

Ask HN: A porn-like site stole my [firstnamelastname].com domain. What to do? - korussian

I accidentally let my personal domain name, myfirstnamemylastname.com expire, and a Japanese porn-ish site immediately scooped it up.  That was over a year ago, and they still seem to own it.<p>It doesn't make sense for them to have it, since I have an obscure Eastern-European name, and it's just that with a .com on the end.<p>This looks bad when potential employers, clients, and friends Google/search me.  Instead I bought myfirstnamemylastname.ca (I'm Canadian) and myfirstnamemylastname.info, but the .com is still porny.<p>I want my domain back, but I don't want to launch/pay for huge legal proceedings.  I certainly don't want to pay the Japanese company a ransom.<p>What's the simplest thing I should do?<p>This has been a thorn in my side for far too long, and I'll really appreciate your suggestions.  Thanks in advance guys!
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zensavona
Either offer them some money or deal with it I guess.

You have no real right to your name as a domain name... If you let them buy it
before you or let it expire, that's your loss unfortunately.

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korussian
Wouldn't Apple or Google be able to prevent others from stealing out their
domain names from under them? Wouldn't Steve Jobs or Bill Gates be able to? I
don't know the law with regard to this, so I wonder if you're right, and there
really is no resolution process.

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xzcvczx
That is because they have trademarks that most courts would accept, noone has
a trademark on their name. Well not normally anyway

