Iffy trade name claims aren't limited to domain names. Are Twit-squatting and Face-squatting new problems we'll have to deal with?Have you ever signed up for an Internet service only to find that your desired user ID was already taken? Happens all the time.
In the world of domain names we have the concept of reverse domain name hijacking,
in which a company bullies a domain name registrant out of their domain
without clear intellectual property rights to the name. But what about
user names on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter? If I
have a company name and some user has registered that name on Twitter,
can I get it from them?
Such a case came up recentlysort of, on DomainNameNews: A
report claimed that the company Room 214 was pressuring Twitter to take
the user name @room_214 from the user who had registered it and hand it
over to to them.
Immediately I must point out the first comment in the blog
in which James Clark, co-founder of Room 214 (twitter handle:
@jamesoclarkI) denies the claims and indicates vaguely that some
lower-level employee had done this, whatever it really was, without
proper authorization. But it's over, Room 214 is not coveting the
Twitter user name @room_214.
That still leaves us with the hypothetical case, though, and it's an
interesting one: Domain names are one thing. They are managed to a
degree in the public interest by ICANN through registrars, so people's
rights to trade names in them are clear, I think.
Twitter is a private business, but they still protect trade names when used as user names. To quote Twitter policy:
We reserve the right to reclaim usernames on behalf of
businesses or individuals that hold legal claim or trademark on those
usernames.
So it's really no different from domain names in a way, but there's no
agreed-upon independent arbitration process as there is with domain
names (
the UDRP).
It's up to Twitter to decide. Maybe they can't be completely arbitrary
about it, but it is up to them. What is the recourse for parties to
name disputes? Probably private litigation, threatening letters, that
sort of thing.
And of course this is not limited to Twitter. Companies use
FaceBook and other private services with identities for marketing all
the time, and it's likely those companies will have an increasing
problem of arbitrating access to names which some claim are protected
interests.
By the same token, if you have a name you need to protect it makes
sense to go to important social media sites, even e-mail sites, and
reserve the names. It would be better to do this in advance so you
don't have to be a jerk in the future to those who reserved them
innocently. As for e-mail systems such as Gmail, good luck finding any
good names left.
Going further with the domain name analogy, could it actually reach
the level of tasting for user names on popular sites? In a way it makes
sense, but it would be harder to pull off. Presumably, for instance,
you could reserve a Facebook name speculatively and put up hints that
it's for sale, but Facebook wouldn't approve. Maybe you could get away
with it. You could also write a Twitter program for tasted Twitter
names that sends out "to buy this name e-mail
twitter-taster@sleazy-jerk.com" (note: that domain name is available if
you want it). Maybe you could get away with it.
Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer has worked in and written about the computer industry since 1983.
For insights on security coverage around the Web, take a look at eWEEK.com Security Center Editor Larry Seltzer's blog Cheap Hack
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