Celeb Domains

[mkx]

What can legally be done with celeb domains (ex. britneyspears.com or courtneylove.com) so that the celebs or their attorneys cannot win a lawsuit or ICANN case against you?

Park it?
Make it a forum?
Make it a fan site?
Make it a personal page for someone else with the same name?

Any legal advice is greatly appreciated

 

[Theo]

Give it to them for free :-D

 

[mkx]

Give it to them for free :-D

Not with 5000 overture searches a month. I think it would be better to work out a deal with the celeb's agent to make it the official page for the celeb, do a free design, host it for free, manage it etc, call it the Official "la la" Website, and make money off 1 or 2 banners or adwords.

 

[Theo]

But surely then you are opening up to legal woes. I only have 1 celeb domain and it's in storage till she requests the domain (famous US actress).

 

[mkx]

I am sure there is a way to make the use of the domain name legal. That's why I made this post

 

[dtobias]

Noncommercial fan sites are perfectly legit (but are more sensibly done in .org and .info domains).

 

[Theo]

You can always point it to the celebrity's official page - eventually they will discover the referring traffic and buy it for a chunk of $$$

 

[dtobias]

You can always point it to the celebrity's official page - eventually they will discover the referring traffic and buy it for a chunk of $$$

Any purpose that involves a scheme to profit off of the name due to its similarity with the celebrity is suspect and will likely lose any UDRP that may come up. On the other hand, a "labor-of-love" site with no profit motive involved will probably not be challenged and have a good chance of winning any case that might occur.

 

[mkx]

What about a fan site dedicated to the celeb that makes money of adwords / amazon books and videos, etc?

 

[Theo]

What about a fan site dedicated to the celeb that makes money of adwords / amazon books and videos, etc?

That's not a bad idea. Again, till you receive that C&D letter

Any purpose that involves a scheme to profit off of the name due to its similarity with the celebrity is suspect and will likely lose any UDRP that may come up. On the other hand, a "labor-of-love" site with no profit motive involved will probably not be challenged and have a good chance of winning any case that might occur.

There have been many instances where the two parties came to an agreement and the domain was purchased by the celebrity. On the other hand, there have been many instances where the fan-club, labor of love websites have been violently taken away from the creators.

 

[mkx]

Ok thank you for the help. I am sure theres ways around it but am looking for the best legal way possible to make money of this domain. Any lawyers opinions?

 

[OgieOgalthorpe]

Do you know if this celebrity or his/her agent(s) WANT the domain name? Have any contacts been made so far?

When your dealing with celebrities you have to be very careful, any action they take of course is going to be very public.. Do you do any other line of work other than domain buying/selling where a celebrities comments could hurt you, should they decide to use their celebrity status against you?

 

[mkx]

Do you know if this celebrity or his/her agent(s) WANT the domain name? Have any contacts been made so far?

When your dealing with celebrities you have to be very careful, any action they take of course is going to be very public.. Do you do any other line of work other than domain buying/selling where a celebrities comments could hurt you, should they decide to use their celebrity status against you?

It was a dropped domain so no contacts have been made so far. Negative publicity will do nothing but bring in more traffic. In the event of a lawsuit, they will be suing a corporation with no assets but a couple domain names

 

[OgieOgalthorpe]

The dropped domain might be an indication of problems.. although it's possible that the previous owner was just scared to have it. Do you know what the content of the site was before it dropped? The celebrity or his/her company/corp didn't own it right?

I have to ask- The reason you mentioned that the corporation will have control of the domain is because any profit made would be directing to the corporation and you would just be getting a regular paycheck increase from that corporation ?

 

[mkx]

The dropped domain might be an indication of problems.. although it's possible that the previous owner was just scared to have it. Do you know what the content of the site was before it dropped? The celebrity or his/her company/corp didn't own it right?

I have to ask- The reason you mentioned that the corporation will have control of the domain is because any profit made would be directing to the corporation and you would just be getting a regular paycheck increase from that corporation ?

The domain was used as a parked coming soon page. The celeb did not own it.

A corporation owning this domain will protect my assets if they decide to sue for lost profits. All they can get back is whatever assets the corporation owns which could be kept minimum.

 

[Theo]

If you start a new LLC for each celebrity domain.... :-D

 

[mkx]

Fair enough

 

[namedropper]

mkx, you are knowingly trying to make money off of someone else's good name. Nothing you can do can make that legal. Please stop asking members of this site for help in breaking the law and the policies you agreed to follow when you registered the name. If you have no sense of morals or right and wrong, don't try to drag this site down with you.

 

[mkx]

Sir, I was asking how to do it legally.

Best wishes,

MKX

 

[David_Hellam]

For an interesting 'twist' on this theme, I take it you've all visited "Britney Spears teaches semiconductor physics" at http://www.britneyspears.ac - news story about it from back in 2001 at http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/new_media/1306364.stm