Quoting Erik Anderson <erikerik at gmail.com>: > I have several domains that the PHB's at work would like me to > register. The catch is that several of them are currently being > squatted on. Is there anything I can do to reclaim these domains from > the squatters, or do I have to just bite the bullet and pay them the > ~$700 they're asking per domain? > The answer, as always, is it depends. IIRC, The World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) arbitrates disputes over these matters. If they are squatting on a domain that you have trademarked, copy righted or some such, the WIPO could decide to turn the domain over to you. I don't know just how painful that process is however, might be a lot less painful to cough up the 700 bucks. If, however, you just happen to want a domain name that they have, and have no particular "rights" to it, you're probably hosed. My company recently desired a domain that was registered by a "broker", and ended up paying $1000 for it, much to my dismay. Additionally, while there has been a lot of history of intellectual property owners being victorious over individuals registering protest domains, i.e. fordsucks.com, I recall reading recently about a case where someone who has registered a domain with some IP protected term in it, but was using that site as a protest site, was allowed to keep the domina under a ruling that the domain was protected as free speech. Long story short, I think it's going to be $700. Also, decide right now if there are any related domains that you want, i.e. variations on the name and so forth. I guarantee that as soon as you register a domain, variants of that domain will be squatted on. Josh ---------------------------------------------------------------- This message was sent using IMP, the Internet Messaging Program. _______________________________________________ TCLUG Mailing List - Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota Help beta test TCLUG's potential new home: http://plone.mn-linux.org Got pictures for TCLUG? Beta test http://plone.mn-linux.org/gallery tclug-list at mn-linux.org https://mailman.real-time.com/mailman/listinfo/tclug-list