I have debated for some time on whether I should post the following information. I was reminded of it the other day and thought, “What the heck?!” It’s so funny and laughable and happened long enough ago that I think I am past any legal action. The following is a series of emails that were written and responded to shortly after moving to South Jordan from West Valley City. Often times funny, other times absurd and sad, I present the following for your entertainment.

On Wed, Jul 15, 2009 at 12:15 AM I received the following email:

Just wanted to let you know that I own the domain name of beecroftphotography and have it bought and legally registered…I hope you can prove the same which you cannot. I have a business and have had the domain ownershio for 9 years now and will file suit if you do not remove this site with my name on it, you are breaking the law. What do you think would happen if you named yourself Mc Donalds Restaurant? You would be prosecuted which I will not hesitate to do also. This is a friendly warning and my clients are not able to get to my site so I will files for any and all money lost too. You have to file and get your domain approved to own it and I own this domain name and will not let it expire and it does not matter ifit is your last name…whoever pays and buy first has ownership. This is my one and only warning.

Amy Jones
Beecroft Photography
Amy@beecroftphotography.com
(801) 661-0432

Now imagine my surprise. Here I am minding my own business and I get this email. I have had my domain for over 2 years and this is the first I have heard of this Amy Jones. If this is her friendly warning then I would hate to see her terse, unfriendly warning. I immediately wanted to respond to this email but I cooled my jets and thought about how I wanted to handle this. From her email I could think of a whole host of really mean things to say but decided not to. I took a day and crafted the following response:

Dear Amy,

Thank you for sharing your concerns with me. It’s amazing that we both have a very similar website name and live in South Jordan Utah no less. It’s unfortunate that we are running into each other like this. Before I address your concerns, let me share the following with you. I am an amateur photographer who has done some paid jobs but for the most part shoot friends and family at no charge. I also shoot some fine art landscapes and stock photography. The large majority of which I have never sold. I use the name beecroftphotography simply because it is my last name and I am into photography.

–>You said: Just wanted to let you know that I own the domain name of beecroftphotography and have it bought and legally registered…I hope you can prove the same which you cannot.

I legally registered the name beecroftphoto.com with Godaddy.com back on July 21, 2007. I show that you registered beecroftphotography.com on June 7, 2007. This is a little over a month before me. The point being I can prove that I have legally registered this domain name with an accredited registrar.

–> You said: I have a business and have had the domain ownershio for 9 years now.

Not according to the data I have found. Again, I show your domain created on June 7, 2007.

–> You said: …will file suit if you do not remove this site with my name on it, you are breaking the law.

Please enlighten me as to which law I am breaking. I am pretty sure that if I was not allowed to register that domain name, I would not have been able to do so.

–> You said: This is a friendly warning and my clients are not able to get to my site so I will files for any and all money lost too.

Doesn’t sound to friendly to me. In fact this is down right threatening and mean. Are you a mean person Amy? My site doesn’t not in any way impede your customers from reaching www.beecroftphotography.com. I was able to get to your site just fine and I am confident that your customers can get to your site as well given they type in your website address with accuracy.

–> You said: You have to file and get your domain approved to own it and I own this domain name and will not let it expire and it does not matter ifit is your last name…whoever pays and buy first has ownership.

As I have stated above, I legally registered the domain of beecroftphoto.com with Godaddy.com, a legal and accredited entity that provides domain names. I do not doubt you own your domain name and I don’t really care if you let it expire or not. That’s your business. If your claim is that I am cybersquatting (which would be laughable) then you must know that the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy created by ICANN and used by all accredited registrars states that there are administrative procedures to challenge existing domain name conflicts. In order to prevail, the owner must show and prove ALL of the following 3 points:

1. that the trademark owner owns a trademark (either registered or unregistered) that is the same or confusingly similar to the registered second level domain name;
2. that the party that registered the domain name has no legitimate right or interest in the domain name; and
3. that the domain name was registered and used in bad faith.

Did you trademark beecroft photography? Can you prove that I have no legitimate right or interest in my domain name? Can you prove that I registered this name in bad faith? I would say that you can’t.

In conclusion, I am truly sorry that you decided to initiate this conversation in such an adversarial manner. I am a reasonable person, empathetic to someone trying to run a photography business. I wish I had the moxy to do the same. I am simply posting pictures from sessions I have done with friends and family. I also plan on publishing a blog on this same site to talk about photography. If this offends you or you feel that this infringes on your rights then by all means take what ever course of action you feel appropriate. And while I am reasonable, I am not afraid of a fight or your threatening email.

We have coexisted for over 2 years now and see no reason why we cannot continue to do so.

As an aside, do you mind me asking why beecroftphotography? I mean your name is Amy Jones. I assume that at one time you were a Beecroft? Or did you purchase the business from someone else?

Amy, I wish the best in your business and photography. If I can clarify any of my points above, please let me know.

Best Regards,

Brandon Beecroft
801-739-6161
brandon@innerglobe.com

Pretty darn civil is you ask me. There are slight inferences to her lack of knowledge and internet etiquette but on a whole I felt I handled the situation rather well. What do you think? Hoping that that would be the end of it and that she would see my logic, I was dismayed to receive the following email from her:

My business license is under Richard Jones and Company and it has existed for nine years and we’ll see you in court. YES, all my customers run into you all the time and I am not an ameteur, I actually have a Bachelors in Art emphaiszing in photography and this is my livelihood (not just for fun).

Amy Jones
BeeCroft photography

BeeCroftPhotography@msn.com
Amy@BeeCroftPhotography.com
(801) 661-0432

At this point I was steaming. I decided however to let it go and not respond to her email. In fact any other communication can be detrimental to me. You see, if you own a domain name also known as a website address and someone sends you an email saying, “Hey I have right to that name and I want you turn yours over or stop using it” and you respond by saying well, I will sell it to you for (insert large egregious dollar amount here) then legally they can come back and say, “See! He/she is cybersquatting and only wants the domain so they can sell if for an exorbitant amount of money.” If you offer to sell it, it has to be at fair market value which is often times the cost of registering the domain. In my case almost $10. If you don’t offer fair market value, then legally they can take your domain away for cybersquatting and your out in the cold. I believe she was fishing for me to do something like that.

What’s sad is that I keep website visitor statistics for all of my sites and beecroftphoto.com only gets about 4 or 5 hits a month. Most of them as you would imagine not from Utah. If ALL of her customers keep running into me then I would say her business isn’t doing too well.

As one last aside, the place she received a Bachelor of Arts from should be ashamed. You would think they could afford to throw in at least one spelling and grammar class!

Sorry, had to take one last dig at it.