Cybersquatting ExBoyfriends, etc: You can do something about it

[Musclepapa John]

I recently have run into a problem with one of my sponsored athletes websites as a guy that registered it supposedly on her behalf and less that six months ago now wants $25,000 to release it to her control. This isn't the first time I've encountered this situation. Likewise, it is an inherit issue that comes up when your status changes over time from amateur athlete to professional or for other reasons the athletes other business or celebrity status increases, etc that causes the registrant to believe they are deserving of a big pay off. In the instance I've most recently encountered this guy has a strong personal interest in the athlete and is seeking to leverage the athletes' domain name to further that relationship. Obviously, this isn't a winning strategy for the guy.
Let this be a lesson for everyone that regardless who registers your domain that it be either registered in your name or that you have a clear understanding "in writing" of the terms and conditions.

This guy already made a few fatal errors in this process. 1) He directed the site at the www.RealityKings.com site and noted a variation of that company's name in the registry. Problem is Icey Mike owner of that South Florida porn syndicate didn't know this guy, until now;) and 2) He actually provided an email requesting $25,000. Every smart cybersquatter knows not to leave evidence:p

Violations of Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act
Where a trademark owner has identified the cybersquatter, and that cybersquatter is located in the United States—or has significant contacts with the United States—the trademark owner can bring an in personam claim under the federal Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act (“ACPA”). As contrasted with an in rem claim under the ACPA, an in personam claim enables a cybersquatting victim to recover damages, costs, and fees, in addition to recovering the domain name at issue. For a trademark owner to bring an in personam claim under the ACPA, the trademark owner must show:
-Courts consider several factors when determining whether a domain name registrant acted in bad faith, including but not limited to: the registrant’s trademark or other intellectual property rights (if any) in the domain name; the registrant’s prior use (if any) of the domain name in connection with the bona fide offering of goods or services; the registrant’s intent to divert consumers from the trademark owner’s website to a website accessible under the domain name, creating a likelihood of confusion as to the source of the website; and the registrant’s offer to sell the domain name for financial gain without having used the domain name in for the bona fide offering of any goods or services

[sassy69]

This is always good to know when you go looking for someone to build a website for you. The components of a site include:

- Registering a domain name
This is done in 1 yr increments, and you can pay for multiple years at one time, but you have to stay on top of it or the domain can expire. If it expires and an enterprising someone is there to scoop it up before you realize it, you no longer own it unless you either buy it from them (for an inflated rate I'd expect), or wait until they might happen to let the domain expire. But as above you would have something to stand on possibly to get it back.

- Get a webhosting account
There are many hosting companies out there - normally for small sites, the cheap (and these days very cheap!) accounts are on what is called "shared hosting" - this means there are several accounts on the same server that share resources.

This part can be confusing because you get a hosting account separately from the domain. Many hosting companies will register domains as well. You need to stay on top of both parts - you may or may not buy hosting time for the same duration as the domain name, so either can come due at different times.

In terms of communications from the hosting company, you'd want to make sure you're getting them as well as whoever is your technical person (if you have someone doing your webdesign for you)

Website
Many hosting companies have website templates that you can use to get your own site up. Or you might be tech savvy and build it yoruself, or you might hire someone. If you hire someone, like above, make sure that you do it in a business relationship, regardless of your status - new amateur, pro, up & comer, whatever. It has your name on it, and you want to make sure you have control over it and it represents you the way you want.

[Musclepapa John]

Amen to this sista:yep:

Turn about is fair play: I had done a group of radio stations websites for one owner who turned around and sold the stations off piece meal after the site domains were registered for four years.
Everyone went with different designers (in-house, brother-in-law, etc) and just two weeks ago one of them freaked at the domain registry went unrenewed "by me" and the gal TOLD me it was MY responsibility;). Sorry, but nope it was hers as the office manager who'd reassigned the work years earlier. Surely it was in my registry of accounts, but with them as owners. I did transfer ownership, but they never went through the steps to make sure the account would renew on time. Furthermore, as the gal had never been much above rude to me I concluded that was just fine. Turn about is fair play even with the lightening bolts striking all around me.:)



- Get a webhosting account
There are many hosting companies out there - normally for small sites, the cheap (and these days very cheap!) accounts are on what is called "shared hosting" - this means there are several accounts on the same server that share resources.

