My Campaign: Get the Domain Name www.JeffBarr.com
Here is another campaign. I haven’t thought of my blog as a tool for activism but this week’s theme seems to be taking it that way. It’s domain name activism. Pretty different from other activism I’ve done in the past (like I have a small campaign at work that needs some imagination…maybe I’ll start leaving signs by the supervisor’s desk that say “we miss the resource guys - bring them back!” or to get really crazy maybe a bunch of us can make signs and stage a 10 min. protest).
I blogged how I wish I owned the domain name www.newspapergirl.com. I really hate telling people it’s like girl but without the “i”. The very next day I got an email from my friend Jeff Barr (you should check out what he’s working on in Second Life - he’s a pioneer!).
Jeff bought my domain name and gave it to me with a “happy early birthday!” email. I’m elated! So as soon as I get a chance I’m going to point it to this blog. And one day, I’m going to get a newspapergirl logo. Then next a custom design. And a static front page of my different projects.
Yes, so here is your challenge, if you choose to accept it: help me return Jeff’s favor. I want to get www.JeffBarr.com and return it to its rightful owner, Jeff Barr himself. It is owned by a registry in Belize. Are any of my readers skilled in buying domain names from other countries (I could use your help on another thing too)? We need a domain name Robin Hood of sorts.
Yes, Paul Wilson is still doing the domain name challenge! You can join that campaign too.
There are all sorts of serious campaigns in the world. This one is a relatively light and fun one. Please, tips for recovering domain names from registrars in other countries below…And, let’s get www.JeffBarr.com for Jeff.
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6 Responses to “My Campaign: Get the Domain Name www.JeffBarr.com”
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May 10th, 2007 at 9:52 am
Wowzers! Congrats on the URL! I own about 20 including creativexplosion with one and two e’s in the middle .co.uk rather than .com though!
May 10th, 2007 at 1:06 pm
Congrats on the domain name. Props to Jeff Barr. I’m in to help do what I can to get Jeff his name (or domain name) back. Let me know how I can help.
Nate Moller
http://mollermarketing.com
May 17th, 2007 at 11:40 am
Here’s one idea. ICANN, the international organization responsible for managing domain names, has a formal dispute procedure that allows trademark owners to reclaim the domains for their registered trademark. For this to work, Jeff would need to find a way to get his name registered as a trademark - likely both in the US and in Belize (or wherever the owner of the domain is actually, legally, registered). I’m not terribly familiar with the process of registering a trademark but perhaps someone else could help with that.
Since the current owner just has the domain showing a spam/AdSense type page, a case could probably be made that they are simply squatting on the name. Once Jeff has a formal trademark on his name, he would start an arbitration request with ICANN. The details on that process are available at: http://www.icann.org/udrp/udrp.htm
I’ve been considering using this method myself for my own name, unfortunately “Matt Brown” is so generic there are plenty of other people with the same name who already own the domains. Hope this helps and I would love to hear any feedback or suggestions.
May 17th, 2007 at 11:54 am
Here’s another thought I had that may be applicable, or at least interesting knowledge for someone interested in the industry.
There are a number of scam registrars out there that are really just domain name holding companies. They register a few hundred thousand names, stick up an automatic PPC page and call it a day. Bob Parsons, CEO of Go Daddy, has led a crusade against some of these registrars the last couple years. When ICANN launched the new .eu domain name, hundreds of these domain holding companies got themselves listed as registrars and had unfair access to the official registry. Here is one of his blog postings about the subject: http://www.bobparsons.com/EURidResponds.html
He has also spoken out about general domain name fraud and a good blog about that is available here: http://www.bobparsons.com/DomainKiting.html
Frankly, I don’t know a thing about this particular registrar. If they’re in Belize, odds are that it is a tax haven-type holding company trying to take advantage of Belize privacy laws to hide the “real owner”. If someone wanted to spend a couple hours digging and doing some research, it may be that a case could be made that this group is misusing the ICANN registry to squat on domains. If a good case can be made that they are misusing the registry, send messages to ICANN reporting what has been found and it probably couldn’t help to get some of the self-proclaimed internet “spokespeople” like Bob Parsons and Mark Cuban involved. They both talk openly with anyone who emails them are love to take up causes like this for us “regular” users.
Hope this helps!
May 17th, 2007 at 12:40 pm
Follow-up:
I found this arbitration resolution for Carnie Wilson (from the band Wilson Philips) who successfully used her un-registered personal name as a trademark and was able to get http://www.carniewilson.com transferred from one of the many domain name holding companies to herself. If anyone wanted to take this approach to get their name back, this case might be a good starting point for what needs to be proven to ICANN.
http://www.adrforum.com/domains/decisions/417186.htm
May 22nd, 2007 at 12:49 pm
Matt- Your comments are really amazing, thank you for posting (in depth) all of this information. It really has helped me in my case study on domain grabbing. ~Paul W.