This seems wrong, What should I do?

[jamesemark]

Just a little background information first.

A new theatre was been built about 500metres away from where I live. I registered the domain with a view to becoming an affiliate for ticket sales, about 6 months after registering the domain I got a call from a big company offering me £500. I said I was not interested upon which I was told to hand it over as they had more money and better lawyers than I could ever afford. This annoyed me and I told them to go away.

The theatre in question opened about 3 months ago and interestingly the same company had been given the contract to run the theatre on behalf of the council (I thought this strange, someone must have know who was going to get this contract a year in advance).

They since approached me and offered £1000, but I said I would rather work with them promoting the theatre and events. I was told this was unacceptable and they would not deal with me.

At this point I should state I have put their phone number and all events link though to their events and ticket sales, I therefore make no money on this although I am considering selling advertising space.

I have actually had the website up and running 18 months before the theatre opened and 15 months before the contractor was appointment to run the theatre.

My Question – not sure what to do.

I have now found this company is approaching all the companies that link to my website and telling them to change the link to their website – is this legal?

This is an extract of the email

The website you are promoting for the XXXXXXXXXX Theatre: xxxxxxxx is incorrect and unofficial, the person running this site has no connection to the xxxxxxxxx Theatre nor the xxxxxxx Theatre Group,

Please can you correct this and change to the official link for the theatre:

many thanks

This seems wrong to me, what should I do?

 

[GreyWing]

In my opinion they have enough to DRS you and take the name and all the history of you trying to use the name in relation to their business.

I would take whatever you can from them and walk away asap. It seems you are dealing with inexperienced legal team, if this was a legal team with a knowledge of the DRS, you wouldn't have the name at this moment in time.

So take whatever you can get mate

 

[jamesemark]

but surely

I registered the domain before them (15 months) and they are not the owers of the theatre - the council are, if the council wanted it I would have no choice - this I could except rather than been bullied.

 

[GreyWing]

I registered the domain before them (15 months) and they are not the owers of the theatre - the council are, if the council wanted it I would have no choice - this I could except rather than been bullied.

If this company have got no links with the council whatsoever or this theatre i.e to manage it on behalf of the council, then you'll be fine.

 

[jamesemark]

Thanks for your views

Thanks for your views, maybe I should go back to them

 

[GreyWing]

Are you getting any visitors to the site, are you earning any cash from it, is anything with the site likely to change i.e traffic up or down in the near future? Just bare these things in mind if thinking of selling it and how much you ask for it. Plus I don't do tickets myself but aparently from listening to people on this forum, it's not a huge commision earner.

Best of luck though

 

[jamesemark]

loads of traffic

15,000 per month

 

[Retired_member41]

ATG were always one of the preferred options of AVDC, and when finally awarding the contract to manage the theatre, they were happy to go with them.

As the 2nd largest theatre group in the country and one that has transformed and exceeded its deliverables, they were always going to win.

So it made sense for them to try and buy it, good business.

Whereas you heard about it in the press or through planning, and registered it with the sole intent to profit from the name. Good on you for spotting an opportunity.

But if I were you I would sell it, as they will just leave you now and eventually have google push you out altogether.

As for calling your links, I think thats brilliant on their behalf, something I would not have thought about lol

Its a nice website you have, and selling space similar to the ones you have on now look the key.

I would still take the money and run though, as it would be quite easy to win a passing off case against you, and the loss of income they could claim, would be huge multiples of anything you could make.

Aylesbury is a lovely place, sell the domain before they come and get it and you have to move to pay the costs

 

[rob]

If I heard you were setting up "emarketing strategy" and regged emarketing-strategy.co.uk with the aim of passing the leads on... would you be happy?

DRS is one route out, passing off is another!

 

[rob]

As for calling your links, I think thats brilliant on their behalf, something I would not have thought about lol

I agree, I think the email:


The website you are promoting for the XXXXXXXXXX Theatre: xxxxxxxx is incorrect and unofficial, the person running this site has no connection to the xxxxxxxxx Theatre nor the xxxxxxx Theatre Group,

Please can you correct this and change to the official link for the theatre:

many thanks

Is entirely accurate and I cannot see where the problem is?

I doubt the site would be getting 15,000 uniques without the other entity...!

 

[Rob_F]

My Question – not sure what to do.

I have now found this company is approaching all the companies that link to my website and telling them to change the link to their website – is this legal?

This is an extract of the email

The website you are promoting for the XXXXXXXXXX Theatre: xxxxxxxx is incorrect and unofficial, the person running this site has no connection to the xxxxxxxxx Theatre nor the xxxxxxx Theatre Group,

Please can you correct this and change to the official link for the theatre:

many thanks

This seems wrong to me, what should I do?

