Is this copyright infringement?

[dc803540]

I am creating a new informational site about a product. There are many sites out there selling this product, and one in particular has a domain name that is also their company name that also happens to be the general term used for the product plus USA attached at the end of it. This is not their real domain name but it looks like this:

www.redwidgetsusa.com

If I create my informational site to have a domain name of:

www.red-widgets-usa.com

Would this considered copyright infringement?

Thanks for any advice!

[BigDave]

No. But it might be trademark infringement.

[beren]

Right. A domain name would not be copyrighted. Trademark is more tenuous.

[briggidere]

i'm sorry, but.

you are probably the kind of person who copies our sites.

if you are in doubt about copyright it usually means you are in the wrong..

[BigDave]

you are probably the kind of person who copies our sites.

And you are the sort of person that does not read posts very well. You might want to pay attention to this snippet from the original post, and try and figure out what is wrong with what you are accusing them of.

I am creating a new informational site about a product. There are many sites out there selling this product,

[briggidere]

"And you are the sort of person that does not read posts very well. You might want to pay attention to this snippet from the original post, and try and figure out what is wrong with what you are accusing them of. "

I'm sorry if i came accross a bit blunt,

but, The reason i said what i did is because someone has done this to one of my sites. it has top traffic and some webmaster decided to piggy back off the success of the site by doing exactly what is being described in the original post.

As they say, they are not copying the site, but are using the name to help them in that way. I think it is unethical. If its going to be an information only site about a subject, why not get it's own domain rather than saying thats a good one, i'll take it but i'll put some dashes in it and make it mine.

I wasn't trying to be rude here, just trying to point out my negative thoughts on the matter.

[BigDave]

Well, you are continuing to make assumptions with

As they say, they are not copying the site, but are using the name to help them in that way.

No, they never said that they are using the name for any such purpose.

It is quite possible that the chose that name for a reason other than piggybacking on the other site's success, and that the non-hyphenated version was already in use.

I just bought a domain name that is hyphenated because the non-hyphenated version was not available. It was the name I wanted for the site. The non-hyphenated version has been owned since 98 and has never had a website as far as I can tell.

Am I piggybacking on their success? I thought that I was getting it because it was the perfect name.

You are making assumptions about a motive on very scant evidence. I'm not claiming that it wasn't their motive, but that there is no evidence and that it is a total side issue to the discussion.