Virtual Cyber-Law: Keith Urban

[sonnik]

Here's the story. Country performer Keith Urban is all upset (http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070207/music_nm/urban_dc_2) that another dude by the name of Keith Urban owns KeithUrban.com (http://www.keithurban.com). He's going to sue him for cyber-squatting.

Here's a screen shot of the web site:

http://www.sonnik.com/img/urban.png

So, is the "painter" Keith Urban doing anything wrong?

[walters]

I've never heard of either one of them, but I gotta say, the Google ads for the singer aren't exactly helping the painter's case.

[sonnik]

I've never heard of either one of them, but I gotta say, the Google ads for the singer aren't exactly helping the painter's case.

If you use Google's Adsense, you're not really given the option of what ads you want to run. You'll get ad placements based on the content of your page.

The only control you really have is to block out competition.

So, that may be Google's fault. Adsense is out there for anyone to use.

[Lord_Skywalker]

The guy's name is Keith Urban. I see nothing to suggest that he is trying to say he is the singer. The only thing I can suggest to the painter is to put a disclaimer at the bottom of the page stating he is not affiliated with Keith Urban, the singer. I think Keith Urban, the singer, is SOL, but who knows, throw enough money at a problem.

[keirgrey]

You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? Check out the case of the guy who owns nissan.com http://nissan.com/.

[jen]

You'd like to think so, wouldn't you? Check out the case of the guy who owns nissan.com http://nissan.com/.

It's stories like these that make me hate big corporations. They're just pissed they weren't forward-thinking enough to grab the name first.

[Gai-jin]

While I enjoy listening to Keith Urban, I'd have to say if the other guy beat him to the domain, and is using it for some legitimate purpose, the singer is out of luck.

[DougF]

In December 1987, I started an import/export business...

The guy could solve all his problems by changing his name to Art Vandelay.

[Otto]

It's hard to say who's in the right on this one. Keith Urban clearly has the moral victory here, but Keith Urban has a good point to make. On the other hand, I've never heard of Keith Urban before anyway. So, all things considered, I think Keith Urban should get the domain, while Keith Urban should just STFU and get over it.

[eddyj]

Anyone else notice that nobody has ever seen Keith Urban in the same room as Keith Urban? Makes you wonder...

[Pendragn]

I can't wait until some guy named Todd Klindt gets famous and tries to steal toddklindt.com from me.

tk

[walters]

Alright, I'm not too crazy about the idea of taking on an attorney, but I'm taking mine back. This guy doesn't even spell his name that way.
http://www.glenwalters.com/

[DougF]

I plan to be famous soon. I'll be changing my name to Todd Klindt.

[Pendragn]

I plan to be famous soon. I'll be changing my name to Todd Klindt.
Be honest, are you doing it just so that you can say my car is yours?

tk

[DougF]

That and I want your domain.

Catburger00sucks.com just doesn't have the same ring to it.

[Philosofy]

My brother wanted his name as his domain name, but someone already had it. Until he didn't keep his payments up to date, then my brother grabbed it. The other Thomas Peterson was PISSED!

[eddyj]

I own the .us and .net versions of my last name, but the .com is a textile company in Spain. Bastards!

[Mikkel_Knight]

I suppose one could go back and see how long he's been operating his business and take a buy-out and instead get keithurbanpictures.com...

But if it's the guys name, and he's been running it for quite some time, I don't see how the country singer has a leg to stand on...

I got it... I should sue the band Hanson because I was born long before they were...

He should have bought his domain when he released his debut album. Since he didn't then, tough cookies...

Buy out the other guy and STFU...

Clearly, he's not the only one with the name Keith Urban...

[Otto]

The general rule as applied to domain names is: if it's not actually being used fraudulently, then whoever gets it first owns it. Given that the guys name is Keith Urban and that he's not pretending to be any other Keith Urban than himself, and given that he got it first, he's got a pretty solid winning case for keeping it.

The best the other Keith Urban can hope for is to buy it off him. Probably for a ludicrously large sum.

The fact that Uzi Nissan still owns Nissan.com demonstrates this. Okay, so he had to go through a big PITA to keep it, but he won at pretty much every step of the way. He lost some minor bits that always got reversed on appeal, admittedly, but the case pretty much set the standard.

[trainman]

I own the .us and .net versions of my last name, but the .com is a textile company in Spain. Bastards!

I own the .tv version of my last name. .com, .org, and .net are all taken by Germans.