Why is this Important to Me?

Continued from Front Page

The stark reality is that people have been sued or threatened with lawsuits merely for having a domain name that is meaningful to them. Sometimes in lawsuits with real attorneys and judges, and sometime (more often infact) in kangaroo style courts where the "judges" are paid by the very people who covet the domain name. These "courts" are called UDRP arbitrations. They are fast, competitively cheap, and biased against the little guy.

Imagine you had a domain name like "peteschoppers.com" (assume your name is Pete and you are really into helicopters) and suddenly you receive a letter in the mail from Large Helicopter Company. The letter begins by calling you a Cybersquatter and threatening you with a 100,000 dollar damage suit, and possible jail time if your information in the whois database is even the slightest bit off. All you will need to do is turn over your domain name (which would of course make it impossible for your customers to find you). When you finally get to the bottom of the letter, sifting through all the derrogatory names that you are called by Large Attorney working for Large Law Firm on behalf of Large Helicopter Company, you find that the reason for this tirade is that they believe that their Pteradon Helicopter deserves to have a website at "peteschoppers.com" and you happened to get there first.

What would you do? You don't know? Could their letter possibly be in retaliation for your posting a month before that you thought their helicopters were not such a good product? By now your website's counter is up around ten thousand visitors, and you are selling helicopter rides and spare parts as your livelihood. Do you fight?

So you call your attorney who has no idea what you are talking about. Domain name? Website? They can't do THAT. Your attorney tells you to call another lawyer who might know what to do. That lawyer is also confused and refers you to yet another lawyer who tells you that she wants $15,000 up front before they can help you. They tell you that the law is uncertain and they can't guarantee that you will win. You quickly calculate that you needed the $15,000 to send Johnny to college. You add to that the possible $100,000 that you may have to pay if you lose. How can they DO this to you?

Three weeks later you receive a packet from the World Intellectual Property Organization. "Oh good," you think. These people will surely know that I can't possibly be infringing on this trademark, and that I'm not a horrible Cybersquatter like the letter said. It tells you that you need to answer all of the allegations against you, point by point, in a 50 page tirade of lies against you. You don't have $15,000 so you sigh and file it away.

Three weeks later you don't HAVE a website anymore. You find that you need to change your address. You are now afraid of another infringement claim, so you choose a new domain name: somepersonnamedpete.com. Your business is coming in 25% of what it used to be. You are paying attorneys fees for talking to your lawyer who talked to the other lawyer who sent you to the one you didn't pay.

The saddest part about this hypothetical is that very similar things are happening every day. The domain name is used by large and small businesses, individuals, churches, schools, non-profit organizations, and everyone in between to get a message out, to warn, to comment, to pass pictures of their children, and yes, even to do business.

Since early 1996, the Domain Name Rights Coalition has educated individuals, non commercial entities, small businesses, and others. By contributing to us you can help us continue to provide information to the Internet community.