Ask HN: A porn-like site stole my [firstnamelastname].com domain. What to do?
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.
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.
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.
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.
What's the simplest thing I should do?
This has been a thorn in my side for far too long, and I'll really appreciate your suggestions. Thanks in advance guys!
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.
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.
That is because they have trademarks that most courts would accept, noone has a trademark on their name. Well not normally anyway