Alanis Morissette sues over alanis.net

[Fountain]

To some extent opinions matter. A jury decides how reliable witnesses are in reaching its decision. Witnesses give "evidence" but a jury might decide that the witness was lying and discount it. Put the owner of alanis.net in the stand and ask him why he chose that name for the site, and I'd be fascinated to hear what answer he could give that would satisfy a judge or jury that the name has nothing to do with Alanis Morissette.

[Who-Wiz]

It's interesting that I pointed out lots of other "Alanis" names, and this point was never addressed by you, Fountain (not to mention the flinch I got from the sentence "I have not visited all the sites you listed" as you began to respond to my post... Wow, thanks for the time.)

If Alanis' Morissette's father saw the name ALANIS in the newspaper, and thought "I like this name", and named his daughter such... why can't another individual say "Wow, I like this name!" and register the domain name (absent an existing trademark called "Alanis", and without any intent to sell products of hers or further capitalize.) The Alanis' father anecdote *HAPPENED*, this is NOT conjecture.

I'm clear now that you champion Alanis Morissette's cause on this, and disagree with anything I have to say about this and are willing to ignore and not address the best points I would present.

Cool.

By the way (and, sorry for the non-sequitar, but) if you
need a nice e-mail address, go here:
http://www.netidentity.com

Boy, I hope they don't get sued though.

Best Regards,
W|Z

"In 1996, the founders of Netidentity registered over 15000 internet domain names, a combination of 13000 popular surnames and 2000 category names. By owning these names, Netidentity can provide email and website Hosting services at these domains to anyone for a small annual fee. For example, we own www.smith.net and can offer anyname@smith.net as an email address and www.anyname.smith.net as a website address. Simply search for your name and sign up today! "

[Fountain]

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
It's interesting that I pointed out lots of other "Alanis" names, and this point was never addressed by you, Fountain (not to mention the flinch I got from the sentence "I have not visited all the sites you listed" as you began to respond to my post... Wow, thanks for the time.)

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
There are TONS of other domains out there that try to make money from her name and include her name in their domain.

I didn't visit them because the only one that I recognized didn't belong in the list. You claimed, wrongly, that alanisutopia.com is trying to make money from Alanis's name, so why should I believe that any of the other sites are any different? Let's try another one:
www.alanis-morissette.com
This looks like a fan site to me.

Should I keep checking on the off-chance that maybe one of the sites in the list is trying to make money from her name?

Besides, I already said that if they are trying to make money from her name (meaning by the same sort of deceit) then action should be taken against them too. The main problem is the implied association of products with Alanis Morissette that she has nothing to do with. It's not relevant to the argument about alanis.net what those sites are doing. Even if they were doing the same thing, does it make it right if a dozen sites are doing what alanis.net is doing?

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
If Alanis' Morissette's father saw the name ALANIS in the newspaper, and thought "I like this name", and named his daughter such... why can't another individual say "Wow, I like this name!" and register the domain name (absent an existing trademark called "Alanis", and without any intent to sell products of hers or further capitalize.) The Alanis' father anecdote *HAPPENED*, this is NOT conjecture.

I am well aware that Alanis was named as you've described, but you can't seriously expect me to be believe that the alanis.net domain name was chosen because the owner liked the name.

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
I'm clear now that you champion Alanis Morissette's cause on this, and disagree with anything I have to say about this and are willing to ignore and not address the best points I would present.

Not so. What points have you presented to persuade me that alanis.net was not chosen to associate its products with Alanis Morissette? You suggest that the owner chose alanis.net because he liked the name? Is that one of your best points? You list a whole bunch of sites that you claim are trying to make money from the name 'alanis', which they aren't. Is that one of your best points? You claim that those sites are doing the wrong thing but that alanis.net is "the ONLY website" that has 'alanis' in its name that's not doing the wrong thing? Apparently, all Alanis Morissette fan sites - the ones that aren't pretending - are more deserving of lawsuits being taken out against them than alanis.net? Is that one of your best points?

I am not simply on Alanis Morissette's side regardless of anyone else's argument. You suggested that a disclaimer should be sufficient. I agreed. I didn't insist that that wasn't good enough and that nothing short of handing the name to Morissette was acceptable. That was a good point that you made that I agreed with. I'm not aware of any others.