This part can be confusing because you get a hosting account separately from the domain. Many hosting companies will register domains as well. You need to stay on top of both parts - you may or may not buy hosting time for the same duration as the domain name, so either can come due at different times.

[Musclepapa John]

Yep! Even with the advent of social networks your own central repository for your original works is still of great import in developing your own brand. Many people do not care or think much about these issues and merely want to know that if someone googles their name that a few positive things are there about them.
Yet, what is being written about you may not be positive and in many instances you have no control over your branding unless you are ACTIVELY DEVELOPING YOUR OWN BRAND through Search Engine Optimization techniques that involve NOT ONLY your own website, but social network tools, video (youtube has been owned by google since '06:yep:) etc.

At the core though is a website which should be "your own central repository" for the great truths and half-truths you want told about you:p
And if you let someone you are bedding down with today do it cuz it's free you might be the one getting screwed tomorrow:hypno:



Website
Many hosting companies have website templates that you can use to get your own site up. Or you might be tech savvy and build it yoruself, or you might hire someone. If you hire someone, like above, make sure that you do it in a business relationship, regardless of your status - new amateur, pro, up & comer, whatever. It has your name on it, and you want to make sure you have control over it and it represents you the way you want.

[Musclepapa John]

Related to these points relative to trying to control your own brand I'd like to point out that some of the folks you would think would be experts "FAIL."
One of the biggest critics of Dave Palumbo is Joe Bayer. He never seems to miss the opportunity to get a dig in on Dave and picks on moderators here like Tammy P and others. Yet, even as the perceived expert in the paysite industry that he is I get a chuckle from the google results with photo searches of his business and name. Check out the photo results for that versus my dumbarse photo results associated with one of my business names:yep:
I purposefully have sought to have my content on the sites a search of photos in google delivers. I can't imagine what some of these other folks do;)




This is always good to know when you go looking for someone to build a website for you. The components of a site include:

- Registering a domain name
This is done in 1 yr increments, and you can pay for multiple years at one time, but you have to stay on top of it or the domain can expire. If it expires and an enterprising someone is there to scoop it up before you realize it, you no longer own it unless you either buy it from them (for an inflated rate I'd expect), or wait until they might happen to let the domain expire. But as above you would have something to stand on possibly to get it back.

- Get a webhosting account
There are many hosting companies out there - normally for small sites, the cheap (and these days very cheap!) accounts are on what is called "shared hosting" - this means there are several accounts on the same server that share resources.

This part can be confusing because you get a hosting account separately from the domain. Many hosting companies will register domains as well. You need to stay on top of both parts - you may or may not buy hosting time for the same duration as the domain name, so either can come due at different times.

In terms of communications from the hosting company, you'd want to make sure you're getting them as well as whoever is your technical person (if you have someone doing your webdesign for you)

Website
Many hosting companies have website templates that you can use to get your own site up. Or you might be tech savvy and build it yoruself, or you might hire someone. If you hire someone, like above, make sure that you do it in a business relationship, regardless of your status - new amateur, pro, up & comer, whatever. It has your name on it, and you want to make sure you have control over it and it represents you the way you want.

[xandertreffers]

The way of thinking that the girls must have is this:

"I'm the owner of the website"

Soo, not the webdesigner, not the sponsor, not some manage, not anybody else: the girl must be the boss in the end...If she makes money with the site, she should get that money to her bank first, before others get it...

This is very important to avoid future domain name problems, to avoid people taking advantage of you, etc...

And to realize this, the women must:

Be the owner of the domain name (most important)
Be the owner of the CCBill\Verotel\etc account (just as important, when making money from the website)
Be the owner of the hosting (less important thant owning the domain name, but it's still important, especially since hosting is so cheap nowadays)

It is really so easy to get a domain name, that everybody could do this for themselves...Simlpy go to a website like www.godaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com) , type in the domain name, have your creditcard ready, or pay with paypal, and make sure not to get any of the extra's that they offer...

