Okay, here's an admittedly strange question: Is it always inherently wrong, improper or maybe even illegal to register someone else's name as a domain name, particularly if they are a prominent person?
By chance, discovered that a rather "hot" and prominent person (whose been on Oprah twice fairly recently) actually does not have a website, at least not one that shows up on GoDaddy, using the name and .com or .net. This is someone I have been trying to get in touch with and likely will be meeting fairly shortly. Was thinking, for various reasons I won't go into, of grabbing this domain name and later letting them know. I would not ever charge them anything and would happily give them the name should they want it themselves, and will, if I have a chance, encourage them to get a site up, because this is someone who could do a lot of good for a lot of suffering people if they had a site (including clips from their Oprah appearances). One thing I'm thinking of is creating a site for or related to them or their interests, partly as a way of showing them the potential benefits of having their own site, and thus potentially reaching so many people. So given this context, would it still always be inappropriate to appropriate someone's name as a domain name? One other reason for doing this is to prevent someone else from scooping it up, simply to sell, sit on or otherwise exploit financially. Have to admit, if I did this, would probably also be tempted to use it to direct interest and traffic, which I might then redirect to my own site or blog (still not created yet) but if I did this it would be to promote, as an advocate, the same sort of things this person promotes, such as when she goes on Oprah. Am I low-life, unscrupulous, morally-defective scum for even considering this? If so, and I can buy this, what about all these people and companies maybe that seem to simply snatch up domain names, to be used commercially in various ways, beyond really creating any real content ( such as reselling domain names to simply profit on giving someone one they really want). Should only people with a specific name be allowed to get sites using their name or have to approve of giving it to someone else? Why isn't or shouldn't a name considered legally as if it was private property for certain purposes, including commercializing it? Randall ************************************************************************ * ==> QUICK LIST-COMMAND REFERENCE - Put the following commands in <== * ==> the body of an email & send 'em to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <== * Join the list: SUBSCRIBE COMPUTERGUYS-L Your Name * Too much mail? Try Daily Digests command: SET COMPUTERGUYS-L DIGEST * Tired of the List? Unsubscribe command: SIGNOFF COMPUTERGUYS-L * New address? From OLD address send: CHANGE COMPUTERGUYS-L YourNewAddress * Need more help? Send mail to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ************************************************************************ * List archive at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/ * RSS at www.mail-archive.com/computerguys-l@listserv.aol.com/maillist.xml * Messages bearing the header "X-No-Archive: yes" will not be archived ************************************************************************