[Who-Wiz]

You asked me to list other Alanis names remember? It was as if it wasn't possible. Now you say "I'm well aware of them."

Do you realize many of these sites like AlanisUtopia.com are used to distribute Alanis' music illegally as MP3 in their public forums? I would think that was "benefitting from her name as a domain" right there. Come on... you SEE this don't you? You seem to be closing your eyes in just the right places. You're saying she endorses the trade (I think she's just overlooking it, but it doesn't make it legal or right). I expect you'll downplay this as irrelevant and not a bad thing at all... "That's NOTHING compared to just owning a domain and pointing at a website with nothing to do with her!" (Hoo-boy)

How is Alanis.net benefitting, Fountain? No... no... don't repeat from the reports... go there (here: www.alanis.net ). Or better yet, look through Archive.org (here: http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.alanis.net ) and connect the dots to something that makes MONEY. The greenbacks. The dead presidents. None to be found. Don't quote from the quotes from Alanis' lawyers... find the information yourself if you care so much. And I don't mean sloppy connections of "this=that", say how such practices you find actually equate to MONEY and not resource hogging.

No illegal mp3 trading, no mention of "Morrissette", no anything except good consumer information for all. --Well, he does sell domain registration... but... look around... who doesn't?

W|Z

[O.C.]

Okay, let's all clarify. Then let's agree to disagree.


Legally, Alanis.net is fine. Courts use evidence. They don't use opinion. This protects citizens.


Ethically, the owner have registered Alanis.net because he thought it was a popular first name. He also could have registered it because of Morissette. Fountain, there is no way of proving either. Case closed! I'm going to Disney World!



Why are we constantly mentioning "the courts" when WIPO is the subject?

[Fountain]

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
You asked me to list other Alanis names remember? It was as if it wasn't possible. Now you say "I'm well aware of them."

I asked if you knew of any other Alanises. Do you, or do you just know there must be one somewhere because the name was in a newspaper? I didn't suggest that none exist. The point was that there is only one known to the general public. When the average person sees the name 'Alanis' who do they think of?

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
Do you realize many of these sites like AlanisUtopia.com are used to distribute Alanis' music illegally as MP3 in their public forums? I would think that was "benefitting from her name as a domain" right there. Come on... you SEE this don't you? You seem to be closing your eyes in just the right places.

Not at all. I don't dispute that some of those sites have MP3 forums and that the MP3s traded are probably illegal. In almost all cases, the MP3s are of live performances that aren't for sale. Still, they are illegal. But I don't see what this has to do with alanis.net. This discussion has confused (myself included) making money (or, some sort of benefit, if you like) with the association of Alanis Morissette with products she has nothing to do with. Lots of people make money out of Alanis. There have been unauthorized biographies, unauthorized calendars and a range of other merchandise. The issue isn't any money that alanis.net makes. The issue is only that people who go there are likely to assume that the products there are endorsed by Alanis Morisssette.

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
You're saying she endorses the trade (I think she's just overlooking it, but it doesn't make it legal or right). I expect you'll downplay this as irrelevant and not a bad thing at all... "That's NOTHING compared to just owning a domain and pointing at a website with nothing to do with her!" (Hoo-boy)

Look, we are discussing alanis.net. You keep mentioning other things. Nothing that any other site does has any bearing on alanis.net. I don't care what you can prove about other sites. I'm not interested. If you prove that they are all doing the wrong thing and should be shut down, fine. In fact, for the sake of the argument, I'll hand this one to you. All those other sites are doing the wrong thing and should be shut down. Okay, that's done. A point to you. Now, can we get back to alanis.net? Are you able to defend alanis.net by just confining yourself to what it is doing or not?

Originally posted by Who-Wiz
How is Alanis.net benefitting, Fountain?

I don't care how it is benefitting. I only care about the association with Alanis Morissette that some visitors to the site will assume to be the case.

This is my original post, minus the abuse:

Originally posted by Fountain
EXACTLY!!! Why is it called alanis.net then? It's got nothing to do with any other Alanis either. It's an obvious attempt to attract traffic to the site and associate Alanis Morissette's name with products she has nothing to do with.

No mention of money. No mention of benefitting from Alanis Morissette. Just the association. That's what I care about. Stick to the subject (and I'll try to take this advice myself.)