Xander

[Musclepapa John]

I agree, but as you mentioned ccbill Xander don't you agree that if you want to have adult material on your site that ccbill.com is a good solution from domain registry and hosting?

Lots of people have content on their sites that violate the Terms of Service of both the domain registry and their web hosting service. This creates a level of uncertainty that is not necessary considering the turnkey solution for Adult content offered by www.ccbill.com IMO.


The way of thinking that the girls must have is this:
"I'm the owner of the website"
Soo, not the webdesigner, not the sponsor, not some manage, not anybody else: the girl must be the boss in the end...If she makes money with the site, she should get that money to her bank first, before others get it...
This is very important to avoid future domain name problems, to avoid people taking advantage of you, etc...
And to realize this, the women must:
Be the owner of the domain name (most important)
Be the owner of the CCBill\Verotel\etc account (just as important, when making money from the website)
Be the owner of the hosting (less important thant owning the domain name, but it's still important, especially since hosting is so cheap nowadays)

It is really so easy to get a domain name, that everybody could do this for themselves...Simlpy go to a website like www.godaddy.com (http://www.godaddy.com) , type in the domain name, have your creditcard ready, or pay with paypal, and make sure not to get any of the extra's that they offer...

Xander

[Musclepapa John]

For the webcamming gals that want some liberation:yep:

CCBill's Cavecreek hosting service now offers turn key Web Cam Solutions.
Got to love the ever changing and enhancing service opportunities in the digital era.:)

LINK TO CAVECREEK (http://www.cavecreek.com/vod.php)

[xandertreffers]

CCBills all-in-one solutions could surely be interesting! Never tried them, but most stuff that they do is very reliable and cavecreek has good servers + support...

Buuuttt...This is only interesting for girls that already make a lot of money on their sites...The prices are very high (the Cam-VOD combo with 1 cam licence is about $1500/month!)...

I use as hosting for most of the sites that I do companies like Hostgator, Fatcow & Lunarpages...Then it costs only about $5-$7 / month to have hosting & a domain name...

The basic hosting on their sites is by far good enough for the average member site!...

Then if a girl makes tuns of money with her site and wants to do all maintenance herself, solutions like CCBills might be interesting...But only very few make enough money to spend $1500/month on a server, individual webcam & VOD...

Especially if a girl would just start with a website, I would always advice to keep the monthy costs to a minimum and first get the feel with what the internet can bring and how much work needs to be done one websites to make money...

Xander

[axioma]

Very informative stuff, many thanks for posting

[The Big Sexy]

That technically isn't cyber-squatting. Cyber-squatting is registering the domain and then attempting to sell it to the party who you KNOW will have interest in it. In this case, he registered it for her, they set the site up for her, etc. And now, he wants money to release it... that's called extortion.

Think of the landmark Polaroid case when it comes to cyber-squatting. The guy registered the site, and put a picture of Polaroid, IL on it and said "I love Polaroid IL - I'm dedicated this website to it" - then, offered to sell the URL to Polaroid for an extraneous amount of money.

If you read further - people's names can't be protected. It's why WarrenSapp couldn't get his website when someone registered it - he couldn't get it back. Hence, his website became "TheBig91.com".

If a guy registers a competitors name and just sits on it - that's fine. Offering to sell it is fine as well - but you have to wait until they contact YOU in order to make the offer.

In this case - it looks like freaking extortion - since the site was already up, running and in use by the female athlete. The clear intention is that it would be for her to use for her own promotion. EVEN if the guy had a contract to specify he get paid 5K to do the website - he couldn't hold the site hostage - he would have to go through the proper legal channels to collect his money.

So, in any event, his actions are not condoned or protected by law. Might even be some criminal action here.

[Musclepapa John]

Actually you don't have to make a lot of money with the CCBill.com services as their basic level for hosting, managing your membersite gateway and processing credit cards (+12-14%/transaction) is only $25/mth. As your bandwidth needs increase and membership base grows you can steadily increase the account. They do the setup for you and afford you the opportunity to protect only the pages you want and create the membership/payment gateway to those areas. You or your webmaster would then upload content everywhere at will and direct your marketing accordingly.
There are ways of utilizing cam on your site that ccbill can help a competitor with for quite a lot less than $1500 per month. They are very helpful in the customer service department.


