Won a celebrity dot com

[chrisb72]

I recently won at auction a well know actors dot com domain. The actor currently has the dot net. I had considered contacting them to see if they were interested in the domain but wanted to check here first. Also if I were to put up a "fan" site am I ok to put images from google for instance on the site with say a few adsense ads? Am I also ok to put a for sale link on the page? I dont want to breach any rules that could get the domain turned over for some loophole. I probably shouldnt even have bought it. If anyone can give me their thoughts I would appreciate it. Thanks

 

[dvdrip]

I had considered contacting them to see if they were interested in the domain but wanted to check here first.

Don't.

Also if I were to put up a "fan" site am I ok to put images from google for instance on the site with say a few adsense ads? Am I also ok to put a for sale link on the page?

No and no!

 

[Jilo]

I've wasted money on some celebrity name domains before... first rule is, don't contact them! If they want it, they'll contact you.

If you're lucky, it will be their manager offering you an amount. If you're unlucky, the lawyers will be coming after you.

Most celebrities don't mind the fan sites, but I'd be very cautious. Depending on how successful the actor it. But I wouldn't try to put adsense or any ads on there, and definitely don't put a for sale link on.

 

[dvdrip]

Rule is:
Non-profit fan site. Period.

 

[Soofi]

Rule is:
Non-profit fan site. Period.

Exactly, with a disclaimer stating "Actors Fan Community"

 

[katherine]

Also, one question to consider: could it be that the previous holder let the name lapse because he had to deal with claims in the past. It's still possible that the celeb never bothered about the .com and is happy with the .net.
Either way I agree with the above comments.

 

[TheLegendaryJP]

I suggest putting up a picture of your dogs

You know, George the shepherd and Clooney the beagle !

 

[amplify]

I almost participated in the DavidSchwimmer.com (Ross from Friends) and BriannaGarcia.com (Popular internet girl because beautiful)-- but decided against it because of potential backlash. I would definitely put of faminisites...

 

[syedi]

It is Not necessary that the actors name is unique...many ppl are havin same name e...Try to change whois and write the same name as domain name...Thats it,,,no one on this earth will challenge you on doing so...

 

[draggar]

It is Not necessary that the actors name is unique...many ppl are havin same name e...Try to change whois and write the same name as domain name...Thats it,,,no one on this earth will challenge you on doing so...

And if someone does?

Best advicer is to put up a non-profit (no ads etc..) fan site and make it clear you are not that actor, related to the actor, or associated with them in any way or their movies etc..

On a side note the "Hey, we see you own the .net of this domain and the .com is going to be avaialble for auction soon, we can secure it for s $500 non-refundible deposit" scam.

I suggest putting up a picture of your dogs

You know, George the shepherd and Clooney the beagle !

Or a fan site for Bill the Pony (Lord of the Rings) and Gates McFadden (Dr Crusher from Star Trek plus a lot of puppetry work (Labrynth and The Dark Crystal to name a few))?

 

[Deleted member 111831]

You cannot use images from Google because the people who took the pictures or own the pictures have the copyright on them, technically speaking. In reality, you can probably get away with using some very general pictures if you do some cropping on your own and make sure there are no logo's or watermarks on the photo's. It would then be pretty hard for anybody to prove you stole their images. There are also websites you can use to buy the rights to photo's, not sure if they have celebrities but istockphoto.com is one. $1 a photo last time I checked.

I'm not sure of the legality but I've seen lots of for-profit fan sites of celebrities' names. If this person has a site on their own .net they are probably not educated or motivated enough to go after the .com anyway, I wouldn't really worry about it.

Though after what happened with ChrisBosh.com I've been much less enthusiastic about acquiring celebrity domain names...