Why is that famous people feel that they have the right to own their domain names?!!! Just because of their hollyweird status they think they can lay claim on to whatever their eyes survey. In recent news Australian country singer, Keith Urban, has filed a lawsuit against the owner of www.keithurban.com. A major precedent that he will be using is the famous madonna case.
*aside* Just in case you want to know how Madonna won her case: Pop superstar Madonna has won her case at an international panel to evict a New York cybersquatter from the Internet address madonna.com, which was initially a porn site, U.N. arbitrators said on Monday.
Didn't the UN have better things to work on?
The American singer, whose famous hits include “Like a Virgin” and “Material Girl,” filed the complaint in July at the Geneva-based World Intellectual Property Organization against businessman Dan Parisi who was first to register the Internet address.
A three-member panel at WIPO, the United Nations copyright and intellectual property agency that runs an arbitration system that evicts cybersquatters, ordered Parisi to transfer the site to Madonna.
The panel said Parisi, who is a Web site developer, had no trademark right to the name Madonna and failed to prove legitimate interest in the Internet domain name that he had
registered in bad faith.
Bad faith...if anyone has the right to be concerned about in fringing on a person's name or trademark [using Madonna's logic] then the Catholic Church should be requesting that the domain be transfered over to them since The Madonna has had a lock on the name, 'image' and 'trademark' a lot longer the Madonna.
I just love how Madonna thinks that by taking ownership of the madonna.com and making it her brand is going to remove people's perception of her being a religiously confused slut. That lawsuit was 7 years ago and all I can remember about Madonna is that she promoted her sexuality like a used car sales man on skid row, not that really bothers me because I keep my morals about as high as a midget's ankle anyway.
The panel said Parisi, who is a Web site developer, had no trademark right to the name Madonna and failed to prove legitimate interest in the Internet domain name that he had registered in bad faith.
I am still waiting to hear a good argument as to way he had to give that up. This isn't an eminent domain argument. What if he was squatting? What if he was holding out for a big payday? Is that any different from an investor holding out on a piece of prime real estate that he bought a long time ago that is now worth a lot of money?
*as of 02/07/2006 at 3:38pm CST patriotblog.com is now bidding for $40K*
Now a days domain names are the new real estate. It is all about location, location, location. If I owned beach front property I would make more money that if I owned beach view property. It is the nature of the game.
*end aside*
However, the main difference is that keithurban.com ISN'T squatting. Why you may ask...is the anger from Drunk Kangaroo because the keithurban.com is displaying photoshop'd images of the country singer bent over in a school girl's outfit smiling while licking a popsicles? NO.
He is crying over the fact someone is using it to...now get this...sell their own paintings. If you are still able to contain the outrage, then brace yourself for the fact that the person's name is in fact *drum roll* Keith Urban as well and has in fact owned the domain since 1999-05-10.
------------------------------------------------
WHOIS information
------------------------------------------------
domain: keithurban.com
owner: Keith Urban
email: keith28@optonline.net
address: po box 53202
city: Irvine
state: CA
postal-code: 92619
country: US
phone: +407.2380814
admin-c: CCOM-60533 keith28@optonline.net
tech-c: CCOM-60533 keith28@optonline.net
billing-c: CCOM-60533 keith28@optonline.net
nserver: ns1.hbhosting.com
nserver: ns2.hbhosting.com
status: lock
created: 1999-05-10 23:12:59 UTC
modified: 2006-09-24 01:39:18 UTC
expires: 2011-05-10 23:13:33 UTC
contact-hdl: CCOM-60533
person: Keith Urban
organization: Keith Urban Inc.
email: keith28@optonline.net
address: 231 Wanaque Ave
city: Pompton Lakes
state: NJ
postal-code: 07442
country: US
phone: +973.8315911
source: joker.com live whois service
query-time: 0.018278
db-updated: 2007-02-07 20:55:49
*****************************************************************
Registrant:
Keith Urban
PO Box 331549
Nashville, TN 37203
US
Domain Name: KEITHURBAN.NET
Administrative Contact:
McCready, Mary Ann maryann_mccready@FBMM.COM
P.O. Box 331549
Nashville, TN 37206
US
615-329-9902 fax: 615-321-5074
Technical Contact:
Radiant Communications Canada Ltd. domains@RADIANT.NET
1660 - 885 West Georgia Street
Vancouver, BC V6C 3E8
CA
604-257-0500 fax: 604-608-0999
Record expires on 07-Sep-2011.
Record created on 07-Sep-1999.
Database last updated on 7-Feb-2007 15:53:55 EST.
Domain servers in listed order:
NS1.API-DIGITAL.COM
NS2.API-DIGITAL.COM
---------------------------------------------------------------------
END OF WHOIS
---------------------------------------------------------------------
The basis for the lawsuit is that Keith Urban (Drunk Kangaroo) claims that www.keithurban.com is misleading and implies that the website really belongs to Drunk Kangaroo...yea because God knows that only the famous Keith Urban has the right to market that name. It definitely has nothing to do with the fact that drunk Kangaroo doesn't own the dot com, which in case you didn't know has a greater likely who have receiving traffic.
I guess Drunk Kangaroo thinks his fans are too stupid to realize that they have navigated to the wrong site when they see a big picture of "Interactive Guide to Walt Disney World" not hearing the inebriated slurs of Keith saying, "Happy Valentines everyone, this is Keith Urban. Make the day special for your once in a life time love."
keithurban.com is not trying to fool people at all and the musician Keith Urban must be so drunk that he doesn't realize or cannot comprehend that people in the world sometimes have the same name as you!! I think keithurban.com should put a picture of an empty beer bottle on his home page and write, "Sorry, if you were looking for the Keith Urban that can't handle his drink, you've got me mixed-up with keithurban.net. I am Keith Urban the oil painting artist and I can handle my drink."
Sorry Drunk Kangaroo that you missed the boat on the .com address and got stuck with the junior varsity .net. Do you really think he would have been pitching a fit if he owned the .com and not the .net and why now is he causing a stink about this...his career is about a decade old?
Next time lay off the sauce.
Keith Urban...Australian for Drunk Kangaroo
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