Despite being a high school junior in New York, still two years away from his plan to play basketball for the Arizona Wildcats, Sidiki Johnson already has his name linked to a Tucson-based commercial enterprise.
And, until he was asked about it recently, he didn't even know.
Plugging "sidikijohnson.com" into a Web browser in recent months has opened the front page of www.goazcats.com, a subscription-based Web site that covers UA recruiting and athletics.
"Are you serious?" said Johnson, when told about his namesake domain.
Yes, but if the former operator of Goazcats.com, WebHouse 1616, did not buy the domain in the name of the committed UA recruit, somebody else almost certainly would have. That's possibly because registering a celebrity name is a bit of gray area in the still-emerging world of Internet regulation, said several attorneys interviewed for this story. All names on the current Wildcats men's basketball rosters are already spoken for with dot.com addresses. Only one, bearing the name of sophomore forward D.J. Shumpert, is controlled by the player or his family.
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WebHouse 1616 owns nicwise.com, brendonlavender. com and kylefogg.com. Leon Lee of Union City, Calif., owns kevinparrom.com and garlandjudkins.com, while Luis Zavala of Whittier, Calif., owns kyrylnatyazhko.com and jamellehorne.com as well as domains with the names of former Wildcats such as Chase Budinger, Salim Stoudamire and Andre Iguodala.
"I did not want somebody from Hoochie, Tenn., to get ahold of the (djshumpert.com) URL for who knows what purpose," said Mel Anderson, a Green Valley Web developer and real estate agent who is a friend of Shumpert's mother. "We got the domain with the intention to put up a really good fan site."
John Dozier, a Virginia-based attorney specializing in Internet law, said the idea of registering an up-and-coming athlete's name has long been a trend with little regulation, in part because amateur athletes often don't have the means or interest to pursue domains named after them. The entry barrier for registry is small: Domain names can be purchased for about $10 a year.
"It's an entire industry — getting domains for college and high school athletes, sitting on them and then waiting for them to generate revenue and sell them," Dozier said. "It's kind of like an extortion tactic once the athlete becomes big-time. It's arguably trademark infringement down the road, but not immediately."
Filing an appeal
While UA players Nic Wise and Brendon Lavender said they did not know of domains in their name and did not care, Phoenix Suns guard Steve Nash apparently did.
Earlier this year, attorneys for Nash acquired the domain stevenash.com from Zavala, the owner of several UA player- related domains, by filing a successful appeal with the World Intellectual Property Organization.
The official WIPO dispute summary noted that Zavala was not budging, quoting an e-mail from him to Nash's camp as saying: "I was not looking to part with the domain. You guys can make an offer like anyone else if serious."
Zavala did not return a request for an interview for this story, but Web developer Jim Storey of WebHouse1616 said via e-mail that he has never attempted to sell an individual's name back to the individual for profit. Storey said he has bought, sold and given away hundreds of domain names over the past decade.
"The domain names that I own range from general business, real estate, and other relevant terms, names and phrases," said Storey, a former publisher of Goazcats.com. "Buying various domain names has been a general part of my business and if the method or intention in which I purchased these names was either illegal or unethical, I would not do so."
Two other owners of UA-inspired domains said they commonly trade back domain names to their namesakes. Lee said he usually will just post various links on his celebrity-name domains — known to insiders as "link farms" — to possibly earn some money from hits the links generate. Later, he said, he sometimes will sell or trade the domain back to the namesake.
Lee said he once traded the domain of Beatrice McCartney, Paul's youngest daughter, for the privilege of watching Paul do a sound check before a concert in San Jose. He said he also traded Timberwolves player Mark Madsen game tickets for the dot.com of Madsen's brother and sold Nickswisher.com to the baseball player for about $1,000.
"Once in a while, somebody makes an offer and you can sell it and make a profit," Lee said.
Tim Evans of Illinois-based Athlete Web Design, which purchased robgronkowski.com in the name of the UA football standout, said he can develop Web sites for athletes but is also willing to "trade for memorabilia or something like that" if they want their domain names. Evans said he would probably try to reach Gronkowski after this season.
