Is this web site legal?

Is it legal to use Name of Famous Person in Web site domain

• I want to use the name of a famous person in the name of a web site that I would set up. Is it legal to do this without their permission? For example, "Vote for George Bush" or "Baseball fans for Al Gore". The web site would ask people for monetary donations to pay for the web site and related expenses, i.e. I would hope to make a small profit. Cynthia

• Answer:

  Hello cyntlhiadiane-ga, To answer your question above I checked 3 different places and I'll tell you a bit about what I learned in all of them. My forst step was to check www.godaddy.com, a domain registaring service that i've used before for personal yse, I first contacted their Domain Support line at 480-505-8899 which I found on this page https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/about.asp?isc=&se=2B&from_app=&mscssid=&pl_id=1&prog_id=GoDaddy&authGuid= linked off the main page of their site, I spoke with Dave, one of their reps, and he said that usually unless it's copyrighted by the owner of the name, it should be legal, but he advised me to check with a copyright lawyer. I then was seaching thru the websites FAQ's and found this https://registrar.godaddy.com/dispute_policy.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=&prog%5Fid=GoDaddy) Which has a lot of answers regarding the policies and proceedures for domain names, some of the items of interest on there....It is a MS Word Doc, so you will be prompted to open or save the file, I chose "open". "Purpose. This Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the "Policy") has been adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), is incorporated by reference into your Registration Agreement, and sets forth the terms and conditions in connection with a dispute between you and any party other than us (the registrar) over the registration and use of an Internet domain name registered by you" "Your Representations. By applying to register a domain name, or by asking us to maintain or renew a domain name registration, you hereby represent and warrant to us that (a) the statements that you made in your Registration Agreement are complete and accurate; (b) to your knowledge, the registration of the domain name will not infringe upon or otherwise violate the rights of any third party; (c) you are not registering the domain name for an unlawful purpose; and (d) you will not knowingly use the domain name in violation of any applicable laws or regulations. It is your responsibility to determine whether your domain name registration infringes or violates someone else's rights. " Being that they state it's "YOUR" responsibility to determine this, I figured I should fact check with a copyright lawyer for a 3'd, and legal opinion. By going a google search on "copyright lawyers omaha ne" I found a list of local lawyers in my area to contact. I contacted the Law Office of Barmettler, Joseph J. 13220 California Street, Suite 400 Omaha, NE 68154-5228 Phone: (402)342-1000 and spoke with Mr Vassberg, a copyright lawyer at the firm. He told me that a name does not have to be copyrighted to have infringement in this case, because everyone, and esp. a public figure hold what he referred to as "personal privacy and image rights" to their name, I.E., someone can use the same "famous or well recognized or associated name" of anyone or thing without their express written consent. Therefore, I would have to say while it may not infringe copyright law, you could run into a slew of other legal problems, and you should consult with the person who's name you would be planning to use and get legal permission before starting, and Mr Vassberg reccomended going thru a copyright lawyer to make sure " all your I's were dotted and T's crossed". He also advised that you should do this 10X more if you will be making ANY sort of profit off the site. "In most cases", he stated, "that 95% of the time, there is a legal recourse anyone can take if someone s using their legal name with out permission." So, this should answer your question about weather or not it is legal to use someone's name in a webdomain URL or site without their permission. It should also help you with some of the steps you would need to take to use someone's name legally in a web domain URL or site. Nenna-GA