Court Says Domain Name Is Located Where Its Registrar Registry Is Located

from the oh-really? dept

It's been nearly a decade since we first heard about John Zuccarini -- an internet character who made his name by registering a ton of typosquatting domain names, and was sued a bunch of times for it, but avoided dealing with things for a while by being impossible to find. And, even when he was found, he was notoriously vague in answering questions. From a bit of testimony from back in the day:

Question: What is your current address?

Zuccarini: 957 Bristol Pike, Apartment D-6, Andalusia, Pennsylvania, 19020.

Q: Is that where you currently reside?

Zuccarini: Not necessarily.

Q: Where do you currently reside?

Zuccarini: I don't have - that's my legal address. I really don't have a permanent address at this time.

Q: Where do you currently reside?

Zuccarini: Right now, I am staying at the Millennium Hotel in New York.

Q: When you are not in New York for a deposition, where do you live? Where have you lived in the past two weeks?

Zuccarini: I have been living in various places.

Q. What are the various places that you have been living?

Zuccarini: Friends' places. You know, that type of thing. Different hotels.

Q. 957 Bristol Pike is not your residence?

Zuccarini: No, it's not. It's my legal address. I have a lease on the apartment and that's where I have - some things are sent there which I get.

Q: Do you live in Pennsylvania?

Zuccarini: I don't know. I don't have a permanent address so I can live anywhere. I don't live anywhere right now. I can't give you a permanent address.

Eventually, the FTC ordered that thousands of his sites should be shut down. And then it fined Zuccarini $1.9 million. But, still no one could find him. A year and a half later, he was finally found and arrested leading to an eventual guilty plea. Of course, that didn't stop him. In 2007, he was fined yet again by the FTC, this time for typosquatting on domain names that kids were likely to visit -- and sending them to hardcore porn sites. Yeah. He's that kind of evil.

Anyway, going all the way back to a decade ago, when various companies were filing lawsuits against him, one such lawsuit involved Office Depot, which was none too pleased about Zuccarini's registration and use of offic-depot.com. Office Depot sued and won, but given Zuccarini's slippery nature, was unable to collect its judgment. Eventually, Office Depot handed over the judgment to a company called DS Holding, who then wanted to get paid. It eventually asked a court in Northern California to hand over some of Zuccarini's other domains to fulfill the judgment. The court agreed, but Zuccarini appealed, claiming that the court in California had no jurisdiction over his domain names.

Eric Goldman points us to the ruling in the case where the court finds that, indeed, domain names are considered property, and that jurisdiction should be based on where the registrar registry of that domain is located (pdf) rather than wherever John Zuccarini may be hiding at the moment. Since, in this case, the registry was VeriSign, and VeriSign is in Northern California... the court was ruled to be the proper jurisdiction. Update: Originally, we noted that this said it was where the registrar was located, but it actually goes further -- saying that it's where the registry is located. Way back when, the two things were the same (and they were all Network Solutions), but now you have different registrars for top level domains, but one registrar that maintains the overall database of each top-level domain name. This ruling says that while in the past people might focus on the registrar, it also applies to the registry.

While the court does explain that this appears to be exactly what our anti-cybersquatting laws say when it comes to jurisdiction, that does lead to some other interesting legal questions when it comes to jurisdictions. It seems like it could be somewhat troubling if your domain is officially located wherever the registrar is in other types of cases, as suddenly anyone registering a domain name needs to take into account the location of the registrar in case of a lawsuit.

Filed Under: domain name, john zuccarini, location

Apparently Fines And Jail Time Not Enough To Deter Infamous Disappearing Typosquatter From Typosquatting Again

from the cnat-saty-aawy dept

PC World has a story about how the FTC has fined John Zuccarini $164,000 for typosquatting domains that kids are likely to visit and sending them to hardcore porn sites. Before I saw the name of the guy in question, I had thought it was probably worth writing up a post asking what kind of idiot points children to porn sites? It hardly seems good for business -- as the target audience isn't quite right and it's clearly likely to bring the feds down on you pretty quickly. However, once I realized it was John Zuccarini, it became even more worth posting, because we haven't had a chance to write about Mr. Zuccarini in years (probably because he was in jail for a while). Since many of you may not recognize the name (or missed the various stories about him from way back when), it's worth recapping.

Zuccarini's first claim to fame came in early 2001 when the press picked up on the fact that he had built up a huge typosquatting empire to prey on people who mistyped a domain name. If you went to one of his domains, it would pop up ads that would take over your screen that would be nearly impossible to close. However, what was much more interesting was that Zuccarini was a slippery sucker who was tough to find. After losing a few cases brought against him, he just started ignoring all lawsuits and judgments against him and basically went into hiding (while still making tons of money). In the rare instances where he showed up in court, he refused to give anyone a way to find him again. The transcript of him answering questions in court about where he lives is quite amusing:

Question: What is your current address?

Zuccarini: 957 Bristol Pike, Apartment D-6, Andalusia, Pennsylvania, 19020.

Q: Is that where you currently reside?

Zuccarini: Not necessarily.

Q: Where do you currently reside?

Zuccarini: I don't have - that's my legal address. I really don't have a permanent address at this time.

Q: Where do you currently reside?

Zuccarini: Right now, I am staying at the Millennium Hotel in New York.

Q: When you are not in New York for a deposition, where do you live? Where have you lived in the past two weeks?

Zuccarini: I have been living in various places.

Q. What are the various places that you have been living?

Zuccarini: Friends' places. You know, that type of thing. Different hotels.

Q. 957 Bristol Pike is not your residence?

Zuccarini: No, it's not. It's my legal address. I have a lease on the apartment and that's where I have - some things are sent there which I get.

Q: Do you live in Pennsylvania?

Zuccarini: I don't know. I don't have a permanent address so I can live anywhere. I don't live anywhere right now. I can't give you a permanent address.

Soon afterwards, he basically disappeared completely. The FTC ordered that his website all be shut down, though it's unclear if that ever happened. Not long after that, the FTC fined him about $2 million for typosquatting. It took until late 2003 until Zuccarini was finally tracked down and arrested for pointing kids to porn, leading to a quick guilty plea and three year jail sentence. Do the math and you realize he's back out again... and apparently went right back to his old tricks: typosquatting and pointing kids at porn sites. You would think he would have learned his lesson, but apparently not. To hear that the new fine is only for $164,000 seems a bit surprising. Given the earlier fines, conviction and jailtime, you would think that something more stringent might make sense. In the meantime, there's no word on whether or not Zuccarini even plans to acknowledge the fine. Given his past behavior, you might not want to bet on it.

Filed Under: ftc, john zuccarini, porn, typosquatting