Christian did not make a copy of another company's work for his own profit, all he did was display someone else's work in an exemplary manner.
The "for profit" actions by Christian, selling the domain, very clearly state that the content on the site was not included in the sale.
The only leg Ben has to stand on is if somewhere Chris claimed he was affiliated with the Cheezburger network. If he flat out said, "own your piece of the Cheezburger network now." In that case, his actions would fall under "passing off" or damage to goodwill.
I've yet to see Chris actually do that. Do I think what he did was moral or right? Absolutely not - but I don't believe his actions were illegal, by any means.
Actually, that law doesn't protect Cheezburger in any way.
First of all, it covers the present-tense act of registering a domain name of similar nature to an individual.
1. Failbook was around first, therefore Failbooking registered a name in a similar nature.
2. If any [b]individual[/b] is named Failbook - there mom should be punched in the uterus.
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@Austin
Christian did not make a copy of another company's work for his own profit, all he did was display someone else's work in an exemplary manner.
The "for profit" actions by Christian, selling the domain, very clearly state that the content on the site was not included in the sale.
The only leg Ben has to stand on is if somewhere Chris claimed he was affiliated with the Cheezburger network. If he flat out said, "own your piece of the Cheezburger network now." In that case, his actions would fall under "passing off" or damage to goodwill.
I've yet to see Chris actually do that. Do I think what he did was moral or right? Absolutely not - but I don't believe his actions were illegal, by any means.
Re: Re:
Actually, that law doesn't protect Cheezburger in any way. First of all, it covers the present-tense act of registering a domain name of similar nature to an individual. 1. Failbook was around first, therefore Failbooking registered a name in a similar nature. 2. If any [b]individual[/b] is named Failbook - there mom should be punched in the uterus.