![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/tny_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace Founded
MySpace.com, the world’s most obnoxious social network, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation won a ruling today to have the domain name myspace.co.uk turned over to them, even though the uk domain was registered in 1997, six year before Myspace was founded. The ruling (pdf) was made by independent expert Antony Gold as part of the arbitration process run by the .uk domain registry, Nominet.
Total Web Solutions (TWS) of Stockport had registered myspace.co.uk in 1997 and used the address to offer mini websites to subscribers and email services. It said that though it no longer offers the mini websites it still provides email services to 18 subscribers at the address. As part of the judgment against TWS, was the fact the domain appears to be parked yet derives income from PPC (Pay Per Click) advertisments displayed to visitors of the page. When contacted by Myspace, TWS had sought up to £220,000 in return for the domain, however, Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, being the devouring corporation that it is refused topay TWS for the transfer of the domain and elected to take TWS to court regarding the matter.
TWS claims that it had used the myspace.co.uk page for advertising previous to the News Corp acquisition. “The Respondent has not done anything other than to continue the uses or its domain name myspace.co.uk which it commenced in July 2004 or earlier, before it knew of the Complainant and before it acquired any rights in the descriptive name “MySpace” in the UK. Though TWS recognised that the nature of the advertising changed, it said it did not control the advertisments displayed on the site and that it should not be punished for the popularity of MySpace. Gold said that it was not relevant that TWS did not select specific adverts, that it owned the pages displayed and must be responsible for them and the income it gained from association with MySpace.
 |
“This advantage and the use made of the Domain Name by the Respondent is unfair,” he ruled. “The income the Respondent is deriving from its pay per click links at the site of the Domain Name derives in part as a consequence of it being able to trade off the reputation of the Complainant. Accordingly the Domain Name in the hands of the Respondent is an Abusive Registration.” |
This case is unprecedented in that it shows sufficient evidence that (in the UK at least), registration of a domain name does not constitute a copyright or informal trademark based on conception date. Although common sense would dictate that TWS should essentially own the informal trademarks to the term “MySpace”, it just goes to show how a corporation like News Corp can bully anybody around. The fact that News Corp refused to pony up a measley £220,000 for the co.uk domain name is ridiculous considering how much money the corporate giant rakes in with their sensationalistic news networks. Shame on MySpace and News Corp for trampling on entrepeneurs and shame on the people who ruled in favor of MySpace on this judgement.
by Financial News » Blog Archive » 1 USD = LKR (108.082364)
[…] Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace Founded Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace Founded Filed under: Financial News, Scams and Scammers, News of the Wierd — C4G @ 7:11 pm MySpace.com, the world’s most obnoxious social network, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation won a ruling today to have the domain name myspace.co.uk turned over to them, even though the uk domain was registered in 1997, six year before Myspace was founded. The ruling (pdf) was made by independent expert Antony Gold as part of the arbitratio […]
by Myspace » Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace Founded
[…] Personal Finance and Global Economy wrote an interesting post today on Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace FoundedHere’s a quick excerpt Myspace Wins Domain Registered 6 Years Before Myspace Founded Filed under: Financial News, Scams and Scammers, News of the Wierd — C4G @ 7:11 pm MySpace.com, the world’s most obnoxious social network, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation won a ruling today to have the domain name myspace.co.uk turned over to them, even though the uk domain was registered in 1997, six year before Myspace was founded. The ruling (pdf) was made by independent expert Antony Gold as part of the arbitratio […]
by myspace layout
It’s only a matter of time before these corporations trademark and copywrite every single word in every single language so theat when we speak we better have a checkbook ready.
by Sexshop
Ha ha, love that Rupert Murdoch picture
by Traveller
I’ve dealt with TWS before. They’re actually not a bad company. MySpace bullying them like that is just bad, then refusing to pay the very reasonably sum asked for by TWS.
What’s wrong with the court systems favouring the big guys. I’m sure if I have a small domain about something and someone has a parked domain I would never get a rulling like that.