Tag: whois

Categories
News Video Games

Nearly 15 years after first release, Blizzard has acquired StarCraft.com [UPDATED]

StarCraft

For years, the website StarCraft.com has flip-flopped between being home to a Starcraft Marine boat site and an online RV Buyer’s Guide.  It has never hosted information for Blizzard’s real-time strategy game StarCraft.

The official StarCraft website can be found on Blizzard.com, but that could be about to change.

According to Whois, the domain name StarCraft.com no longer belongs to its previous owners.  The name is now registered to DNStination, Inc., a privacy service of the global internet brand-protection company MarkMonitor, of which Blizzard Entertainment is a client.

Names like WarCraft.fr and Blizzard.fr are just two examples of many names owned by Blizzard Entertainment and registered through MarkMonitor.

At this point, it’s unknown if Blizzard paid money for the name or whether the company threatened legal action.  Given there is no record of a complaint being filed over StarCraft.com, Blizzard likely paid a pretty price for securing rights to the domain name.

For now, it’s only speculation that Blizzard acquired the name, but don’t be surprised to see the name being used by Blizzard very soon.

The sequel StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty was released in 2010.  An expansion pack StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is expected to be released in 2012, although no official date has been announced.

I’ve reached out to StarCraft.com’s previous owners via e-mail to inquire about the transaction and will update this post if I hear back.

[UPDATE 2 June 27, 2012:. It’s official: Blizzard is the owner of StarCraft.com and StarCraft.net.  The Whois records here and here now show Blizzard Entertainment as the registrant.]

[UPDATE 1 June 25, 2012:. StarCraft.net was also acquired from the same owner, according to Whois.]

Talking about this story: VG247, Lazygamer, MeriStation and Videogamer.com

(Image of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty via Blizzard.com)

Categories
News

Apple secures SteveJobs.xxx domain

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs

Apple has secured the dot-xxx adult domain SteveJobs.xxx (Whois), preventing anyone else from using the name of the company’s late co-founder.

This week, Apple officially took control of the domain through the registrar Corporation Service Company (CSC), a company that helps protect many of the world’s most valuable brands and patrols the internet for incidences of brand abuse.

The acquisition of SteveJobs.xxx comes the same week the company officially revealed itself as the owner of RememberingSteve.com, a web address that has been re-directing to Apple’s online memorial since early October when Steve Jobs passed away.  

Apple has owned RememberingSteveJobs.com for months and now the Whois record for RememberingSteve.com shows Apple as the registrant.

Surprisingly, to this day Apple does not own the web addresses of Steve Jobs in dotcom, dotnet, or dotorg.  SteveJobs.com is owned by a resident of South Korea according to Whois records, while the dotnet is owned by the company InternetWebDesign.com Inc.

SteveJobs.org is up for sale by its owner, who also owns SteveJobs.es.

(Image of Steve Jobs unveiling Apple products in Sept. 2010 via Apple.com)

Categories
News Video Games

ProjectIronWolf.com Whois record changes hint Activision may be involved

ProjectIronWolf.com Whois record

Since early August when a Treyarch employee was caught playing a game titled “Iron Wolf” on the Xbox 360, rumors of the next Call of Duty series being called “Iron Wolf” or “Project Iron Wolf” have been swirling on the internet.

A fake website located at ironwolfproject.com, likely setup by a Call of Duty fanboy, even went online in late December albeit with some significant errors like the misspelling of “Treyarch”.

Whether it’s a more clever stunt by another Call of Duty fanboy or a sneaky but legitimate transfer to Activision’s legal department, the domain name projectironwolf.com (Whois) was updated earlier this week and now has Whois details that match that of Activision’s other coveted domain names like CallofDuty.com (Whois). 

The biggest similarities include the domain servers listed, as well as the address and phone information. 

The big difference between the two Whois records, of course, is the name used as the contact, which is the telltale sign that this is nothing more than another silly stunt.  Whereas Activision’s Whois contact used for its domains is usually Mary Tuck, the company’s litigation counsel, the contact listed for projectironwolf.com is currently George Pharell, who also uses an unrelated e-mail: callofdutytiw -at- post.com. 

Post.com is owned and operated by World Media Group, LLC, an online company that specializes in owning premium domain names like doctor.com and lawyer.com.

According to Whois historical records, projectironwolf.com was first registered in early January by a resident of the Ukraine.  The domain name changed hands days later to George Pharell.

Recently, the owner of the name (who ran a now suspended Twitter account) redirected visitors to CallofDuty.com, but as of today, the web address does not resolve to any web page. 

I’ve reached out to George Pharell by e-mail, who appears to have a lot of free time on his hands, and will update this post if I hear back.

The Whois changes to ProjectIronWolf.com appear to be just an online ruse, but with all the “Iron Wolf” buzz emerging, I guess we’ll have to wait and see whether the domain ends up in the hands of Activision.

Activision’s involvement in this whole thing, may merely be a matter of a cease-and-desist letter.

Discussion: This Is Xbox

Categories
Disputes News WIPO

Twittersearch.com turned over to Twitter, after domain dispute filed back in Dec. ’10

Twitter Search

Back in Dec. 2010, Twitter Inc. filed a case against the owner of the domain Twittersearch.com with WIPO, the World Intellectual Property Organization.  As TechCrunch first reported, the UDRP complaint was the first ever since the company was founded.

The disputed domain is now registered to Twitter Inc, according to the latest Whois information and data provided by DomainTools.  News of the ownership change has not been reported by any other blog or news site.

The web address continues to resolve to a GoDaddy parked page as it had before the UDRP complaint.

The UDRP complaint, case number D2010-2073, is still active with WIPO.  And though no decision has been officially announced by WIPO as of today, the registrant is now Twitter, Inc. 

Will Twitter go after more Twitter domains?

While Twitter hasn’t filed any new cases with WIPO, it’s possible that some degree of precedence has been set on twitter domains. 

Robin Wauters suggested that Twitter-search.com might be the next disputed domain, but my money is on Searchtwitter.com. According to a rough estimate by Compete, Searchtwitter.com receives just as much type-in traffic (often more) than Twittersearch.com. 

And the owner of the domain, even has a For Sale page online suggesting the domain is available for purchase.

Searchtwitter.com Twittersearch.com