Categories
Movies News

Sony Pictures registers domain names for yet-untitled “Killing bin Laden” movie

Killing bin Laden Movie

Earlier this month as reported by Deadline.com, The New York Times, Associated Press, and other news sites, Sony Pictures Entertainment acquired the rights to Kathryn Bigelow’s film about killing Osama bin Laden.

The film project was originally called “killing bin Laden” according to Deadline who first broke the story. 

After bin Laden was killed by Navy SEALs, the project changed, and so did the title of the movie. 

Well, despite rumors that the film is untitled, Sony Pictures isn’t taking any chances. 

On May 26, only days after news broke of Sony’s deal with Bigelow, the company has registered nearly a dozen domain names related to the killing of bin Laden movie.  

Registrant:
        Domain Administrator
        SPDE Domain Names Inc
        9050 West Washington Blvd Smith Building 2014 A
         Culver City CA 90232
        ‘hostmaster@sonypictures.com’

    Domain Name: killingbinladen-movie.com

        Registrar Name: Markmonitor.com
        Registrar Whois: whois.markmonitor.com‘

Created on…………..: 2011-05-26.
    Expires on…………..: 2012-05-26.
    Record last updated on..: 2011-05-26.

Other names registered by Sony Pictures include the following:

killingbinladen-movie.com 
killingbinladen-movie.net 
killingbinladen.net 
killingbinladenmovie.com 
thekilling-movie.com 
thekilling-movie.net 
thekillingofbinladen-movie.com 
thekillingofbinladen-movie.net 
thekillingofbinladen.net 
thekillingofbinladenmovie.com 

The company missed out on some of the better web addresses. 

The domain killingofbinladen.com was registered May 2, 2011, while killingbinladen.com was registered May 3, 2011 after it had expired and became available again.

Kathryn Bigelow had better luck on The Hurt Locker, which won six Academy Awards including Best Picture.  The official site is located at the URL thehurtlocker.com. 

At the time of this posting, no other news site or blog has reported about Sony Pictures’ domain registrations. 

[Photo of the Situation Room in the White House via Wikimedia]

Categories
Movies News Trademarks

A flurry of Navy SEAL domain names registered after the killing of bin Laden

US Navy SEAL

As one might expect, with the Navy SEALs being in the news after killing Osama bin Laden, the number of Navy SEAL domain names being registered has soared.

The latest stories of Disney abandoning its trademark application on SEAL Team 6 and news of Columbia Pictures set to debut the first film in 2012 about the raid, has sparked even more registrations — which can average anywhere from 30 to 50 a day depending on the news.

Here’s a look at recent SEAL registrations, courtesy of DomainTools. 

The domains range from merchandise domains like SEALTeam6shirts.com to fan names like ThanksNavySeals.com and  SEALTeam6forPresident.com.  NavySEAL.info was registered only yesterday.

Because there have literally been hundreds and hundreds of SEAL domains created, I’ve only listed a limited number that I’ve seen registered in recent days. 

By the way, if you haven’t seen this Funny or Die video on the Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden, it’s a must see. WARNING: The video contains profanity.

The Navy Seal Who Killed Osama Bin Laden from Rob Riggle
Categories
Disputes News Trademarks WIPO

UberMedia has change of heart on twitteripad.com

Twitter for iPad

Last week I wrote about how UberMedia registered the domain name twitteripad.com, despite the company’s sometimes rocky relationship with Twitter.

In February, UberTwitter, Twidroyd, and UberCurrent were temporarily suspended by Twitter.  The UberMedia apps were shut off for terms of service violations, one of which included trademark infringement over the name UberTwitter.  UberMedia quickly changed the name of UberTwitter to UberSocial in response to Twitter’s requests.

This week, it’s a different story.  To avoid possible Twitter troubles, it appears UberMedia has had a change of heart on the domain twitteripad.com.  The same day the story ran on May 21, the domain name was deleted at GoDaddy and became available again.  GoDaddy didn’t hold the name or send it to auction, instead it released it.

Chances are, it won’t be long before it gets registered again.  But maybe not.  Twitteripad.com has trouble written all over it since it could be considered a trademark infringing domain name on not one but two widely used products, Twitter and Apple’s iPad.

In mid February Twitter got the domain twittersearch.com after filing a dispute at WIPO in December 2010.  The dispute wasn’t decided by WIPO, instead the name was apparently turned over to Twitter without having to wait for a panel decision.

Categories
News

New date for “The Rapture” on October 21, brings new domain registrations

The Rapture

Harold Camping, has apparently miscalculated “The Rapture” date and says it will occur five months from now on October 21, 2011, along with end of the world. 

Since announcing the new date, several domain names related to the new doomsday date have been registered by individuals.  Many of the domain names registered earlier today include: 10212011.com, October21rapture.com, RaptureOctober21.com, Rapture10212011.com, to name a few.

October21.com, registered way back in 2001, is currently parked at Sedo.  The seller’s minimum bid threshold is currently set at 500 EUR.

Not all of the new domain registrations are parked though, some already have sites online.

Peter Sachs, the owner of 10212011.com, has a one-page website with a funny message that reads: Judgement Day May 21, 2011 (Rain Date: October 21, 2011).

[Photo of The Rapture via Wikimedia Commons]

Categories
News

Founded by former TechCrunch writer, The Inquisitr sells for $330,000 on Flippa

The Inquisitr

The Inquisitr (inquisitr.com) founded by former TechCrunch writer and b5media co-founder Duncan Riley in May 2008, sold for $330,000 USD on Friday.

The site went up for sale on Flippa a week ago. 

In the last 6 months, it has run in the 7-8 million page view range based on statistics provided in the auction listing.  In terms of revenue, the site generated $15,449 per month in income based on an average over the last 12 months.

According to a post on The Inquisitr’s website, it sounds like Duncan is close to a near internet meltdown and just needs to disconnect for awhile. 

“Due to personal issues I need a break, and when I say break, I mean a full blown not be on the internet break. The site stats (traffic and revenue) continue to pay my bills, but you get to a point in your life that you know you need proper time off before you ended up committed with head problems, and I’m at that stage now,” wrote Duncan.

According to Wikipedia, in 2002 he launched The Blog Herald.  Then in 2005, he launched Weblog Empire which became part of b5media (another company he co-founded).  He joined TechCrunch in 2007, then resigned a year later in order to launch The Inquisitr.