Man of Honour
This person speaks the truth.Von Luck said:
Definitely do *not* ask for more money.
I own a celebrity domain name
- Thread starter Sinister
- Start date
Definitely do *not* ask for more money.
Soldato
- Joined
- 2 Jun 2004
- Posts
- 18,423
My guess is it's a "once I had a line in an episode of the bill" type celebrity. 
Man of Honour
I wouldn't turn it down, depending on the fame of the person, they'll have a strong case and you have nothing to lose. Fight them and you'll lose and get nothing
EDIT: Make 100% sure it's genuine and on behalf of the person first, you never know...
EDIT: Make 100% sure it's genuine and on behalf of the person first, you never know...
Last edited:
Agreed.Beansprout said:
Whether a domain name can be taken off you depends on a number of factors, including whether there is any bad faith element to the registration. If you ask for more, it would support an assertion that the reason for the registration was precisely to chisel money out of the celeb. If you do that, exopect the dispute to be resolved against you and to end up with nothing. But .... if you're acting in good faith, then it can be tricky getting a registration away from a registrant.
I would either accept, or if you (Sinister, I mean, not you, Beany) do want to hold out for more, decline the offer but state the reason as something like the fact you are are developing a non-commercial fan site .... then do so.
You might get an increased offer, or they might just accept that and sit back and wait, to see what the site is.
But any attempt to use a celeb's name to either commercially exploit that name, or to attempt a bit of friendly extortion on them, nearly always leads to the registration being unceremeniously transferred. Of course, if the offer is totally above board AND comes from someone other than agents of the celeb, then you could be on to a winner.
Oh, one more thing. Should a celeb really want their name out of your hands, Sinister, it isn't just about whether you'd win a legal fight. It's about whether you're prepared to stump up the cash it'll take to defend an action if one is brought. Are you? If not, don't push it hard enough that court looks easier or cheaper to those making the offer. The law really does belong to those that can afford to use it.
If the celeb's people were litigious, it would serve the OP, should they take the fansite idea further, to keep the content as entirely banal as possible. This goes doubley for the UK, where libel laws favour the plaintiff more.Sequoia said:
So no more www.tomcruiseisstillinthecloset.com.
Little story for you.
One of my friends setup one of the early UK search engines, some time later his site was voted one of the top 3 UK search engines. He was approached by someone representing one of the big search engines. They offered him $1million.
He was stupid enough to think they would come back with a larger offer so he turned it down. Next thing hew knew he was dropped from the google index and his traffic fell 80% and its worth nothing now
One of my friends setup one of the early UK search engines, some time later his site was voted one of the top 3 UK search engines. He was approached by someone representing one of the big search engines. They offered him $1million.
He was stupid enough to think they would come back with a larger offer so he turned it down. Next thing hew knew he was dropped from the google index and his traffic fell 80% and its worth nothing now
Soldato
Well I know that you don't have the right to take any domain name you want. Trademarks are a no-no and I think a person's name is also off limits if you don't have a legitimate claim such as it's also your name. And by the sounds of it you don't have any legit claim to it.
Oh and it's not going to hurt telling us what the domain is. If we cared about your personal details we could find it by other means, and plenty of people here have links to their personal sites on their own domains.
Oh and it's not going to hurt telling us what the domain is. If we cared about your personal details we could find it by other means, and plenty of people here have links to their personal sites on their own domains.
Be quick - form a limited company with a name whose acronym spells out the URL.
Just advertise local PC-fixing services or something.
Inform them that you did not notice the coincidence and that you have invested time and money (local advertising, having stationary/leaflets printed et cetera) in the acronym.
*n
Just advertise local PC-fixing services or something.
Inform them that you did not notice the coincidence and that you have invested time and money (local advertising, having stationary/leaflets printed et cetera) in the acronym.
*n
My cousin was in a similar position with Fast Car UK or something similar - he had a domain they wanted - at first they sent him a assertive email saying "our customers are getting confused so please remove your site etc etc"
He told them where to go (He actually had his own retail store hosted on this domain) and they replied with a £1000 offer...again he said no.
Next week, £5000 offer - they were clearly despirate for this and he again, refused (but a bit more gently this time) and their final offer, which he took, was £10,000!
Quite some cash for a domain name!
He told them where to go (He actually had his own retail store hosted on this domain) and they replied with a £1000 offer...again he said no.
Next week, £5000 offer - they were clearly despirate for this and he again, refused (but a bit more gently this time) and their final offer, which he took, was £10,000!
Quite some cash for a domain name!
Associate
i'd ask for a bit more... and see how much they are willing to part with
but i'd definatly give it up after getting to about 5 grand
but i'd definatly give it up after getting to about 5 grand
Soldato
But in his case he had a legit claim to the domain since he had a business with the same name. They wouldn't win if they tried legal action. In the OPs case he won't get more than whatever their legal costs would be since it's fairly obvious he doesn't have a decent claim to the address.megakid said:
I bet that guy felt like a complete tool after that, I don't know how I could turn down $1 million, but if it meant that much to him then yeh I can see how he feels, I wonder what that site is...Paras said:
Probably someone off Big Brother, my guess.G|mp said: