Most discussions in legal circles about social networking have, over the past year or so, focussed on Facebook. So, it's only fair that, after a year in which most of us have grown sick of seeing the "FB" word in every sentence, it's the turn of Myspace to take up some space in the legal journals and blogs. I've picked up on two interesting stories recently.
Myspace.co.uk obtained from Total Web Solutions
Firstly, there is news that Myspace Inc, the company that owns/operates Myspace, has secured ownership of the Myspace.co.uk domain name using the Nominet Dispute Resolution Procedure. The .co.uk domain name was registered by Total Web Solutions 6 years before Myspace was launched, and Total Web Solutions could therefore have not registered it with a then-non existence social networking site in mind!
To succeed under the Procedure, someone (known as the "Complainant") must satisfy a Nominet-appointed expert on the balance of probabilities that, in connection with a domain name:
- it has enforceable rights under applicable law in a name/mark that is identical or similar to the domain name in question ("Complainant's Rights"); and
- the Respondent's possession of the domain name constitutes an "Abusive Registration".
The procedure terms a domain name to be an Abusive Registration if it:
- was registered in a manner which, at the time when the registration or acquisition took place, took unfair advantage of or was unfairly detrimental to the Complainant's Rights; or
- has been used in a manner which took unfair advantage of or was unfairly detrimental to the Complainant's Rights.
In this case, the expert ruled on a number of issues including:
- Total Web Solutions had at some point between August 2005 and April 2006 begun using the domain name to publish adverts for social networking sites. It had therefore adjusted its use of the domain name to gain income from the domain name by using Myspace Inc's reputation.
- Whilst Total Web Solutions did seek substantial payment (offers ranged between $100k to $430k) for the domain name, this did not amount to Abusive Registration.
- Total Website Solutions had argued that "MYSPACE" was a generic term and therefore Myspace Inc could not have rights in it. This argument was rejected.
Thanks to Nicky at Naked Law for picking up on this story. To quote Nicky, the ruling: "serves as a reminder that a registration that was initially legitimate may become abusive if the registrant subsequently changes its usage of the domain name."
Myspace friends request leads to criminal charges
Secondly, from Evan Brown's Internet Cases blog in Chicago comes news of a contempt of court ruling by a New York City criminal court relating to a friend request accepted on Myspace. For this bizarre sounding story to make any sense, here's a couple of extracts from Evan's blog post:
"An order of protection, issued by a New York family court, required that defendant Fernino have no contact with a certain Delgrosso. After Fernino added Delgrosso as a “friend” on MySpace, she was charged with contempt of court for allegedly violating the order of protection..."
"In this case, the court observed that even though Delgrosso could have simply denied the friend request, it was still a form of contact. It found that the form of communication was no different from the defendant having a third party say to Delgrosso, “Your former friend wants to communicate with you. Are you interested?"
Evan also mentions a number of cases - both US and UK - where social contact at-a-distance (e.g. online) has been regarded as no different from social contact made in person.
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