What's wrong about it? They're asking them to update the link so it points to the official site. Nothing they say in the email is incorrect and they don't appear to demand they change it.

Not illegal or wrong, just very very clever.

- Rob

 

[jasman]

What's wrong about it? They're asking them to update the link so it points to the official site. Nothing they say in the email is incorrect and they don't appear to demand they change it.

Not illegal or wrong, just very very clever.

- Rob

Won't be that clever if they end up buying or seizing the domain. They'll look a bit stupid emailing all the webmasters back again and saying 'Sorry can you change the links again back to the original site'!

I guess if you emailed the webmasters yourself and told them that you were being bullied by this big corporation and now they're going out of their way to harm your site, a lot of them might side with you and leave the link to your site. I'd probably do that if I had a site linking to your site

 

[Bailey]

I'm slightly lost by your sense of "being wrongly done by" surely you must have the impression that you might well be 'squatting' on their operating name when you registered the domain - As for offering a ticketing operation on their behalf, you need to get real.

Just because your key fits a certain car-lock dosen't give you any inherent rights for that vehicle.

As much as you complain about their attitude to you - I'd love to hear their side, It seems to me they went out of their way to be reasonable and they're probably under the impression that you would turn down any cash offer that wasn't outrageous. Hence they've now gone for the time consuming task of notifying all and sundary.

I'm actually quite stunned by your audacity -and I'm more surprised they're treating you with kid-gloves. The MD must be one of the Good-Karma brigade

 

[GreyWing]

The way I read it from what's been said is that this chap is squatting, but some others who also have no right to the name are trying to DRS him so that they can squatt there instead.

Not much you can really say on what he should do, Council's don't seem to be massively savvy with DRS's. I think we'd all be agreed that they would win this hands down if they tried, doesn't look like they are bothered though.

 

[Bailey]

QUOTE=jamesemark;

The theatre in question opened about 3 months ago and interestingly the same company had been given the contract to run the theatre on behalf of the council .

That seems to clarify their usage Greywing. But, your right it's down to the Council to pursue

 

[wb]

Does this theatre have a watery theme?

Not a legal expert so this isn't advice, but with a bit of Google searching I would say the ATG would probably win a DRS hands down. I checked a fair few domains of other theatres they manage and only found one which they had the domain for (which was the NWT). If you look at the address for that it just forwards to their official website for it, and the domain isn't used for a website on its own.

You will be pushed off Google at some point and they won't mind about that, they will just want the domain to forward on to the official website. Personally I would get in touch with a contact you know there and see if you can still get some money for it while its worth something to them.

 

[bensd]

Whereas you heard about it in the press or through planning, and registered it with the sole intent to profit from the name. Good on you for spotting an opportunity.

With comments like this it's no wonder donainers have a bad name . How can you say this domain was registered in good faith?

 

[Edwin]

You're a cybersquatter, pure and simple. In your first post, you said you registered the name specifically because you knew the theatre was being built (ie it was not a random registration) AND that you did it to profit from their affiliate program.

Hand it over to the theatre. There is nothing about your actions that is defensible in any way.

 

[jamesemark]

Firstly thanks for all you comments

I am amazed by the response over night and thank you all for your comments.
You may all be surprised to hear this but I did this genuinely. At the time I guessed the name of the theatre and it was announced 6 months after. (that’s when the large company called me)

I am surprised no one mentioned how this company found out they were running the theatre a year before the announcement but I guess that’s between the council and the theatre group.

The site was purchased for 2 reasons
1. At the time there had been no announcement on who was going to operate the theatre, I assume whoever runs the theatre would join ticket master and I would join the ticket master affiliate site. (of which I am already a member Getmein as they pay more commission)
2. I genuinely wanted to help promote the theatre.

FYI -The site is next to a canal hence the name. I have been to see a couple of shows and I have to say it really is very nice, I would highly recommend a visit if you are in the area.

Any way sounds like the court has made the decision therefore I will email them today and fold.

Thank you again everyone for your responses – great forum.

 

[jamesemark]

I disagree with you

You're a cybersquatter, pure and simple. In your first post, you said you registered the name specifically because you knew the theatre was being built (ie it was not a random registration) AND that you did it to profit from their affiliate program.

Hand it over to the theatre. There is nothing about your actions that is defensible in any way.

The waterside theatre website was purchased because as a local company we wanted to be involved in promoting the theatre. The domain was genuinely purchased for this reason.

1. 6 months before the theatre was named
2. 15 months before announcing the operators
3. Approximately 18 months before the theatre was opened.

But I understand you want your say and I respect that.