Pistol_Pete

Hi all, need a bit of advice please.

In 1999 my sister opened an account with freeserve and used it to host a website. The web address is www.example.freeserve.co.uk ( I havent used the actual address to prevent spam ) Just over a year ago she looked into purchasing a domain name based on the account name she was using www.example.co.uk. The domain name was already registered and she contacted the owner about selling it. Unfortunatly they could not agree a price so she decided not to purchase and forgot all about it.
Until today, when the domain owner contacted her regarding her freeserve account and website saying it was in violation of his copyright and threatening legal action if the site was not removed and the account closed.

So has this guy any legal leg to stand on ? Or is he just bluffing out of the hope of getting a sale or spite ?

I should mention that the website is used to run a small diving holiday businness and that neither party has the name mentioned at companies house.

Thanks for any help or advice.

Pistol_Pete

One other thing, he has not used his domain name for anything. I think he is just trying to make easy money.

Brendan Hughes

In that case launch a counter-suit for cybersquatting

Sbradley

What he said.

Parasites like this really p*ss me off. We have had something approaching the same problem with a site I run. In our case the site and company name are the same so it was easy to tell the other company to take a hike.

SB

Jap2Scrap

I would've thought date of registration would be the deciding factor should he carry out his threat.

SJ_Skyline

He has no grounds for complaint and no legal standing, I would tell him to take a running jump.

Your sister has IIRC what is called a host on the Freeserve domain so if this guy wants the name so much he has to go through Freeserve. Freeserve will probably tell him to **** off. As a host, I'm not sure where Nominet stands on things but the onus is on this guy to prove to them that she is abusing his copyright.

I would talk to Freeserve and to Nominet just for peace of mind

Pistol_Pete

Thanks for the advice everyone