Dog Fight Over SPCA.COM Domain Name Dispute

The Montreal, Quebec Court released an interim and partial injunction regarding the domain name SPCA.COM according to CTV News, but the domain name registrant is allowed to keep it, at least for now, pending the outcome of a trial involving other issues such as wrongful dismissal and defamation. The domain name registrant was reportedly permitted to keep the domain name but must direct donations received throught the web site to a trust fund, pending the outcome of the action. Although not a domain name lawyer, renowned Canadian constitutional lawyer Julius Grey is representing the registrant, and I imagine is providing top-not counsel to the registrant.

Converged

Remember "Convergence"? It was the concept where all modes of communications were to become unified...., or alternatively, "media convergence is a concept in which old and new media intersect".

Well, nobody announced it, but we are already there and have been for some time....

I realized this when I heard that the police are being trained by consultants about how to use social networking utilities and sites to obtain evidence and investigate people, and related it to how anonymous bloggers and web site posters are being exposed by court orders.

So, there is no difference any longer between the "bricks and mortar" and "cyberspace"; they are both now part of the "real world". The same rules apply, the same laws apply, the same degree of anonymity or lack thereof applies - cyberspace has converged into the "real world". There was a time where many thought that the Internet was a safe haven. That time has long since passed.

A blogger has the same degree of free speech and anonymity (or lack thereof) as someone who posts an index card on a grocery store bullietin board....Welcome to the new Internet world, same as the old world.

Domain Name Dispute in Great White North: "A Failure to Communicate"

In an entertaining domain name decision from the Nunavut Court of Justice dated September 10, 2009, the Honourable Mr. Justice E. Johnson, described a domain name dispute as similar to "Cool Hand Luke":

"Stout described the litigation by using a movie analogy. He called it a Runaway Train. I believe a better movie to describe it is Cool Hand Luke. In one scene, the strong-willed prisoner, played by Paul Newman, is lying in a ditch covered with dust and bruises after being recaptured from a prison escape. The warden, played by Strother Martin, looks down at him and says, “What we got here is a failure to communicate.”

The domain name dispute had actually already been resolved between the parties, as the registrant had already agreed to transfer the domain names, but the issue of legal fees remained.

According to the decision, in March 2000, the registrant paid for an online registration of the domain names “NunavutTourism.com”, “NunavutTourism.net”, and “NunavutTourism.org” in her name because the site would not accept her work email and the applicant did not have a credit card, even though she was registering the domain names on behalf of her employer, Nunavut Tourism. After the registrant ended her employment, she offered to transfer the domain names in exchange for her registration costs, but her former employer insisted upon her legal costs.

Various offers were exchanged, however the matter ended up in court after a "failure to communicate" as the Judge said, and the parties then argued about costs. The registrant ended up getting nearly $8,000 in costs because the Plaintiff apparently kept suing when all it needed to do was agree to accept back the domain name and pay nominal costs to the registrant. This is a lesson for overly aggressive and/or unreasonable claimaints.