Registering Someone's Name?

Since people's names are not their unique property, you can register them with no fear BUT you have to be very careful what you use the registration for.

For example, somebody registered my wife's name and then tried to sell her a web site with a simple template on it but with her name in the header graphic.

The site was a .info and included a middle initial that she only uses in her email account to differentiate from another lady with the same name (they know each other very well).

The solicitation to buy the domain and web site was very poorly constructed and left the seller open to charges of extortion, fraud and false advertising - which I pointed out to him and which his solicitor confirmed to me in letter of apology. The matter of spam was also raised since my wife's name is not all that unusual and I assumed that the seller had approached as many people as possible with his offer.

This happened about five years ago and I would imagine that things are even more strict today.

If anybody bought the domain and posted inflamatory items on it that could reflect badly on others with the same name, there is an unresolved question of defamation of character although, as far as I know, this has not been tested in court, anywhere.

I see. So what if you register someone's name and put something like "The unofficial site of [name]" at the top of the page? I remember seeing that phrase at fan sites for celebrities, music groups, etc.

What the site is called has absolutely nothing to do with anything. You could have a domain johnsmith.com but call the site "How to bait hooks".

If you are using a site that has a specific name as the url and the site happens to contain something derogatory or inflamatory or, for that matter, inconvenient for anybody with that name, you could find yourself in trouble.

Maybe you could do what they do in books and have a notice prominently displayed that the site relates to no particular person, alive or dead with that name?

MY own experience of this was the receipt of a letter (snail mail) asking me to withdraw or moderate certain opinions I had expressed in my blog because they were 'reflecting' upon another person called Arthur Webster. I posted that letter on my blog and pointed out that my blog contained enough information to ensure that anybody reading it would know who I am, where I live and how to contact me - as the writer had done. I then received a complaint about posting a personal correspondence in a public medium which I also posted to my blog pointing out that the letter was addressed to me, delivered to me and was mine to do with as I pleased.

I heard nothing further.