• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

Threatening letter saying my hobby (non profit) site is in breach of copyright.

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

N

Nick99

Guest
Firstly, I am in the UK, and the person I have been contacted by is in Falmouth, MA.

I own a small hobby website (that I run out of my own pocket), and recently received a threatening email along the lines of the following:

{website name} is where I have taken out the name of my site.

=====
Yours website {website name} is an infringment of my companies copyrights. The name "{website name}" is sole property of {website name}, Inc. which can be found at www.{website name}.com. If you do not contact us so we can work out some kind of deal, we will be forced to file legal action.

{CEO’s name}
CEO {website name}, Inc.
======

Their website name is exactly the same as mine, however I have the .net extension whereas they have .com. The full domain name is made up of two common English language words.

I have done some checking and found their website which ends in .com was only registered on the 4th July 2002 (mine was registered on the 4th September 2002) they also currently only have a holding page on the website, and from what I can tell the person who emailed me calling himself a CEO is the sole owner / operator of the site {websitename}.com.

They seem to be saying I cant use the word **** **** which I currently have not done and don’t plan on doing. Whenever I do / have referred to / advertised my website I always use {websitename}.net. Never have I used the two words that make up the domain name separately and without the [dot] net extension being present. On every page of my website I have the site name clearly displayed at the top as being |W|E|B|S|I|T|E|N|A|M|E|.|N|E|T|

I was just wondering if this person is just making an idle threat in the attempt to get my domain name for himself, or if he actually has the legal right to do this, and would actually take legal action across countries.

I have not emailed back yet, but I must stress I run my site as a hobby, something that I do in my spare time for fun, and I certainly don’t want to have to deal with any legal action / costs etc but it seems totally unfair some other person would be able to claim they have copyright on these two words that I don’t even use with a space in-between and without the .net extension and force me to give him my domain name because of it!

Also how would I go about checking on if in-fact he does have a copyright (and therefore the legal right?) on these two common English words when used together with a space in-between?

(funny thing is I am always careful not to violate other people copyright with the content on my site! - e.g when I want to use other peoples pictures etc I always email and ask permission first, and we usually come to some arrangement where I link back to them alongside the image etc!)

Thank’s
 


racer72

Senior Member
If the company name is copyrighted or registered in your country, you will have no choice but to change the name of your site. If the name is not copyrighted or registered, tell them to go pack sand.
 
N

Nick99

Guest
Thank you very much for your reply,

I am not sure the person is a company, as from what I can tell etc they haven’t / don’t sell any service/product etc even though they are using the word CEO.

I also noticed they spelt "infringment" wrongly.

I am beginning to this is a only a lame attempt to get my domain name etc, I just got the following info from
http://www.copyright.gov/faq.html
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How do I copyright a name, title, slogan or logo?
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases,
these things may be protected as trademarks.

Can I copyright the name of my band?
No. Names are not protected by copyright law.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

They clearly said “COPYRIGHT” in the email to me.

I have been trying to find out how I would indeed check if they were a real registered company with a CEO etc, (I assume they have to be registered with some central body or something) and if they have a copyright but cant seem to find anywhere either in the USA or UK.

I've spent nearly the whole day on the internet/google reading up on copyright law etc! :D :rolleyes:
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top