Whoever owns ronpaul.com consider voluntarily giving it up to Ron Paul.

[eleganz]

I just listened to the Ron Paul on AJ tube and at the very end Ron mentions how it is unfortunate he doesn't have RonPaul.com and his default homepage has to be ronpaulhomepage.com

If anybody knows the owner of RonPaul.com at least let him know Ron would like to have it so he can use it as his homepage. If I was the owner, I'd give it up hands down!

I just wrote them an email:
You should consider writing them as well.
http://www.ronpaul.com/contact/

[sailingaway]

I strongly suspect the AJ interview will be up on RonPaul.com within the day.

[nobody's_hero]

I'd give him a really good deal on it, at least. But there's no telling how much that domain is worth. Imagine all the people who googled Ron Paul over the years and probably clicked on it out of curiousity.

[rev1689]

Here's the results of a WHOIS search:


This domain is protected by Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd. For more information please
visit www.whoisprivacyservices.com.au

Domain ronpaul.com:
Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd
Domain Hostmaster, Customer ID : 95459852061642
Email: 95459852061642-4fd941@whoisprivacyservices.com.au
PO Box 923
Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 AU

Administrative contact:
Technical contact:
Billing contact:
Whois Privacy Services Pty Ltd
Domain Hostmaster, Customer ID : 95459852061642
Email: 95459852061642-4fd941@whoisprivacyservices.com.au
PO Box 923
Fortitude Valley QLD 4006 AU
Phone: Phone: +61.730070090
Fax: Phone: +61.730070091

Record dates:
Record created on: 2000-11-22 18:05:56 UTC
Record modified on: 2012-12-17 13:26:01 UTC
Record expires on: 2020-11-22 UTC

Nameservers:
myns1.fabulous.com
myns2.fabulous.com

The owners obviously don't want you to know who they are, and are using an Australian anonymous registration service. However, you can still write an email or letter to them at the addresses above and it will be forwarded along. That said, if Ron Paul has commented on it publicly, it's quite possible that someone working for him has already attempted this in order to buy it outright... So who knows if a grassroots letter-writing campaign offering no money will yield significant results. But anyway, there's the info if you're so inclined. :D

[jmdrake]

I'd give him a really good deal on it, at least. But there's no telling how much that domain is worth. Imagine all the people who googled Ron Paul over the years and probably clicked on it out of curiousity.

Yet. http://ronpaul.tv is taken as well. (Good stuff there!) http://ronpaul.net points to http://ronpaul.com. And someone's squatting on http://ronpaul.xxx. :D

[Romulus]

/// the guy needs to give it up.

[2ndfor1st]

I will gladly give up a domain but I doubt he would want it.

[Danke]

I will gladly give up RonPaulRonPaul.com but I doubt he would want it.

Shouldn't it be ROOOOOOONPAAAAUL!!!.com ?

[2ndfor1st]

Ron Paul could easily have it taken from the owner under the cybersquating act. It wouldn't be difficult to prove that the owner is making money off of Ron Paul's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

[Danan]

Ron Paul could easily have it taken from the owner under the cybersquating act. It wouldn't be difficult to prove that the owner is making money off of Ron Paul's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

I don't believe Ron agrees with this law.

[2ndfor1st]

I don't believe Ron agrees with this law.
I agree with you, otherwise he would have done something about the 1000's of people making money off his name.

[twomp]

Ron Paul could easily have it taken from the owner under the cybersquating act. It wouldn't be difficult to prove that the owner is making money off of Ron Paul's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

I hope Ron Paul doesn't go that route. I've gotten a lot of information from that website.

[green73]

Doesn't he own ronpaul.org?

[compromise]

Ronpaul.com should change to Ronpaulfans.com or Ronpaulinfo.com.

[kcchiefs6465]

Ronpaul.com should change to Ronpaulfans.com or Ronpaulinfo.com.
That would be a good compromise.

[sailingaway]

OK, I agree he should want to give it up BUT he has been working it and developed its following for years. He also did not give up the RonPaul2008 youtube channel he picked up when the campaign accidentally let it lapse, so I don't think it will happen. But he DID put a legend on that it is a fan page when it kept getting confused with Ron's actual page (they still confused it, but that is because media is careless.)

