Go Daddy Sued for $100 Mil for Aiding MJ Casino

[Adam Dicker]

As seen on tmz....

http://www.tmz.com/2010/08/02/michae...n-howard-mann/

A $100 million war has erupted over the unauthorized Michael Jackson online casino -- and now GoDaddy.com could be on the hook for allowing the casino owner to register the site with them.

The man behind the lawsuit is Howard Mann -- who claims he owns the copyright to the photos featured on MichaelJacksonCasino.com ... an online gambling site created by a person who's managed to conceal his or her identity.

But in a lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court in Los Angeles, Mann claims the mystery owner registered the site through GoDaddy.com -- so now, he's also suing both the mystery owner and Go Daddy for playing "host" to the "illegal website."

Mann tells us by suing Go Daddy, he hopes to "flush out the name of the person" who owns MichaelJacksonCasino.com.

In the meantime -- Mann tells us he wants more than $100 million in damages from both Go Daddy and the casino owner.

A rep for Go Daddy tells us, "While we have not seen the lawsuit, if we are named, Go Daddy plans to vigorously defend itself." The rep adds, "When customers are involved in a legal dispute, Go Daddy complies with court orders."

[jaydub]

I see it is now a GD parked page.

[south]

I see it is now a GD parked page.

[Zoobar]

...

ThaT'S cRAzY

[copper]

Suing the registrant/site owner - understandable.
Suing registrar? - ALL registrar will get sued soon or later

[hugegrowth]

A little over the top, a case of sue everyone in sight and hope to get something.

[Gerry]

It will be interesting to see if Mann actually does own the copyright to the photos.

He will have to prove that he is the legit owner of the photos.

To do so, he would have either had to have purchased the photos and the exclusivity or have been the photographer himself.

But, to me, that seems to only be a small part of this matter.

If it has or uses the likenesses of Michael Jackson without express permission from the estate (in this case his mother) then the entire site is illegal and the estate of MJ could sue the owner of the site and GD.

[UpMarketDns.com]

In the words of the late not so great Michael

"Ow!"

[austinandrew]

It's fairly typical to sue the domain name registrar just to get the name of the actual registrant. After that they usually drop the registrar from the suit.

[Acro]

With GoDaddy, a simple C&D letter is more than enough to obtain info protected by WHOIS shield. Apparently GoDaddy is being sued due to its financial prowess and status. It will be a nasty fight.

[Focus]

What a dumbasss, all of them

[urlurl]

im not a lawyer but...

I assume most casinos are off shore in countries where they do have the same laws as north america. Even if they sued and won how would they get their money, the funds are most likely, along with any assets offshore

[Maxwell]

im not a lawyer but...

I assume most casinos are off shore in countries where they do have the same laws as north america. Even if they sued and won how would they get their money, the funds are most likely, along with any assets offshore

I'm no lawyer either... so nobody consider this to be a legal opinion. I may go into detail, but this is coming from a guy who never went to college, so it might be advisable to take this with a grain of salt.

The majority of online casinos (to my knowledge) are incorporated overseas. However, GoDaddy becomes implicated as the registrar of the domain name which was used to access the site containing images of which the ownership is disputed.

I cannot see GoDaddy being responsible for anything besides the release of any information they have on the registrant. GoDaddy only maintains the registration of the name and did not do anything illegal, so I can't imagine monetary damages could be sought as a result of their involvement. Any chance the registrant might have had to pass the blame over to GoDaddy would likely have been signed away in their agreeing to the TOS.

[myst woman]

Doesn't this bring into question the granting of google adsense and other codes to names not credibly owned? Clearly "Michael Jackson" does not own the website.

[Poker]

wonder if GD will have to take tops all the way off in commercials to raise the funds...

[loudbeats.com]

wonder if GD will have to take tops all the way off in commercials to raise the funds...

lol you never know!