SuperDave Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Found this on a website blog today. The writer of this claims to be the former owner of the Ledzeppelin.com domain name. Whether this is true or not, I can't answer that. He claims to be a big Led Zeppelin fan and who knows, might very well be an active member on this forum (here is where they all come out of the woodwork to make that claim). Seems he didn't know what to do when he was approached by Zep's legal team to give up the name. Probably could have gotten something. I would of tried to get something, but not necessarily money. See what you think. If anyone has more info on this it would be appreciated. Posted on March 16th, 2009 From: Blogger News Network www.bloggernews.net Cybersquatting Leads To Identity Theft by Identity Theft Speaker Robert Siciliano-Identity Theft Expert Cybersquating is the act of procuring someone elses trademarked brand name online as a dot com or any other US based extension. Cyber squatters squat for many reasons including impostering for fun, hoping to resell the domain, using the domain to advertise competitors wares, stalking, harassment or outright fraud. Grabbing someone’s given name is also a form of cybersquatting and is happening in social networks and on Twitter. Twitter is affected by Twittersquatting where peoples names and an estimated top 100 brands have been hijacked. There are also bunches of Kevin Mitnicks ( hacker) on Facebook that even prevented the Gent from accessing his own Facebook account. Facebook fixed the problem after Mitnick rightfully bitched then CNET made a call. Then Facebook listened. Facebook said “We are very aggressive in fostering and enforcing our real name culture and sometimes we make mistakes. But it’s rare, and it’s been fixed.” Cybersquatting is also done maliciously for fraud. The Identity Thieves will jack a domain similar to that of a bank and create a spoofed site for phishing. Often if the domain isnt available, then the next best thing is Typosquatting. Annualcreditreport.com was a victim of that. More than 200 domains were snapped up right after the site launched. This is just one more reason to protect yourself from identity theft. Back in the day, I was accused of cybersquatting! Here. I wasn’t I swear! Back in the early 90’s with my IBM PS1 Consultant 3.1 Microsoft operating system and a rockin 150mb hard drive, I bought me up some domains as well. Some that I sold, others I regrettably gave up and one that will haunt me till the day I die. I owned LEDZEPPELIN.com for about 5-6 years. Led Zeppelin then and now is my band, and as a fan I bought the domain as a keepsake. I would get emails from people globally like “I am Paulo from Brazil, I love the Led Zep!” Then when Clinton passed a law later making cybersquatting illegal, I knew it was a matter of time. I had it for 5 years before anyone from the bands team of lawyers approached me on it. And when they did I didn’t know how to handle it. And my lawyer at the time even less so. Ultimately I gave it up without a fight on my part, but I’m sure the bands lawyers billed them for the 1 inch thick book of a lawsuit I was served with. Sorry dudes. My bad. In this case the lawyers saw an opportunity to build a case against me, a fan that would have been happy with a stupid guitar pick from Jimmy. Instead I sat in silence for a year while they built a huge case as to why they should own the domain. When served, I freaked and called them yelling to take it, I never wanted that. One of few regrets. But I have a nice 1 inch thick book about me and the band and why I’m an idiot. Anyways back to cybersquatting. A recent report from the NY Times sourced MarkMonitor, a domain name seller and company that protects brands names from misuse, tracked an 18 percent rise in incidence of cybersquatting. Which means as a brand or individual (or band, eesh) get your name on social network sites or domain name NOW. Then get your kids names as well. Because they may be Zeppelin famous and have to fight a twit like me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
timothy5151 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Nice story about the Led Zeppelin domain name. I think I would have held out for at least an autograph though. Is too bad that the band didn't send him anything as a way of saying thanks. I'm not sure if he paid to have/register the domain name or not. If so, then he is out some money. Maybe the band didn't even know the story behind this and just had the lawyers deal with it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
I have got a horsey Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Is too bad that the band didn't send him anything as a way of saying thanks. I'm not sure if he paid to have/register the domain name or not. Do you think Peter Grant would've gone round to this guy's house with a bunch of flowers and a thank you card? I mean saying that he purchased the domain as a 'keepsake' was a load of bullshit. People do it deliberately to try and get vast sums of money later on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zeppelin_2008 Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Interesting read Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
swandown Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Was he the guy who owned a gun store? You clicked on a Led Zeppelin domain name but it went directly to a guns & ammo shop. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Administrators sam_webmaster Posted March 18, 2009 Administrators Share Posted March 18, 2009 Was he the guy who owned a gun store? You clicked on a Led Zeppelin domain name but it went directly to a guns & ammo shop. correct Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperDave Posted March 18, 2009 Author Share Posted March 18, 2009 correct That sounds familiar as I tried that address years ago, before this site came to exist. People do it for one thing and that's money with a lot of it because of greed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keepa Coolin' Baby Posted March 18, 2009 Share Posted March 18, 2009 Cyber squatters are parasites. Led Zeppelin don't owe this guy a guitar pick or anything else. This is opportunism - nothing more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JimmyPageZoSo56 Posted March 19, 2009 Share Posted March 19, 2009 Very interesting read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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