How Sadly Ironic
Aug. 5th, 2004 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
patgundBasic story. A then-13 year old girl is victimized by an internet predator. In 2000 she writes a book about her ordeal. The publisher, to make it "internetty", gives it a title ending in .com. The author uses the title of the book to promote a TV show and plans to launch a school curriculum to teach kids about online safety, also using that title.
One *slight* problem. Actually one massive problem. The book's title is a domain that has been owner by and used by someone *else* since 1996. And since the book came out, the domain has become almost unusable for the owner's original intention and plans.
Publisher tells the domain owner, in essence, "tough shit". The author's lawyers try to bully the domain owner into *giving* them the domain for their use and projects. And, the more and more they use the book title to promote the authors projects, the more and more the domain becomes completely unusable by the owner.
What I'm talking about is the domain katie.com, owned by Katie Jones. And the book is "Katie.com", written by Katie Tarbox and published by Penguin Books.
"Penguin and the great katie.com hijack" (The Register)
"Penguin picks the wrong domain name" (BBC)
"Owner of katie.com says she was victim, too -- of privacy invasion" (CNN)
What's even more ironic is that the original title was to be "girl.com", but Penguin decided not to use that because that domain was owned at the time by a porno site. Instead, they decided to use a title that dumped upon a woman attempting to use her domain and website for her chat business and for pictures of her children.
It's sad that a book about being victimized on the internet, is being used *TO* victimize someone on the internet.
One *slight* problem. Actually one massive problem. The book's title is a domain that has been owner by and used by someone *else* since 1996. And since the book came out, the domain has become almost unusable for the owner's original intention and plans.
Publisher tells the domain owner, in essence, "tough shit". The author's lawyers try to bully the domain owner into *giving* them the domain for their use and projects. And, the more and more they use the book title to promote the authors projects, the more and more the domain becomes completely unusable by the owner.
What I'm talking about is the domain katie.com, owned by Katie Jones. And the book is "Katie.com", written by Katie Tarbox and published by Penguin Books.
"Penguin and the great katie.com hijack" (The Register)
"Penguin picks the wrong domain name" (BBC)
"Owner of katie.com says she was victim, too -- of privacy invasion" (CNN)
What's even more ironic is that the original title was to be "girl.com", but Penguin decided not to use that because that domain was owned at the time by a porno site. Instead, they decided to use a title that dumped upon a woman attempting to use her domain and website for her chat business and for pictures of her children.
It's sad that a book about being victimized on the internet, is being used *TO* victimize someone on the internet.