Pedro Davila, a systems administrator for the University of Miami, said he would be willing to transfer his "lamontjones.com" to UA freshman guard Lamont "MoMo" Jones for free. Davila said he only bought the domain in 2004 when he came across Jones' name and thought he might use the name in a book he intended to write, but is no longer planning to write the book. He does not profit from any commercial ads or links on the site, he said.
"It's not illegal here"
The gray area may extend to NCAA rules. NCAA spokesman Cameron Schuh said a school can take action if athletes, or their school, find "fake or fraudulent use" of their names on a Web site — and if NCAA rules were involved, cease-and-desist notifications could be issued.
The major NCAA rule of greatest concern to UA compliance director Bill Morgan is whether a student-athlete gives permission for his or her name to be used. But Morgan said no current UA athletes have given permission, so none of the current Web sites bearing UA player names are against the rules.
"We operate within state laws, and it's not illegal here," Morgan said.
Besides, it's difficult to challenge somebody who owns a domain of a college athlete.
Phoenix attorney Heather Buchta said an Arizona-based athlete might be able to argue a privacy-rights violation but there's more protection in California.
Dozier said a California statute forbids "bad faith" registering — the use of another person's name for profit or fraudulent reasons.
Additionally, an athlete could attempt to trademark his name, which makes it much easier to obtain a corresponding Internet domain. (Nash did not own a trademark for his name.)
"It begins and ends with trademark law," said Erik Syverson, a Los Angeles-based Internet lawyer. "Normally, you can't trademark your name unless you can connect it to goods and services. Some entertainers have. I don't know at the amateur (sports) level, if you could. But you've got to seek a trademark. If not, there's not a hell of a lot you can do."
Prevention is probably the cheapest option. Several attorneys recommended that the family of any promising youngster should buy domains in their children's names, which not only allows the future opportunity to develop a site but also to prevent others from purchasing it and posting negatively.
"We always try to tell people if you haven't registered your name and it's available, you should," said Christine Jones, general counsel of Scottsdale-based domain registrant Godaddy.com. "You should register yourself and the 'sucks' version of your name, too."
Dozier said people should not only register names with .com, .net and .org extensions, but also "sucks" versions for each of those, too.
So concerned was Evans, of Athlete Web Design, that when his wife suggested a name for their baby daughter, he first went to see if a corresponding domain was available. He said that when he found out the dot.com version of the name represented a porn star's Web site, the couple chose a different name.
"To me, a domain name is like having an envelope of $100 bills in your front yard," Evans said. "If you eventually want to brand yourself, you want to have it available."
Suns center Channing Frye did just that, developing channingfrye.com — thanks to parents who bought the domain long ago. It was acquired in April 2002, just after Frye's freshman season at UA.
"We understood at that point" how important it was, Frye said. "I think it's been a breakthrough for me to communicate with fans and get the word out about my foundation."
Today, www.channingfrye .com is known mostly for Frye's humorous blog, instead of just a link farm or advertising if it were owned by a cybersquatter.
"The point is you always have to be smart enough to be ahead of the game," said Frye's father, Tom. "We have heard some horror stories with guys going to use their name and they had to pay some person to get it back. You have to be careful."
Who is online?
Name Team Domain Owner Location Current display of site
Nic Wise UA basketball nicwise.com WebHouse 1616 Tucson Ads for goazcats.com, others
Jamelle Horne UA basketball jamellehorne.com HOOPology.com Whittier, Calif. Various links
MoMo Jones UA basketball momojones.com Leon Lee Union City, Calif. Various links
MoMo Jones UA basketball lamontjones.com Pedro Davila Miami, Fla. No commercial links
Chase Budinger Houston Rockets chasebudinger.com HOOPology.com Whittier, Calif. Various links
Chase Budinger Houston Rockets chasebudinger.net Mara Budinger Sunnyvale, Calif. News story on Budinger
Rob Gronkowski UA football player robgronkowski.com Athlete Web Design Palatine, Ill. Various links
SOURCES: whois.net searches and interviews
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