The Simpson’s have won their domain name back, or rather WIPO ruled thesimpsonsmovie.com must be handed to News Corp.’s Twentieth Century Fox, which owns the rights to the film and TV series.An American, Keith Malley had registered the domain name. “Fox lawyers claimed Malley was using the address to divert Internet users to a website that included sexually explicit depictions of several characters from ‘The Simpsons’ and, later, to his ‘Keith and the Girl’ website. He was demanding a $50,000 fee from Twentieth Century Fox for the domain name, according to the July 22 ruling of the WIPO arbitration panel,” reports AP. Malley offered no defence, while WIPO found Malley had “no rights or legitimate interests with respect to the domain name” and ordered its immediate return.Malley wasn’t happy though, referring to Fox’s tactics as “bullying”. Malley claims his contact details were on the Whois records for the domain name, and there had been no attempt to contact him. Malley says he will discuss with his lawyer the possibility of appealing.Media coverage includes:
Podcaster loses cybersquat of ‘Simpsons Movie’ site (Reuters)
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-9588_22-6198701.html
http://tvnz.co.nz/view/page/488120/1255116
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10453943
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2007-07-19-simpsons-movie-podcaster_N.htm
http://uk.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUKL2583450520070725WIPO Rules for ‘The Simpsons’ (AP)
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2007/07/26/1185339107185.html
http://film.guardian.co.uk/apnews/story/0,,-6805257,00.htmlSimpsons Movie Masters Its Own Domain
http://www.eonline.com/news/article/index.jsp?uuid=016b6446-4776-4162-bf61-8d36cfd80570
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0725/simpsons.htmlThe WIPO decision is available here – http://www.wipo.int/cgi-bin/domains/search/CaseCatReport?lang=en&case_id=11183