Cybersquatting and other pains of the Internet era
A recent day started with a call from the tech manager at an organization I work with. A variation on their website domain name had turned up as a porn site. What to do?
This particular organization has high advocacy visibility, including right now. Rather than foul play relative to current news, it appeared that a paper company had been squatting on the name for a few years. Companies may do this to pick up pay-for-click revenue on people coming to the page by mistake. In other cases, it may have hopes of eventually forcing the legitimate organization to buy the name.
Some thoughts about this type of situation.
First, be proactive. In this case, we had registered a bunch of domain names for this organization. We had considered what other names constituents might go looking, and we also reserved some other name variations for future initiatives. When I looked at what names the client "owned," I felt reassured we had been proactive back when and over the years.
On further reflection about the name we missed, however, I saw what we had overlooked. It is not enough to just think about what an organization's constituents might go looking for based on organizational communications. As web search has grown, you also need to consider what random people further out from the core constituency might go looking for. In this case, we had the ".org" and ".net" version of this name (not the organization's main name at all), and the bad guys had grabbed the ".com" for themselves. I and they had probably reasoned back then, since no one would think of them as a company, no need to get the ".com" names. But if your organization is prominent, then surely it is worth the $10 a year per name or less to register more names. I wouldn't consider it squatting if these are variations on your organization's unique name and identity.
Another phenomenon are "typosquatters." People who grab versions of your name that someone might misspell. We have all had that experience. "www.googgle.com" instead of "www.google.com" maybe.
Second, when something like this happens, plan your response carefully. It is easy to find out who does have the name. Your domain registrar (godaddy, network solutions, gkg.net, etc) will have a "whois" function, or go to whois.net. Then, research the name owner and see who else has complained about them. Immediately going to a lawyer to write a letter might cause the name holder to realize they had something useful. They might set a steep price for recovery. This on top of your own legal fees. Other folks' experience suggest that sometimes these shadowy companies might just let a bunch of names lapse, and you can grab them back when the registration expires. It’s a chance, and one to consider before rushing in.
Third, sometimes a gentle approach works. An organization for whom we were creating a first site, found that its exact acronym with the .org was owned by a corporate entity related to the game maker Atari. From the company's work, it seemed possible that they had an interest in that name. Even so, we approached them in an open way, describing the organization's mission and non commercial use. Lo and behold, we got the name back at no cost at all. Go Atari?
Fourth, don't wait around before registering your new names. For a project last year, as the site was being developed "off line," we kicked around the various names to be used. The name was obscure enough that we knew we didn't have to worry too much about competing interests. We didn't register it because we were still finalizing the choice. As the site got closer to launch, the client probably started listing the name here and there. A few days before we were finally ready to register the name, it got taken. And taken by another entity with no relationship to the client's type of work.
These guys probably had web search tools looking for references to web domains that were not actually registered and grabbing them. This story also ended well. We researched these guys and found they did have a real address and a stated pledge to not take names that reflected another entity's business. They gave up the name at no cost.
Fifth, consider establishing your rights to the name. How do you do establish that the name goes with your organizational work? Well, more entanglement in legalities, but it might make sense to trademark your organization's name. Should you need it, this can give you some rights. There is a generally accepted policy for resolving disputes over domain names. See http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm which a legitimate company will adhere to. This will not give you the right to collect damages but it won't cost a lot and could help you to get your name back.
There is also federal law you could use if your name was worth a lot and you were prepared to deal with expensive lawyers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act describes some possibilities here, and see related references.
The three client situations I mention range over a lot of what could happen and I hope give some ideas how to prevent problems. When my buddies recover their name variation from porn site, I'll update this post. Meanwhile, I don't consider this exhaustive advice, and wonder what other experiences readers may share.
This particular organization has high advocacy visibility, including right now. Rather than foul play relative to current news, it appeared that a paper company had been squatting on the name for a few years. Companies may do this to pick up pay-for-click revenue on people coming to the page by mistake. In other cases, it may have hopes of eventually forcing the legitimate organization to buy the name.
Some thoughts about this type of situation.
First, be proactive. In this case, we had registered a bunch of domain names for this organization. We had considered what other names constituents might go looking, and we also reserved some other name variations for future initiatives. When I looked at what names the client "owned," I felt reassured we had been proactive back when and over the years.
On further reflection about the name we missed, however, I saw what we had overlooked. It is not enough to just think about what an organization's constituents might go looking for based on organizational communications. As web search has grown, you also need to consider what random people further out from the core constituency might go looking for. In this case, we had the ".org" and ".net" version of this name (not the organization's main name at all), and the bad guys had grabbed the ".com" for themselves. I and they had probably reasoned back then, since no one would think of them as a company, no need to get the ".com" names. But if your organization is prominent, then surely it is worth the $10 a year per name or less to register more names. I wouldn't consider it squatting if these are variations on your organization's unique name and identity.
Another phenomenon are "typosquatters." People who grab versions of your name that someone might misspell. We have all had that experience. "www.googgle.com" instead of "www.google.com" maybe.
Second, when something like this happens, plan your response carefully. It is easy to find out who does have the name. Your domain registrar (godaddy, network solutions, gkg.net, etc) will have a "whois" function, or go to whois.net. Then, research the name owner and see who else has complained about them. Immediately going to a lawyer to write a letter might cause the name holder to realize they had something useful. They might set a steep price for recovery. This on top of your own legal fees. Other folks' experience suggest that sometimes these shadowy companies might just let a bunch of names lapse, and you can grab them back when the registration expires. It’s a chance, and one to consider before rushing in.
Third, sometimes a gentle approach works. An organization for whom we were creating a first site, found that its exact acronym with the .org was owned by a corporate entity related to the game maker Atari. From the company's work, it seemed possible that they had an interest in that name. Even so, we approached them in an open way, describing the organization's mission and non commercial use. Lo and behold, we got the name back at no cost at all. Go Atari?
Fourth, don't wait around before registering your new names. For a project last year, as the site was being developed "off line," we kicked around the various names to be used. The name was obscure enough that we knew we didn't have to worry too much about competing interests. We didn't register it because we were still finalizing the choice. As the site got closer to launch, the client probably started listing the name here and there. A few days before we were finally ready to register the name, it got taken. And taken by another entity with no relationship to the client's type of work.
These guys probably had web search tools looking for references to web domains that were not actually registered and grabbing them. This story also ended well. We researched these guys and found they did have a real address and a stated pledge to not take names that reflected another entity's business. They gave up the name at no cost.
Fifth, consider establishing your rights to the name. How do you do establish that the name goes with your organizational work? Well, more entanglement in legalities, but it might make sense to trademark your organization's name. Should you need it, this can give you some rights. There is a generally accepted policy for resolving disputes over domain names. See http://www.icann.org/en/udrp/udrp-rules-24oct99.htm which a legitimate company will adhere to. This will not give you the right to collect damages but it won't cost a lot and could help you to get your name back.
There is also federal law you could use if your name was worth a lot and you were prepared to deal with expensive lawyers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act describes some possibilities here, and see related references.
The three client situations I mention range over a lot of what could happen and I hope give some ideas how to prevent problems. When my buddies recover their name variation from porn site, I'll update this post. Meanwhile, I don't consider this exhaustive advice, and wonder what other experiences readers may share.
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1 Comments:
thanks for the post. I think you covered all the bases that I could think of.
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