Need advice RE: intellectual property

7 replies
I've just registered two domains which contain the name of a very popular UK and U.S television show and I'm wondering if this is in violation of any rules or laws.
I intend to add AMAZON ASSOCIATE content on the two sites, linking to the DVDs of the television show. I might even add my own review of each season and each episode in order to gain a search engine ranking and win some of the high traffic associated with this TV show.

One other thing I'm considering is to add links to each individual episode too so people can view the show online via the site. Obviously I'd become an affiliate of anywhere hosting the episodes online such as VideoWeed etc. This is one of my biggest concerns in regards to breaching someone's intellectual property rights. Even though I won't be hosting the shows myself, is it okay to provide links to sources who do even if they may be in breach of themselves.

Some of you are probably thinking why bother! Well... I wasn't going to but the potential traffic for the keywords were too good to pass up and I'm pretty sure they will do well with only a bit of content to get indexed and a load of adsense as a last resort if I'm not allowed to do anything else.

Here are the two domains I registered with the Google keyword stats for each:

Shameless UK: Broad: 27,100 | Exact: 8,100 | Phrase: 27,100
Shameless US: Broad: 110,000 | Exact: 33,100 | Phrase: 90,500
(As most of you will know, Shameless is very popular in the UK and the U.S version of the show is about to start it's second season after a very successful first season.)

I'd really appriciate any advice or feedback that you warriors can offer me because the last thing I want to do is get myself into any trouble with the FEDs.
#advice #intellectual #property
  • Profile picture of the author Tina Golden
    It's possible that you could end up accused of cybersquatting or in violation of trademark law should the show's owner/producer/whatever decide to pursue it. No one can tell you for sure because some companies never do pursue it but technically, it would be a violation.
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    • Profile picture of the author Keith Everett
      One of my online friends got pulled by Wordpress the other day for using a domain name with the word "Wordpress" in it. They didn't take action against him but he was told they would if he didn't stop using it!
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      • Profile picture of the author sitehero
        Originally Posted by kweb777 View Post

        One of my online friends got pulled by Wordpress the other day for using a domain name with the word "Wordpress" in it. They didn't take action against him but he was told they would if he didn't stop using it!

        Thats interesting to know but I'm shocked to hear that because I've seen a lot of sites and domains with the word 'Wordpress' being also. I've always been under the impression that 'Wordpress' was open-source and this would be okay but apparently not. eek!

        I also have another domain 'SubscribeFacebook.com' and TBH while thinking about this i'd imagine 'FaceBook' would be the type of owners who would take legal action so I guess I'll just let this one expire and not take any chances with it.
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        • Profile picture of the author CyberAlien
          Originally Posted by sitehero View Post

          I've always been under the impression that 'Wordpress' was open-source and this would be okay but apparently not. eek!
          WordPress is an open source software, but their trademark is held by the WordPress Foundation.
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  • Profile picture of the author E. Brian Rose
    This is a topic that came up many times over the last few years. The number of "Lost" related sites that used the actual TV show name in their domain is staggering. Apparently the owners of the trademark felt that it was free advertising and did not pursue the violators.... however, American Idol did not feel the same way. There are a few sites out there that tell stories of getting nastygrams from that show.

    The bottom line is that it is copyright infringement and whether or not the owners will come after you based on past behavior is moot. If you have a wife, then you know very well that people can change their minds at the drop of a hat.
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    • Profile picture of the author sitehero
      Originally Posted by E. Brian Rose View Post

      The bottom line is that it is copyright infringement and whether or not the owners will come after you based on past behavior is moot. If you have a wife, then you know very well that people can change their minds at the drop of a hat.

      Your right
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