I want to use the name of a famous person in the name of a web site
that I would set up.  Is it legal to do this without their permission?

For example, 
     "Vote for George Bush" 
or 
    "Baseball fans for Al Gore". 

The web site would ask people for monetary donations to pay for the
web site and related expenses, i.e. I would hope to make a small
profit.

Cynthia

Hello cyntlhiadiane-ga,
     To answer your question above I checked 3 different places and
I'll tell you a bit about what I learned in all of them.
My forst step was to check 
 www.godaddy.com, 
a domain registaring service that i've used before for personal yse, I
first contacted their Domain Support line at 480-505-8899 which I
found on this page https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/about.asp?isc=&se=
2B&from_app=&mscssid=&pl_id=1&prog_id=GoDaddy&authGuid=
linked off the main page of their site, I spoke with Dave, one of
their reps, and he said that usually unless it's copyrighted by the
owner of the name, it should be legal, but he advised me to check with
a copyright lawyer. I then was seaching thru the websites FAQ's and
found this https://registrar.godaddy.com/dispute_policy.asp?isc=&se=%2B&from%5Fapp=&prog%5Fid=GoDaddy)
Which has a lot of answers regarding the policies and proceedures for
domain names, some of the items of interest on there....It is a MS
Word Doc, so you will be prompted to open or save the file, I chose
"open".

"Purpose. This Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (the
"Policy") has been adopted by the Internet Corporation for Assigned
Names and Numbers ("ICANN"), is incorporated by reference into your
Registration Agreement, and sets forth the terms and conditions in
connection with a dispute between you and any party other than us (the
registrar) over the registration and use of an Internet domain name
registered by you"

"Your Representations. By applying to register a domain name, or by
asking us to maintain or renew a domain name registration, you hereby
represent and warrant to us that (a) the statements that you made in
your Registration Agreement are complete and accurate; (b) to your
knowledge, the registration of the domain name will not infringe upon
or otherwise violate the rights of any third party; (c) you are not
registering the domain name for an unlawful purpose; and (d) you will
not knowingly use the domain name in violation of any applicable laws
or regulations. It is your responsibility to determine whether your
domain name registration infringes or violates someone else's rights.
"

Being that they state it's "YOUR" responsibility to determine this, I
figured I should fact check with a copyright lawyer for a 3'd, and
legal opinion. By going a google search on
"copyright lawyers omaha ne" 
I found a list of local lawyers in my area to contact. I contacted the
Law Office of

Barmettler, Joseph J.  
13220 California Street, Suite 400
Omaha, NE 68154-5228 Phone:  (402)342-1000 
 
and spoke with Mr Vassberg, a copyright lawyer at the firm. He told me
that a name does not have to be copyrighted to have infringement in
this case, because everyone, and esp. a public figure hold what he
referred to as "personal privacy and image rights" to their name,
I.E., someone can use the same "famous or well recognized or
associated name" of anyone or thing without their express written
consent.

Therefore, I would have to say while it may not infringe copyright
law, you could run into a slew of other legal problems, and you should
consult with the person who's name you would be planning to use and
get legal permission before starting, and Mr Vassberg reccomended
going thru a copyright lawyer to make sure " all your I's were dotted
and T's crossed". He also advised that you should do this 10X more if
you will be making ANY sort of profit off the site. "In most cases",
he stated, "that 95% of the time, there is a legal recourse anyone can
take if someone s using their legal name with out permission."

So, this should answer your question about weather or not it is legal
to use someone's name in a webdomain URL or site without their
permission. It should also help you with some of the steps you would
need to take to use someone's name legally in a web domain URL or
site.

Nenna-GA

---

Clarification of Answer by nenna-ga on 27 Aug 2003 15:13 PDT

The URL that was not complete at the beginning of my answer was

https://www.godaddy.com/gdshop/about.asp?isc=&se=
2B&from_app=&mscssid=&pl_id=1&prog_id=GoDaddy&authGuid=

Also you can find a list of copyright lawyers in your area by going to
www.switchboard.com
and entering in your area, plus "Attorneys patent and copyright law"
in the services area.

Dear cyntlhiadiane,

I note that in both of the examples you provide in your question, you
are referring to political figures. Under U.S. law, the more political
your expression, the more likely it is that it will be protected by
the First Amendment. You may have noticed that there are a variety of
websites that use the names of politicians, and depict them in an
unflattering light. This type of use of a politician's name in the
context of political commentary is subject to significant First
Amendment protection. There are similar sites about certain public
personalities and celebrities, which focus on comment and criticism
within the scope of the public personality's status as a public
figure, which are also subject to significant First Amendment
protection. (Some foreign nations provide much broader protection to
public individuals than is offered in the United States.)

Conversely, to utilize a celebrity's name (and even a politician's
name) for a commercial purpose may infringe upon that individual's
rights. That is, if you are using the celebrity's name to sell
merchandise, or even just to lead people to your site when they are
trying to find the celebrity's official site, don't count on your use
being protected.