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Name
Ninja
President Bill Sweetman has a
well deserved reputation for being
one of the domain industry's good
guys. In the more than 20 years that
he has been a leading domain
consultant one of Bill's hallmarks
has been jumping in to make
sure people who know little
about domains are not taken
advantage of. He typically does that
under the radar with no compensation
to himself but once in awhile the
beneficiary is someone famous and
the words gets around.
An
example of that just hit the news
yesterday when I came across a story
in the Hollywood
Reporter about how a
fan of famous movie director Oliver
Stone had rescued the Hollywood
icon's OliverStone.com domain
name after the studio it was
entrusted to let it drop causing the
director's website to dark. That fan
turned out to be Bill! When
the domain expired it, of course,
wound up in an aftermarket auction.
When Bill saw it, he reached into
his own pocket and won the auction
last week for $1,500. He them
promptly sent the domain back
to a very appreciative Oliver Stone
whose classic films
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Name
Ninja President Bill Sweetman
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include
Wall Street, Platoon,
Natural Born Killers, JFK,
and Born on the Fourth
of July. His
latest effort, Snowden,
is in theaters now.
With
the news out, Bill (who has also
rescued names for people like Freddie
Mercury, Phil Collins and
even Darth
Vader!), provided some
more background on how all of this
went down in a
post on his blog. With
the widespread publicity this story
is getting he decided to talk about
it because people need to know about
the danger of letting other
people own their personal domain
name (or any of their domains for
that matter). I've seen close
friends in the mainstream business
world victimized myself after
letting an unscrupulous hosting
company or some other third party
hold a critical domain name in their
name rather than that of their
client or customer, so I know this
is a message that needs to be heard.
As Bill noted in his account, "If
that third party fails to renew your
domain name, as was the case here,
it can be difficult or impossible
for you to retrieve the domain name
since, legally and technically, you
are not the owner and never were."
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Oliver
Stone
Photo
from Bigstock |
Oliver
Stone did reimburse Bill for
the money he spent to get
the domain back, but why did
he take that responsibility
upon himself in the first
place? "Here’s the
thing," Bill said.
"I'm a lifelong film
fanatic, a former film
critic, and I worked as a
producer and director in the
film industry for many
years. I've long admired
Oliver Stone's work,
especially his fearlessness
at tackling controversial
subjects. I didn't want this
19-year-old domain to
fall into the wrong hands
because Universal City
Studios had failed to
properly safeguard Mr.
Stone’s domain. At best,
Oliver Stone (or Universal)
would have been forced to
buy the domain name – yet
again – off another domain
speculator. At worst, the
domain could have been held
hostage for years and
never returned to its
rightful owner."
"I
also wanted to make sure Oliver
Stone's Website
was reinstated as quickly as
possible so that his bold
voice could continue to be
heard the world over. Happy
Thanksgiving, Oliver!" |
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