Arrest grabs headlines and shines light on daily plague to domain industry.
As far as theft is concerned, it doesn’t get much more intriguing than this. It involves the internet, intellectual property, the first arrest of its kind, and a celebrity. It’s a perfect storm and is shining light on one of the plagues of the domain name industry: domain theft.
Domain Name News broke the story yesterday about an arrest in the theft of P2P.com. That story has been featured on Slashdot and Techmeme. The New Jersey State Police also heralded the arrest, citing it as the first ever arrest for domain theft in the United States.
The stolen domain name P2P.com was later sold to Los Angeles Clipper forward Mark Madsen, which is giving the story a sports and celebrity angle.
Why is news of an arrest good for the domain name industry? It is shining a light on a problem domain owners contend with every day, which could result in more enforcement and global police cooperation when it comes to domain theft. In the past, if you tried to report domain theft to your local police office they’d look at you with a blank stare. Now you can just point to the New Jersey case to get their attention.
Associated Press:
NJ man is first to be charged with Web name theft – quotes Internet Commerce Association president Jeremiah Johnston
L.A. Times:
Mark Madsen: Clipper, ex-Laker and domain name speculator – fantastic article for the domain industry explains how Madsen is a domainer, frequenting domain name forums and selling domain names.
It is also a felony to knowingly buy stolen goods.
There is a very small segment in the domain industry that buy domains that they suspect are stolen.
They know the odds are in their favor, they won’t lose the domain. And, they own the domain at a discounted price.
Wiki quote –
“a fence is an individual who knowingly buys stolen property for later resale in a (usually) legitimate market.”
“Fencing is illegal almost everywhere, usually under a similar rationale as in the United States, where receipt of stolen property is a crime in every state, as well as a federal crime if the property crossed a state line.”
That photo makes me chuckle. He looks scared.
Can you imagine this guy getting dismissed by other prisoners in jail for committing such a “soft crime”. 🙂
He’d better make up a tougher story, or start licking the walls so they’ll think he’s crazy!
He is facing 60 years in prison…some people kill and get only 10. Not that I am saying he is not guilty but then again I think Feds want to just show that stealing online isn’t mild jail time either…someone had to pay.
Same thing with that woman that was charged by RIAA for 1.5 millions due to 24songs…
Someone must be the first victim of Gov right? But did people start less downloading? No!
Do people steal less online from others? No.
Good article I also saw from Most Wanted Domain, How to protect from such thief’s.
http://www.mwd.com
Will someone please quickly put up a flash game with this guy’s mug, where it moves sporadically within a frame and we get to “toss darts” at him?
I know he hasn’t been found guilty yet, but from the case Marc and the Angels (that’s not a band) built against him, I don’t think he has a chance.
Dub-A, is there a phone number for the lead detective on this case, or an email address we can publish to invite domainers to send kudos and thanks to the New Jersey State Cyber Crimes unit?
Do they have a Twitter page?
It’s funny that domainers will probably owe tons of respect to the NJ SPCCU for their work on this, because it has brought legitimate respect to the domain industry, will let the judicial, legislative and law enforcement communities to give domainers more respect.
What will this do in the long run?
1) Make domains more valuable because now all three government agencies are focused on the legitimacy of domaining
2) Protect us from thefts by giving us reasonable justice and recovery abilities.
We owe Marc Ostrofsky and the Angels a lot of appreciation, because this is a watershed moment in this industry.
For around 10 dollars, anyone can buy your domain name. WIPO are useless! A few jail cases might jig ill intending domainers to give their actions a second thought.