CCBills all-in-one solutions could surely be interesting! Never tried them, but most stuff that they do is very reliable and cavecreek has good servers + support...

Buuuttt...This is only interesting for girls that already make a lot of money on their sites...The prices are very high (the Cam-VOD combo with 1 cam licence is about $1500/month!)...

I use as hosting for most of the sites that I do companies like Hostgator, Fatcow & Lunarpages...Then it costs only about $5-$7 / month to have hosting & a domain name...

The basic hosting on their sites is by far good enough for the average member site!...

Then if a girl makes tuns of money with her site and wants to do all maintenance herself, solutions like CCBills might be interesting...But only very few make enough money to spend $1500/month on a server, individual webcam & VOD...

Especially if a girl would just start with a website, I would always advice to keep the monthy costs to a minimum and first get the feel with what the internet can bring and how much work needs to be done one websites to make money...

Xander

[Musclepapa John]

It is cybersquatting and indeed extortion at the same time:)

Extortion is a good call.

If you recall though the cybersquatting legislation came out of Capital Hill at a time when the Clintons' were in the White House and Hillary's name along with other prominent politicians names were bought up and spoofed. That was the precise reason for the legislation. I disagreed with it, but it is what it is.

From a capitalist perspective I've always considered it fair game if some entity does not purchase the domain name to purchase it myself, BUT this legislation from the get go put a monkey wrench in what was previously something of a free market traded commodity.

Asking $25,000 for a competitors promotional site though wouldn't sit well with any judge or arbitration board based on the fact that the woman won't have sex with him:p


That technically isn't cyber-squatting. Cyber-squatting is registering the domain and then attempting to sell it to the party who you KNOW will have interest in it. In this case, he registered it for her, they set the site up for her, etc. And now, he wants money to release it... that's called extortion.

Think of the landmark Polaroid case when it comes to cyber-squatting. The guy registered the site, and put a picture of Polaroid, IL on it and said "I love Polaroid IL - I'm dedicated this website to it" - then, offered to sell the URL to Polaroid for an extraneous amount of money.

If you read further - people's names can't be protected. It's why WarrenSapp couldn't get his website when someone registered it - he couldn't get it back. Hence, his website became "TheBig91.com".

If a guy registers a competitors name and just sits on it - that's fine. Offering to sell it is fine as well - but you have to wait until they contact YOU in order to make the offer.

In this case - it looks like freaking extortion - since the site was already up, running and in use by the female athlete. The clear intention is that it would be for her to use for her own promotion. EVEN if the guy had a contract to specify he get paid 5K to do the website - he couldn't hold the site hostage - he would have to go through the proper legal channels to collect his money.

So, in any event, his actions are not condoned or protected by law. Might even be some criminal action here.

[Musclepapa John]

In fairness when she first asked what to do I told her to put a gun to his head and threaten to bust a cap in him. Of course at that point based on the admin info I thought he was a Reality Kings playa which is part of why I asked Icey Mike for clearance as I'd hate to be the next victim of one of Kimbo Slices street fight videos:hypno:


In this case - it looks like freaking extortion - since the site was already up, running and in use by the female athlete. The clear intention is that it would be for her to use for her own promotion. EVEN if the guy had a contract to specify he get paid 5K to do the website - he couldn't hold the site hostage - he would have to go through the proper legal channels to collect his money.
So, in any event, his actions are not condoned or protected by law. Might even be some criminal action here.

[Musclepapa John]

He'd better stop clowning around:yep:

[xandertreffers]

Yes, you don't need any money at all when you create a member-site (unless it's an adult website, where people from the USA will have to pay a $750 fee to accept VISA cards, followed by a fee of $375 the for each year after the first one...

When using Verotel, nobody has to pay those fees...

Verotel offers basically the same: install the whole member system...

But I was talking about the Cavecreek link that you gave: http://www.cavecreek.com/vod.php ...That's where the high prices are...

I would still not advice Cavecreek hosting: for $25.month you get way less than what Hostgator, Fatcow, etc offer...And their products are very reliable with great 24hr support...

