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Nobody Is Guaranteed The Blog URL Of Their Chosen Relevance

Almost daily, somebody writes in great anguish a complaint like
How can some one use my FCC licensed callsign and set up a blog on Blogger?

I even sent in proof that I am who I claim to be, including my drivers license and my FCC license.
as if (USA government assigned) FCC callsigns (or personal nicknames, or mothers maiden name, or whatever) have any significance in the Blogosphere.

Anybody is free to setup a blog, using any available URL, and publish anything legal and within limits of Blogger TOS.

If someone else sets up a blog using your auto license (issued in what country?), tough, you can't have a URL that's taken.

Don't waste time whining about how Blogger won't email the current owner, and ask them if they would be willing to give you control of the URL. Whether the blog has one post daily for the last 5 years, or 0 posts total, Blogger won't get involved.

Pick another URL, and get to work making your URL well known.

Comments

The posting about people whining defines the maturity level of the writer.

The original post for which YOU are whining about was a query for feedback from others. Granted, you are welcome to speak your mind yet at the same time what productive accomplishment was achieved by your post?

FYI: Our name has been well established for over 39 years and just as any other company would, strives to protect its intellectual property. I choose to approach things in a less aggressive manner.

If you don't like the "whining" from people, then I suggest you don't read the constant whining of others and go elsewhere. There are those of us who enjoy supporting each other for productive ends.
Bertie Fox said…
OK, once someone has a blog URL they keep it for ever. Better than having your webpage taken away in 24 hours which happened to me recently! But I still don't see why the Blog hosting service can't email someone who is clearly not using the URL to see if they wish to abandon it. It's like leaving a house empty while the homeless sleep in the street! You can do it, but it's not very moral.
Nitecruzr said…
Bertie,

You have a valid point. However, if you were the owner of "Michael-Jackson-Is-Dead.blogspot.com", would you want to get a dozen emails a day, asking you if you wanted to give up your blog?

Would Blogger want to be continually emailing everybody on behalf of everybody else who couldn't think of a URL that's available, and required one that's in use?

No, Blogger is in business providing a blogging infrastructure, not harassing people on behalf of other people.
The issue here is simple--if a company or organization has paid the immense fees necessary to register their federal and state trademarks, use of those trademarks without permission is illegal. No gray area there.

Services like Facebook and Twitter uphold the law by immediately removing infringement URLs (after receipt of legal documentation proving trademark ownership). Blogger/Google could *easily* do the same.

Not doing so is simply turning a blind eye to the law.

It would be one thing if Blogger/Google required contact information to appear on blogs (so companies could pursue the infringements), but by allowing anonymity, then refusing to contact "brand squatters," they're promoting the illegal activity.

I, for one, would very much like to get my registered brand name back from the cretins who illegally use it on Blogger.....
Nitecruzr said…
3/50,

Are you maybe a Leo Stoller wanna be?
@Chuck,

No...just the sincerely concerned owner of a trademark that someone else has decided to prevent me from accessing. Not all that different from someone stealing your house keys, then refusing to let you use them.

My trademark is not generic, general, or considered public domain. It's unique and valuable.

Sadly, Google has created a system that protects the person who steals a trademark while preventing those of us honest folks from protecting our good name and brand.
Nitecruzr said…
A "trademark" is a combination of alphabetic and numeric characters. A trademark may be registered with some registration database, purely to prevent other people / organisations from duplicating any previous trademark. If you feel the need to do that, and maybe pay "immense fees" while doing so, that's your decision.

Registration of any "trademark" isn't going to include marking that alphabetic / numeric combination, in every other database in the world, as being unavailable for the service provided in the other databases. Nor will it entitle you to automatically claim your registered alphabetic / numeric combination in the other databases, when "your" combination is already registered.

And it will definitely not entitle you, as Leo Stoller tried, to harass everybody who uses "your" combination of alphabetic and numeric characters.

If you "own" a given alphabetic / numeric combination, registered somewhere, you may be able to force other people to stop using that alphabetic / numeric combination. It won't automatically grant you the right to publish the blog or website of that alphabetic / numeric combination, in every top level domain in the world.

Eventually, there will be some registration authority that will say to you "No, you can't have that combination!".
Anonymous said…
I have to delete my account blog, then I re-register. why can not create the same blog name?
Nitecruzr said…
When you delete your account, the blogs are locked to that account, pending your decision to re establish the blogs. This keeps spammers from grabbing the URLs, and starting out with valued search engine reputation, which you built up.

If you want to use the URLs under another account, you have to transfer control of the blogs properly, before you delete the first account.
Penny said…
I totally empathize with those who want a particular URL (your name, a business name, for example). Recently I reopened a deleted blog and intended to rename it using my first and last name. Much to my disappointment, someone created a blog and URL with exactly that name. Bummer! So, no problem, they were first, lucky stiffs. I simply reversed the order of my name and Walla! Turns out I like the reversed blog name better. Incidentally, a week later, I stumbled upon that blog with my name, and the owner never created a single post or even reworked the template; it's sitting empty. Oh, well. . . .
Nitecruzr said…
Penny,

I sympathise with your concern too - really.

Long ago, when I created my first blog, I had nicknamed myself "PChuck" - and I wanted to publish "pchuck . blogspot . com".

Alas, "pchuck . blogspot . com" was taken (but blatantly empty) - so I settled for "nitecruzr.blogspot.com" - and now, I publish "nitecruzr.net".

And, as the Prophet Mick told us long ago, you can't always get what you want.

But having worked in BHF for over 5 years advising people whose blogs have been wrongfully deleted, because of Blogger spam mitigation - which is a very very very righteous pursuit - I know in my heart that we do not need an infrastructure dedicated to re assigning "dormant" blogs, similar to spam mitigation. Of this, I am certain.

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