this is an interesting read: http://www.arb-forum.com/domains/decisions/94310.htm broadway trading had their domain name registered by none other than gene weissman and then he told them to f@*k off when they complained about it!! its pretty funny, broadway evidently used to be a tight ship in its heyday, but nows its at the bottom of the ocean. what a bunch of pikers
Some very shrewd people made a ton of money in the early 90's by registering domain names. It's just like anything else, you snooze...you lose. Why didn't Broadway offer to buy the name from him?
That game is older than the hills. Before domain names it was corporate names, still is, every biz has to have an i.d. When Exxon bought Mobil they just took the name Exxon/ Mobil cause between them they owned all the copy rights, logos etc. in every state and had to spend nothing for legal as opposed to Accenture, who spent upwards of 20mm by the time they were done copyrighting , etc. Gene was just smarter and more knowledgeable than they were. When you walk into the arena of biz. who is going to walk with the $ is determined by knowledge and the sharpest sword, like it or not. Pat Riley, the Lakers old coach owns the rights to "threepeat". When the Lakers won for the third time he got paid by legit enterrprises that used the term. Also, I've never seen Gene present himself on elite as anything other than a class act. Disclaimer, I'm not now, nor ever have been, nor ever will be a prop trader, nor do I know Gene.
Intellectual property and domain names are much more complicated than "you snooze you lose." It may have started out that way but as the law progressed intellectual property became protected in cyberspace and many of the domain squatters were kicked off and uncompensated. So while the arbitrator may have made a reasonable judgement call, --- good business is not about using the law to screw others. I think (my personal opinion) gene was a snake for taking the domain and then offering to sell it back and then reneging. Just becasue it is legal does not mean it is appropriate. Now if gene were to come along and offer facts that put this all in a different light I might change my mind, but I assume the arbitrator stated agreed upon or stipulated facts and consequently we can make our own judgments. And you are right gene did seem to be a class act and that is why I never called him out on his defense of redi but while I was using it and he was defending it it was the worst platform for a scalper around.
.... Haven't looked at the facts - and thus the validiaty of the posts - and dont care too since i dont know these folks or engage in business with them..... However, my general comment is that I agree with this statement and I just give this piece of advice after many years of high-level corporate and government work: Be very selective with respect to business associates and employee selections. Over time I have changed my behaviour with respect to taking clients and making decisions about who I will and will not do business with ...... Any person or entity that would pull the stunt mentioned would immediately be put on my companies do not associate list ....
Everyone makes mistakes in their lives. This is a big one by Gene in my mind. It refects on his tendancies.