BUT I think Ron should make him an offer to buy it and maybe hire the guy on board in some role. I think it is worth some effort to get the name people are naturally going to be turning to, forever, for his stuff.

[misean]

The most anti-Ron Paul thing that person could do is give it up voluntarily. They were smart enough to get the site in the first place and then drive traffic to it. They deserve to get paid.

[sailingaway]

The most anti-Ron Paul thing that person could do is give it up voluntarily. They were smart enough to get the site in the first place and then drive traffic to it. They deserve to get paid.

Voluntary donations are not anti-Ron Paul.

[Rudeman]

Does anyone know if Rand owns RandPaul.com or .net?


For this topic maybe he'd be willing to give up RonPaul.net and keep the .com for himself or something like that since it looks like he owns both.

[eleganz]

The most anti-Ron Paul thing that person could do is give it up voluntarily. They were smart enough to get the site in the first place and then drive traffic to it. They deserve to get paid.

Uhhhhh nobody is forcing him to do it. The point is to let he owner know so he could consider it. I don't know his motivation but it could be to benefit the movement or as a personal gift or whatever to Ron Paul. There is nothing aNti free market or Anti Ron Paul about it. Quit being anal

[2ndfor1st]

The owner knew that this day could/would come. Cybersquating is a big problem with trademarks. It would be one thing if he weren't making money off the use of the name, but he's making a living off Ron Paul's name.

You'll notice I don't have a single ad on my website and I'm using Ron Paul's name. If I had, I would have understood the risk before making the decision and known that my enterprise would eventually come to an end.

I would be willing to bet that Ron Paul wouldn't pay him a dime for his own name. Also, I highly doubt Ron would take action on this but I would bet Tom Woods would if someone was profiting off his ... :)

[Confederate]

I think it was fine for him to own ronpaul.com while Ron was in politics and had his house and campaign websites. Now that Ron is a private citizen, I think it's a bit tacky to be making money off his name to be honest.

[Lucille]

Yet. http://ronpaul.tv is taken as well. (Good stuff there!) http://ronpaul.net points to http://ronpaul.com. And someone's squatting on http://ronpaul.xxx. :D

Yeah, he's got them all! RonPaul.org too. He can give up ONE of them, for crying out loud!

ronpaulhomepage.com is just ridiculous.

[fr33]

I used to own a domain that was a deceased famous artist's name. The lawyer letters scared the heck out of me and I gave it up but I wasn't making anything off of it.

[sailingaway]

Yeah, he's got them all! RonPaul.org too. He can give up ONE of them, for crying out loud!

ronpaulhomepage.com is just ridiculous.

Once he has dotcom the others are too similar (he can keep .xxx I don't think he'll abuse it and others might...)

[SpreadOfLiberty]

Compromise:

Ron Paul can run the site for his purposes but the original owners gets all the ad revenue.

[sailingaway]

Compromise:

Ron Paul can run the site for his purposes but the original owners gets all the ad revenue.

Ef that, this is going to be Ron's business. Whatever he uses will be big but if his supporters stop going to RonPaul.com because they are pissed, and Ron doesn't get to use his own name, no one benefits. On the other hand, reasonable payment isn't outlandish to expect, the man did work up his own web site.

[eleganz]

Yeah, he's got them all! RonPaul.org too. He can give up ONE of them, for crying out loud!

ronpaulhomepage.com is just ridiculous.

It is totally ridiculous especially considering Ron is leading c4l, free foundation, has his campus and paid speaking gigs.

Nobody is saying the owner should give it up but as true supporters, giving it up shouldn't really be a question

Just kindly write him and let him know. I put the contact link in the op

[qh4dotcom]

I own ronpaul.name

He can have it if he contacts me :)

I hate to say this...but if I were the owner of RonPaul.com, I would be very hesitant to give it up to RP. Why? First of all, it cost him more than $25,000 to acquire it when it was auctioned on Ebay a few years ago. Second, the owner of ronpaul.com is also the owner of ronpaul2008.com, the domain that was used for the Ron Paul 2008 campaign. Ron Paul's incompetent campaign staff failed to pay $10 for a domain registration renewal and let it expire and he said he was very lucky to acquire it and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands. RonPaul2012.com is due to expire on March 23, 2013 and as usual Ron Paul's incompetent campaign staff hasn't renewed the domain registration and it is likely to expire as well. So I doubt the owner of RonPaul.com is going to hand over his extremely valuable domain to a bunch of incompetent campaign staff who are going to let it expire.

