Race Drivers/Team Domain names

[Nina]

Im not sure if this is the most appropriate place to put this but just thought this may be of concernt to some individuals. Perhaps I am wrong, but its certainly irked me!

OK, so there is a forum that has some motorsport discussion on it but most of seems to be porn and general chit chat... ANYWAY... I have found out that the owner of this site is registering lots of domain names and setting them up to forward to his forum. The bit thats annoyed me is that he is registering domain names that are either driver names and team names.

So I suppose I just want to warn any driver in the british F3, Frenault, Fford in case they havent registered their domain names yet. This person has already got www.tomkimber-smith.com, heikkikovalainen.com and so on.

So I reckon if there are drivers heading upwards they might want to park their domain names, just in case.

mods - If you think this thread be better placed somewhere else please do so, I didnt really know where to put it

[GolddustMini]

nothing wrong with that its forward planning and as far as im aware there is nothing wrong with it, infact if mr kimbersmith wants his name back as a domain name he can purchase it off said website, thus making it profitable for the site owner...


however tomkimber-smith.co.uk by the looks of it still available so............

[bella]

i put it in cool sites because i don't really know where to put it either. any other ideas welcome...

[Nina]

From the site owners point of view it could be a profitable little thing hes got going on, however, from a race driver P.O.V it means a few things:

right now they can be 'parked' for about £8.99/£1.99 on www.oneandone.co.uk if somebody else buys theirname.com or .co.uk etc then it could cost them £hundreds to buy them... so I suppose Im just saying, if you are planning a website it might be better to register the name sooner rather than later

[Nina]

Hi bella you prob know better than most I was going to put it in the racers forum but thought better of it

[DriverT]

Well... actually cybersquatting is a civil offence and if you cannot prove you own the right to have the name, you may face a hefty fine in court.

[Aysedasi]

Originally posted by GolddustMini
nothing wrong with that its forward planning and as far as im aware there is nothing wrong with it, infact if mr kimbersmith wants his name back as a domain name he can purchase it off said website, thus making it profitable for the site owner...

I'm sorry, I don't agree with that at all. A totally immoral approach, IMO.

By the way, are you interested in www.golddustmini.com.......?

[Nina]

It is immoral - as are some of the contents of the site all his domains forward to! I wouldnt dream of registering names of racing drivers just to forward them to my new website.

[supertouring]

This was common not so long ago for various types of famous people, whose name was linked to sites that they would prefer them not to be. I think those with money were able to recover the names, but unless you have registered your name as a trade mark (or whatever) then how can you claim a URL (i.e. a string of letters) belongs to you. Why can't he register www.tom-kimbersmith.com instead and have it all over his car and helmet etc so everyone gets the correct one.

I do not think he should he have the right to any URL just cause it has these letters in it? God help Tomkimber Smith if he ever wanted a website! And poor old Harry Potter!

[racingdad]

Originally posted by DriverT
Well... actually cybersquatting is a civil offence and if you cannot prove you own the right to have the name, you may face a hefty fine in court.

Not strictly true, I'm sorry to say. As long as the name has not been registered by someone else, you can buy it - you do not have to prove that the name is significant to you. I recently had a registration co ring me to say that someone had asked to register a name so similar that it was almost criminal - but where the organisation I am with had .co.uk, they had gone for a very slight variation and .co. then .biz. then .net then .org... Apparently the only solution was for us to register them first (as they were so close to our name) - sound like blackmail to you??? and yes it is legal - or so our legal advisor (partner in UK's largest law firm) told us.

[ASCII Man]

Ford and their evil henchmen manage to sue everything that looks or sounds even remotely related to them.
Like sites of feline enthusiasts.

******s...

[Nina]

BBC Legal dont seem to like the fact that he has got bbc-f1.com 'allegedly' If the name is a trademark then I see the problem, if the name isnt a trademark, then there isnt much that can be done, and u r right supertouring that anyone can register any name ... being an irrational female et all, I still think that Such act is Immoral,

[racingdad]

If the name is a trademark or patent, then it is illegal to use it - but if the person registering the name is in, say, ukraine, you have a problem...If the name is very similar, but not exactly the same, then its a legal field day - say you have acompany called The Racer Company Ltd, with a website racercompany.co.uk and someone registers racerco.com - very open to debate! Individual names are even harder to prove - I don't own racingdad.co.uk - or a personal name website, so there really isn't anything to stop someone else registering them...