, plus I've already found where to lodge the complaint), I'm just looking for a ball park figure (fees etc..). Neither of us have a lot of money
He did, however, create a site based on my friend's name.com . The site uses his articles without his permission and is selling products that my friend does not endorse. He also posts articles that my friend did not write although he's putitng his name on them.Obviouly this is a pretty clear cut case. This person is misrepresenting my friend and exploiting a past business relationship they had.
[chillingeffects.org...]
Using articles written by your friend without his written permission is a violation of your friend's copyright unless he specifically gave permission, in writing. Another factor is that of "trademark" where a person's name is conerned, and that can be a sticky wicket. If the person's name is associated with certain materials, there may be some provision of trademark law that gives your friend common-law trademark ownership by reason of past usage in conjunction with the concepts.
Some would say to send a C&D to the other party, others would advise not giving a heads-up and just going direct to the ISP (web host) and the search engines with a DMCA complaint, to remove pages in violation from the net and from the search engines, respectively.
Gather all the documentation you can right away, including screenshots, files, including from the Internet Archive - and whatever else connects your friend's name with that content (and his name).
THis is going to be a tough one to fight. Luckily I went ahead and registered the clients .net and .org, I think I'll also do the .info
>>He did, however, create a site based on my friend's name.com
If the two can be connected, it should be enough.
And/or would there be any links someplace from a while back indicating your friend as the author?
If your friend can verify in any way that he is the creator, DMCA complaints can be sent and that doesn't take a lawyer to do.
[edited by: Marcia at 10:45 pm (utc) on Dec. 13, 2007]
Also, using the money he stole from my friend, he's selling my friend's books also (illegally published) where the proceeds go to the person, not my friend.
There are also articles on the site by people my friend would not want to be associated with.
Plus, there is a ton of adsense on the site, none of which goes to my friend (the smallest issue) which are also promoting "professional" entities that my fried would not want to be associated with.
The WhoIs information clearly states this person as the owner of the domain and my friend recognizes him as an ex-partner (never gave him permission to set up this website).
My only saving grace is that it's was newly registered in May of this year (why didn't I run into this person six months earlier?).
The person has a hit counter and it's only registered 422 hits which IMO is very low for that amount of time.
The person is not in the US but the registrar is (possibly a saving grace?).
