A new law signed on August 1 in New York State will surely lead to much confusion, and much profiting by the attorneys who have to spend their clients’ money to understand and see if this law holds up.

Note that I am not a lawyer nor do I play one on YouTube. Please read the text of the law on the State Of New York’s Web site and search on bill S3814-B. More information is available from the Web site of New York State Senator Betty Little who sponsored the legislation, and the news report the bill is now law.

As I have talked about before, there is a process for registering and disputing the ownership of domain names. There is cybersquatting, where a person registers a domain name of a person, business or entity with the intent to profit from it. Then there are people who buy domain names comprised of generic terms that are descriptive of a product or service, and could apply to an entire industry segment. As a domain name has value and if a registrant decides to sell it, who is to say they cannot?

The New York law appears to offer an avenue around the ICANN process for disputing domain name ownership. This also imposes cash penalties of $1,000.00 a day! But where the law is confusing is in its opening language:

“Relates to cyber piracy protections and the unlawful registration of domain names; prohibits the registration of a domain name that consists of the name of another living person, or a name substantially and confusingly similar thereto, without that person's consent, with the specific intent to profit from such name by selling the domain name for financial gain to that person or any third party; provides for injunctive relief and other civil remedies.”

What defines intent to profit? What if I hold a domain name and do not sell it, or develop a Web site around it or simply park it – who is to determine intent?

Here’s a potential example – say I buy every possible domain name around my name, including misspellings. I may decide to sell some of them, perhaps some of the less desirable top-level domains like .ws. If there is another person with the same name as myself, can they then sue me under this law? And can they sue for the .com name and not the .ws I want to sell? Yes, there are other people out there named Mike Maddaloni, and I am sure Betty Little as well.

It is also murky as to jurisdiction of this law. What if the registrant and domain name registrar are not based in New York? Needless to say, I have warned my clients and colleagues in New York State about the potential issues with this law.

Again, I am not a lawyer, and with all legal matters you should consult one. If you don’t have one – get one. Especially if you are worried about New Yorkers suing you within a few months.

Business • Domain Names • (1) Comments • Permalink

One of the biggest challenges with establishing an Internet presence isn’t technical - it is selecting a domain name or names. Many times people have an idea on a potential name only to find it is taken. Sure, many good names are taken, but there are plenty available, and this is where I have enjoyed working with clients to select a name. In many cases, we may select a “generic” domain name, one that is not a trademark but common words that describe their products or services. An example is childproofhome.com for my client Foresight Childproofing, Inc. which is also easier to spell and remember.

There is a large aftermarket for domain names – names that have already been registered by someone else and are for sale. Some people buy names as an investment, others have names they are no longer using. We’re not talking about trademarks of products or companies, but generic names or names of people. If such a domain name is desired by someone else, they may engage with the current owner and buy it, and the cost is usually larger than the “core” cost of registering a domain name, and some names go from the hundreds to tens of thousands.

Domain names are registered on a first-come-first-serve basis. Why does the Boston Globe own boston.com? Because they were the first to register it. Though the name pertains to the newspaper in the capital city of Massachusetts, there are other cities and towns named Boston and some people have Boston as a last name. And surely there are businesses that have Boston in their title. As the Globe got it first, it is theirs. Where others may wish to have it, this is how the system was established, and for lack of a different or better system, it works.

If someone buys a domain name that is a trademarked name or a name that someone else claims should be theirs, there is a legal process that is followed through ICANN, which is the international body that oversees many aspects of the Internet, including domain names. Many people and businesses have won claims to domain names from others. Singer Madonna got madonna.com through an appeal, however the Los Angeles Angels baseball team did not get angels.com – it was determined that its South Korean owner had proper claim to the name. There is currently a case between two people named Keith Urban, one is the country music singer and the other is not as famous, but owns keithurban.com.

So who should own a domain name? It is a question that is philosophical as much as it is legal. I am presenting this information as it is something being reported more in the mainstream press, with recent articles in USA Today and the Boston Globe. And there is a law recently passed that may have more impact if its deficiencies are not glossed over by the courts. More to come.

Domain Names • Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink

File this one under worlds colliding for the benefit of domain names at the expense of Hollywood disobedience.

Rob of TheRobboReport.com sent this article from TMZ.comon domain names, where it mentions that domainers with an eye towards Tinseltown have registered the domain names lohanbusted.com and lohaninjail.com back in May, prior to the rehab visit and subsequent arrest of actress Lindsay Lohan. The article even posed a challenge for someone to register britneymeltsdown.com, which was done earlier today.

TMZ.com is an entertainment gossip Web site that is somehow affiliated with AOL. If you think you may have heard of TMZ, you may have seen it featured on your favorite local newscast, as in the constant effort my local media to not cover local events, they prominently feature the escapades of celebrities... but I digress.

Domain names registered based on news events is nothing new, but the coverage of it by media sources outside of the tech world is, and is very welcome.

Domain Names • Technology • (0) Comments • Permalink

So you picked the perfect domain name for yourself or your business and you’re ready to apply it to your new Web site. That’s it, right? Wrong. People often don’t think about email addresses for their business or themselves ahead of time, and a little forethought will help in managing your business and the image it presents.

First of all, if you have a domain name, use it for your email – don’t use an address of your Internet provider. By doing so you have the right side of the at-sign in place, but what about the left-side, the email name? First recall that there is a difference between an email mailbox and an alias, and think about which is which after you come up with the names.

There are two types of email names – people and roles, and in this post I will talk about people. You will want a naming standard for how people’s names will be structured. In thinking of how names will be used, take in mind the current size of the business, anticipated size about a year from now, multiple people with the same name and how formal you want to be.

If it’s just you and you want to be personal, then using just first name is fine. So if your name is Mike, then using “mike” as the email address is fine. But what if you have another Mike? And what if their last name starts with the same few letters or even is the same? You may want to opt for something like “mikem” or “mikelastname” or “mike.q.lastname.” As for formality, this will drive whether you want to use “Mike” or “Michael” or just a first name and initial or a first and last name. Some people may want their choice on this – for example, I am “Mike” not “Michael” as the latter name is used only when someone is yelling at me!

Note that in the email names I have used a period – it or an underscore are the only punctuation you can use in an email name.

Next I will talk about what to keep in mind regarding roles, and how they can be used in conjunction with or in place of people’s names.

Domain Names • Technology • (6) Comments • Permalink

After being declared a low-rank nerd, I was suspect to trying any other Web site “calculators” that make generalizations on a subset of data. After re-reading that opening sentence, my apologies to political pollsters.

Domain name guru Frank Schilling wrote on this calculator of the worth of your blog which is based on Technorati data. Only this week I created a Technorati account, to right away find I had an authority of 15 without even trying. So I gave it a try, and I found The Hot Iron is worth $8,468.10. For a blog that I started in January of this year and with rough calculations of the amount of time I spent on writing just over 100 posts, I’d say that is not a bad return.

Not that I am actively selling my blog. And just like those real estate reality shows there could be more to do to simply pump up the value of my blog. However my commitment is to my community – now and in the future.

Domain Names • Technology • (3) Comments • Permalink