The court acquitted the noble cybersquatter
On April 23, the Manhattan District Court acquitted Wesley Kenzie of Internet security specialist . His proceedings with the Gioconda Law Group lasted from June 2012.
For several years, Wesley Kenzie has been seriously engaged in the problems of typosquatting (the use of domain names by fraudsters, in which the name of a large brand or a popular site is written with a deliberate mistake). Kenzi wanted to investigate the attendance of such sites and demonstrate the possibility of using them for social engineering. For this, he himself registered such domains. Among them were the names with very imperceptible for the eye "typos" - rnastercard, rncdonalds, nevvscorp, rncafee, macvvorld, rnonster, pcvvorld, etc.
Note that Kenzie did not put up domains for sale, did not read e-mail messages intended for other companies, and did not advertise his work at all. At the first request of the company, he was ready to transfer the domain to her.
However, not everyone reacted positively to the work of a specialist. Some firms, such as Lockheed Martin, did not want to enter into negotiations with Kenzie and "took" domains from him as part of the UDRP procedure. A Gioconda Law Group and sued him at all for registering a domain Giocondolaw.com. She accused Kenzie of illegally using the brand and intercepting private correspondence.
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Consideration of the case lasted almost a year. The reason for this was that the defendant did not use the domain for the sake of profit. And according to the US Anti-Cybersquatting Act (ACPA), this is a prerequisite for declaring domain registration malicious. Although, on the other hand, the lack of commercial interest also does not exempt from responsibility for the seizure of a domain with the name of another brand.
As a result, the court found the conflict intractable and decided to close the case, justifying the defendant.
However, the court also noted that the actions of the defendant and his model of behavior can attract the attention of fraudsters and create a precedent for the registration of cybersquatting domains. In this case, Wesley Kenzie can probably be held accountable.
Lawyer Eric Goldman noted that existing cybercrime laws poorly protect those who investigate security issues. At the moment it is very difficult to legally conduct experimental studies of hacks, cybersquatting, sending viruses and other very important and urgent problems.
For several years, Wesley Kenzie has been seriously engaged in the problems of typosquatting (the use of domain names by fraudsters, in which the name of a large brand or a popular site is written with a deliberate mistake). Kenzi wanted to investigate the attendance of such sites and demonstrate the possibility of using them for social engineering. For this, he himself registered such domains. Among them were the names with very imperceptible for the eye "typos" - rnastercard, rncdonalds, nevvscorp, rncafee, macvvorld, rnonster, pcvvorld, etc.
Note that Kenzie did not put up domains for sale, did not read e-mail messages intended for other companies, and did not advertise his work at all. At the first request of the company, he was ready to transfer the domain to her.
However, not everyone reacted positively to the work of a specialist. Some firms, such as Lockheed Martin, did not want to enter into negotiations with Kenzie and "took" domains from him as part of the UDRP procedure. A Gioconda Law Group and sued him at all for registering a domain Giocondolaw.com. She accused Kenzie of illegally using the brand and intercepting private correspondence.
')
Consideration of the case lasted almost a year. The reason for this was that the defendant did not use the domain for the sake of profit. And according to the US Anti-Cybersquatting Act (ACPA), this is a prerequisite for declaring domain registration malicious. Although, on the other hand, the lack of commercial interest also does not exempt from responsibility for the seizure of a domain with the name of another brand.
As a result, the court found the conflict intractable and decided to close the case, justifying the defendant.
However, the court also noted that the actions of the defendant and his model of behavior can attract the attention of fraudsters and create a precedent for the registration of cybersquatting domains. In this case, Wesley Kenzie can probably be held accountable.
Lawyer Eric Goldman noted that existing cybercrime laws poorly protect those who investigate security issues. At the moment it is very difficult to legally conduct experimental studies of hacks, cybersquatting, sending viruses and other very important and urgent problems.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/178585/
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