Posted on 10/21/2010 1:04:46 PM PDT by GSWarrior
Most of the time, if you get a speeding ticket you just grumble about it and pay the fine. Its usually not a big deal for most people unless it happens a lot or they get caught going a ridiculous amount over the posted speed limit. You can fight it in court or just pay the ticket, and for most people those are the only options.
However, after receiving a $90 speeding ticket in Bluff City, Tennessee, Brian McCrary discovered a third option. The Bluff City Police Department had forgotten to renew their domain name, BluffCityPD.com, and let it expire. McCrary bought the domain name for $80 and posted his side of the story with information about speed traps in Bluff City and the $250,000 per month they cost the towns 1,500 residents.
The police department had no idea their domain name had expired and that McCrary owned it until reporters started calling them to ask about it. Bluff City Police Chief David Nelson said they may approach McCrary about buying the domain back from him, but they are not optimistic.
McCrarys goal is to get enough attention to put pressure on the local government to remove the traffic enforcement cameras in Bluff City.
There is a better written story about this floating around FR..
Traffic-technology companies get a cut of every speeding ticket payment their cameras are responsible for, I’d wager.
...and Grandma too.
The FBI has huge -- *HUGE* -- interest in internet squabbles. They're always gangbusting chat rooms where people say racist things, where "cyberbullying" occurs, and breaking up squabbles on various automotive forums, and putting criminals who register expired domain names behind bars where they belong, right?
Get real. Between their focus on foreign terrorism and political high crimes, the Federal government doesn't have any resources or court time dedicated for Internet bullshit like some podunk police department in Cricket Chirp Arkansas who lost their flippin' domain name to some character getting back at them for a speeding ticket.
I contend that FReerepublic licenses its search engine from MrMagooSearches.com
He doesn't fit them, at all. Especially since he's using the site for something that is related to the site name. I don't think even the board that settles naming disputes would force him to give it back to the PD.
no, they are looking for 2banana’s like u and me from out of town to screw
Who said anything about the FBI!!??? There is a personal cause of action under they cybersquatting statutes. Anyone who has a cause of action under the statute can file suit, the FBI never comes into play at all.
There's no revenue lost. There was no customer service at the old site, and nobody depended on it for anything. It was just a police department site that had a picture of the police chief, his email address link, and the department's SWAT team and pictures of their drug sniffing dog. They didn't even know that their site went offline until many months later when this guy's story appeared in USA Today. That pretty much shows that their site never meant squat to anyone. It was just a vanity site for some little police department up in the Smokies.
If there was something legally actionable here, it would have been done already. Skeeter Creek Police Department of TN has no case here.
He's actually using it. Claiming cybersquatting would be difficult.
Slings, did you see Post 26 by SkyDancer? Very clever guys from Oz.
The officers would probably visit their homepage more if he did.
LOL! I love it!
i know, I know....it was posted before.
mark
Go Aussies!
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