Cavecreek is awesome in case you go for the whole package: webcam, VOD, server, etc...But else their prices are relatively high...To give you an idea:

For $20/month + $50 set up fee, Cavecreek offers 3GB of storage with a monthrly traffic of 100GB...

Hostgator offers unlimited diskspace and traffic for $4.95/month...Which is an awesome price for when you start a site...Their support & quality is great too: what you get for the price is just awesome...

CCBill is great to work with, but in some cases it makes more sense to choose for Verotel...There are 2 reasons:

--->in case a girl does adult things (topless and nude) Verotel can be used to avoid the VISA fee's
--->the application process is faster and less complicated than with CCBill

You can also run both systems at once...Eventhough CCBills system is more wellknown and has more features than Verotel, I must say that Verotel is adding some very interesting stuff to their system lately...

There are more options: some girls work with Paypal...This can be tricky, since Paypal can see something as "adult" and block your account...

Netbilling is also an option, but then you need to get your own merchant account first...Their support is great, it's al a bit more complicated at first than CCBill, but a great system though...

Sooooo many possibilities!...LOL...

Xander




: the huge monthly fees are for compleet systems, including members area, hostin, VOD, webcam...Which is what you gave that link




Actually you don't have to make a lot of money with the CCBill.com services as their basic level for hosting, managing your membersite gateway and processing credit cards (+12-14%/transaction) is only $25/mth. As your bandwidth needs increase and membership base grows you can steadily increase the account. They do the setup for you and afford you the opportunity to protect only the pages you want and create the membership/payment gateway to those areas. You or your webmaster would then upload content everywhere at will and direct your marketing accordingly.
There are ways of utilizing cam on your site that ccbill can help a competitor with for quite a lot less than $1500 per month. They are very helpful in the customer service department.

[Musclepapa John]

Of course you are correct regarding the Visa fees and advantage of Verotel. Plus, the hosting advantages of other sites. I think for the average gal less technically interested than a Mel D or Collete Nelson though that the turnkey advantage of ccbill with their hosting through Cavecreek is well worth the price.

Like you wrote there are many options. Plus, as you noted some nuts want to use paypal for their paysite:p What a potential and "likely" nightmare that would turn out to be, lol. Then they have to not only set up the php gateways, but set up a database on the site to manage member accounts, etc. wtf, lol.

There are obviously other costs and commitments that someone serious about doing business in this fashion should consider upfront.

You've made excellent points and suggestions:yep:


Yes, you don't need any money at all when you create a member-site (unless it's an adult website, where people from the USA will have to pay a $750 fee to accept VISA cards, followed by a fee of $375 the for each year after the first one...

When using Verotel, nobody has to pay those fees...

Verotel offers basically the same: install the whole member system...

But I was talking about the Cavecreek link that you gave: http://www.cavecreek.com/vod.php ...That's where the high prices are...

I would still not advice Cavecreek hosting: for $25.month you get way less than what Hostgator, Fatcow, etc offer...And their products are very reliable with great 24hr support...

Cavecreek is awesome in case you go for the whole package: webcam, VOD, server, etc...But else their prices are relatively high...To give you an idea:

For $20/month + $50 set up fee, Cavecreek offers 3GB of storage with a monthrly traffic of 100GB...

Hostgator offers unlimited diskspace and traffic for $4.95/month...Which is an awesome price for when you start a site...Their support & quality is great too: what you get for the price is just awesome...

CCBill is great to work with, but in some cases it makes more sense to choose for Verotel...There are 2 reasons:

--->in case a girl does adult things (topless and nude) Verotel can be used to avoid the VISA fee's
--->the application process is faster and less complicated than with CCBill

You can also run both systems at once...Eventhough CCBills system is more wellknown and has more features than Verotel, I must say that Verotel is adding some very interesting stuff to their system lately...

There are more options: some girls work with Paypal...This can be tricky, since Paypal can see something as "adult" and block your account...

Netbilling is also an option, but then you need to get your own merchant account first...Their support is great, it's al a bit more complicated at first than CCBill, but a great system though...

Sooooo many possibilities!...LOL...

Xander




: the huge monthly fees are for compleet systems, including members area, hostin, VOD, webcam...Which is what you gave that link