I am a Yankees fan. Seemingly alone in enemy territory, I keep quiet. This is especially true in my own house, where I am surrounded by Sox fans.
So I must admit I got a little giggle when I read this story about the Cubs fan that bought the domain name for the Red Sox’s new spring training facility, Jet Blue Park. Clever guy not only bought the domain name for $8 before the Red Sox or Jet Blue were thoughtful enough to do so (seems to me at least two people need to be fired for that oversight), but then set up the website so it immediately redirects to Yankees.com. Love it.
There is very little law governing domain names, but according to the law professor quoted in the article, the Red Sox can try to win back the website. I suspect that a Cubs fan can be bought for somewhat less than the Sox will be paying David Ortiz this year, regardless of whether the Sox have a real legal claim.
14 Comments
Alexandria Chong posted on February 24, 2012 at 4:16 pm
this is honestly the greatest thing I’ve read in a while, go yankees!
Shawn Teng posted on February 24, 2012 at 7:08 pm
you are not alone professor Spooner!
I am a Yankees, Knicks AND Jets fan.
go yankees!
Julianne Kodack posted on February 26, 2012 at 8:46 pm
This is probably one of the funniest things I have seen in awhile! I have been a Mets fan all my life, but do to there lack of recent talent I am considering the switch to the beloved Yankees! This made me wanna be on the bandwagon!
Rafael Grados posted on February 27, 2012 at 12:04 pm
This story reminds me of the Nissan.com case, domain owned by a small computer retailer from North Carolina. Nissan, the car company, has an ongoing lawsuit against him, yet it seems they are to lose for the computer company does not have bad faith and does have sustain to fight for the domain. I do think this Cubs fan will lose the domain for he seems to have acted on bad faith.
Steve Hicks posted on February 27, 2012 at 6:17 pm
This article is great. I enjoyed it even more because we just went over cyber-squatting in Professor Randall’s class. The use of purchasing domain names to make money is becoming more popular.
Evan Weinreb posted on February 28, 2012 at 12:12 pm
I’m also a yankees fan so this is great, but it will be interesting who they decide has the rights to the stadium name, either JetBlue or the Red Sox. I don’t think he acted in bad faith since he’s going against the Red Sox. Hopefully it stays redirected to the yankees website for a long time!
Yuchen Qin posted on February 28, 2012 at 6:18 pm
Frankly I’m not that into baseball, but I found this case very interesting. There happened to be some other cases that I heard of related to domain names conflicts. I know there are some young IT experts making money by buying domain names that are likely to be bought later by big companies. In this way they can make a great amount of money because usually big corporations care more about reputation and image (domain name is surely part of it) than the one-time expense. Anyway it’s a bad joke for Red Sox, but Yankees fans will be happy for a good while.
Renee Schwacke posted on February 28, 2012 at 10:20 pm
This is definitely humorous, but I do not see a lawsuit coming out of it. The internet has become such an outlet for free expression, that I don’t see why a domain name would be viewed under different terms. Plus the guy technically bought the domain! He can do as he pleases, even if he chooses to joke around a little.
Chih-Yi Kao posted on February 29, 2012 at 12:59 pm
I found this story very interesting. I have seen other similar cases, but the intention for those individuals who bought the domain names was to make a profit out of this. In this case, it seems that Engelman’s main intention was just to make a prank on Red Sox. I also found it interesting that the case might be even more complicated due to fact that Red Sox and Jet Blue might have to fight for the right of the name Jet Blue Park. Anyways, Go Yankees!
James Choi posted on February 29, 2012 at 3:01 pm
This was very interesting to read and shows how much being one step ahead of others can take you. Maybe I’ll find a chance to catch this opportunity.. probably not. Let’s go NY!
Yuting Su posted on March 1, 2012 at 8:25 pm
This story is so funny. I feel it is better for Red Sox to talk to Eric Engelman and make a contract with him rather than have a lawsuit. Since as it hard for Red Sox to win if they have a case. But to protect their image, they need to own the domain. They have to pay a lot for the opportunity they lost.
Jinfeng Cai posted on March 5, 2012 at 12:17 pm
I am not a big fan of baseball, but I found this article is very interesting and somehow funny. A guy randomly purchased the domain name (JetBluePark.com) for just $8 and redirected it to Yankees.com. As Gibson mentioned in the article, it would be very hard for both Red Sox and Jet Blue to win the domain name that was already registered because it was even not clear who has rights to Jet Blue Park name.
James T. Curtis posted on March 19, 2012 at 11:42 pm
I actually read this same article in February when it first came out and I found it hilarious. I immediately went to the website to make sure it did redirect me and of course it sent me to Yankees.com. As a Yankee fan, I found this hilarious. And I really do not think that the Red Sox are going to get rights to the website because as of today, March 19, jetbluepark.com still sends you to yankees.com. I doubt the Red Sox will forget to get their websites set up in 2013.
Jamie Z posted on September 25, 2015 at 3:05 pm
Hey fans. Wanted to share this Red Sox infographic Mike Barnicle just published. Great stuff!
http://www.mikebarnicleonbaseball.com/2015-red-sox-infographic/