domain name squatters

[Peterson, Glenn]

I wish we could claim foresight! 

We first learned about hennepincountylibrary.com about three years ago.
The cybersquatter was willing to sell us the name for $1000. The
standard fee charged by domain name arbitrators at the time was $1100.
Our County legal dept. and board of commissioners decided to sue rather
than arbitrate. Typically arbitration takes about two months -- we
received the court order 2 1/2 years after bringing the matter to the
attention of our legal folks. (Court delays were not the issue). 

During those 2 1/2 years we received repeated, and often emotional,
e-mails from patrons who stumbled onto the .com site (which displayed
graphic photos of aborted fetuses). Anyone interested in more details of
this saga should feel free to contact me off-list.

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Glenn Peterson                gpeterson at hclib.org
Web Administrator             http://www.hclib.org
Hennepin County Library       voice: 952-847-8659
12601 Ridgedale Drive         fax: 952-847-8642
Minnetonka, MN 55305         
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On Jan 4, 2005, Larry Scritchfield wrote:

>
> I guess one needs to register alternate domain names and have a 
> redirect to the correct one.  If you type "sandiegozoo.com," for 
> example, you get a referral to "sandiegozoo.org."
> -----Original Message-----
> From: "Scritchfield, Larry" <LScritch at MAIL.co.washoe.nv.us>
> Sent: Jan 4, 2005 1:53 PM
> To: Multiple recipients of list <web4lib at webjunction.org>
> Subject: [WEB4LIB] domain name squatters
>
> I recently had a voicemail from a patron who couldn't locate our 
> library
> website. She said "I put in 'Washoe County Library' and I get
> http://www.washoecountylibrary.com/. None of the links on that page 
> are what
> I want though."
>
> Unfortunately she was so distraught by this that she neglected to 
> leave her
> phone number...
>
> I tried kingcountylibrary.com. Same sort of result. 
> jacksoncountylibrary.com
> is apparently too generic, but webercountylibrary.com and
> sonomacountylibrary.com (just to pick two) are occupied by 
> nameking.com.
>
> But hennepincountylibrary.com redirects to hclib.org. Is this due to
> foresight on their part, I wonder?
>
> It's old news that this kind of squatting happens. I just didn't think

> it
> would happen to us. Shoulda registered a trademark or service mark, I 
> guess.
>
> Larry Scritchfield                       lscritch at mail.co.washoe.nv.us
> Internet Services Librarian                             (775) 327-8349
> Washoe County Library System                      www.washoe.lib.nv.us