Website Legalities

[Infatuas]

I figure with all of the techies someone is bound to know the answer to this question here, best way is via scenario.

Lets say John Doe, is a relatively famous politician, who has his own T.V. show, various published books that are NY Top Sellers and owns johndoe.com. And, lets say that I really admire this person as of recently and think John is a genius, so much so that I wanted to purchase a domain called heroicjohndoe.com and have a blog directed toward his show, post documents that match up with his T.V. listings, and post some of his videos with comment responses to his feeds and etc.

Now, this would initially be for fun on my behalf and to satisfy those times of boredom, but lets theoretically say that I begin to receive a generous number of websites visits because people are searching for john doe and my domain naturally matches the results and I want to begin to profit at some point. What are the legalities here? Could I receive a C & D (Cease and Desist) or worse a law suite for profiting from someone else's name?

Thanks in advance,

Infatuas

[digip]

First, ask a real lawyer. Each state probably has its own laws regarding this as well. But I'd say, so long as you weren't selling or profiting on copyright stuff, and not misleading people to think the money was going towards his campaign, then you can make as much money off it as you want. Have ads, sell stuff, whatever, just know where the line is by asking a real lawyer. Especially when it comes to something like this, which could be seen as a parasite trying to profit off others name or image.

[theSuperman]

I figure with all of the techies someone is bound to know the answer to this question here, best way is via scenario.

Lets say John Doe, is a relatively famous politician, who has his own T.V. show, various published books that are NY Top Sellers and owns johndoe.com. And, lets say that I really admire this person as of recently and think John is a genius, so much so that I wanted to purchase a domain called heroicjohndoe.com and have a blog directed toward his show, post documents that match up with his T.V. listings, and post some of his videos with comment responses to his feeds and etc.

Now, this would initially be for fun on my behalf and to satisfy those times of boredom, but lets theoretically say that I begin to receive a generous number of websites visits because people are searching for john doe and my domain naturally matches the results and I want to begin to profit at some point. What are the legalities here? Could I receive a C & D (Cease and Desist) or worse a law suite for profiting from someone else's name?

Thanks in advance,

Infatuas

I sure hope you are not talking about Sarah Palin.

[Infatuas]

LMFAO, Definitely not Sarah Palin. Will probably just go that route, and speak with a lawyer to be safe. I do not want to become a parasite, but there is a fine line when I am formulating my own opinions about his commentary and what not.

[VaKo]

I'd make it clear somewhere visible that your site is not the official site, and link to the official site. If you do run adverts etc, keep detailed accounts of the money earned and the expenses of running the site. But otherwise you need to consult a lawyer for your jurisdiction.