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?232396-RonPaul.com-folks-acquire-RonPaul2008.com-domain.-Incompetent-CFL-staff-let-it-expire




--- On Fri, 2/19/10, RonPaul.com <support@ronpaul.com> wrote:


From: RonPaul.com <support@ronpaul.com>
Subject: Re: Questions about ronpaul2008.com from a Ron Paul supporter
Date: Friday, February 19, 2010, 12:57 PM

Yes, we recently acquired RonPaul2008.com. The domain was previously controlled by a former Ron Paul campaign staffer who apparently abandoned it and allowed it to expire. The traffic to RonPaul.com has increased notably. In the wrong hands RonPaul2008.com could have done a lot of harm; the domain is a true search engine powerhouse that would have immediately outranked all other Ron Paul sites (including RonPaul.com). I believe we were very fortunate to find ourselves in the right place at the right time.

Thanks for your interest - you're the first (and so far the only) person to take notice. :)

Regards,

Tim

[sailingaway]

How do we let Ron Paul know NOT to let that domain expire?

[compromise]

The most anti-Ron Paul thing that person could do is give it up voluntarily. They were smart enough to get the site in the first place and then drive traffic to it. They deserve to get paid.

He can change the domain slightly without giving it up.

[compromise]

Yet. http://ronpaul.tv is taken as well. (Good stuff there!) http://ronpaul.net points to http://ronpaul.com. And someone's squatting on http://ronpaul.xxx. :D

http://www.ronpaul.tk/ is the Campaign for Liberty site. Maybe Ron could ask C4L if he could use that?

[ninepointfive]

Ron should pay 5000 for it and everyone can be happy

[qh4dotcom]

Ron should pay 5000 for it and everyone can be happy

See my post above....Bad idea

[qh4dotcom]

How do we let Ron Paul know NOT to let that domain expire?

Would you trust Jesse Benton and his incompetent campaign staff with such a valuable domain? See my post above

[itshappening]

5,000? I think he paid 50k for it.

The other thing is randpaul.com is owned by someone too, possibly the same person. That needs to be acquired for Rand especially if he's the GOP nominee!

I dont know why RAND didn't get that name long before anyone knew who he was? like in 07 it was probably available.

[ninepointfive]

5,000? I think he paid 50k for it.

The other thing is randpaul.com is owned by someone too, possibly the same person. That needs to be acquired for Rand especially if he's the GOP nominee!

I dont know why RAND didn't get that name long before anyone knew who he was? like in 07 it was probably available.

yeah, i just read through the whole thread. oops. looks like some top dollars aught to be spent.

[sailingaway]

Would you trust Jesse Benton and his incompetent campaign staff with such a valuable domain? See my post above

Maybe Josh would do it. I'd trust him more honestly, and no, I wouldn't. But it is RON's name.

[itshappening]

He could probably take it via the Universal Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which is arbitration rather than using the Cybersquatting act.

RandPaul.com is the other main concern, if for example he won the GOP nominee he could lose millions of dollars in donations by not having that domain.

All so someone can just host a blog on it with news links?

What a joke.

[fr33]

He could probably take it via the Universal Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP), which is arbitration rather than using the Cybersquatting act.

RandPaul.com is the other main concern, if for example he won the GOP nominee he could lose millions of dollars in donations by not having that domain.

All so someone can just host a blog on it with news links?

What a joke.If I were Ron Paul I would hire a lawyer that does this for a living and get the domain. I think it would be a slam dunk case.

[ninepointfive]

If I were Ron Paul I would hire a lawyer that does this for a living and get the domain. I think it would be a slam dunk case.

looks like something in the range of 50,000 plus is reasonable for compensation

[qh4dotcom]

If I were Ron Paul I would hire a lawyer that does this for a living and get the domain. I think it would be a slam dunk case.

It wouldn't be very libertarian of him to go seize someone's property.

[sailingaway]

It wouldn't be very libertarian of him to go seize someone's property.

there is an argument that it is his name and all these years the guy has been unfairly enriched by Ron's actions....

I think Ron should make an offer. I don't think he has any interest in making a demand.

[misean]

If I were Ron Paul I would hire a lawyer that does this for a living and get the domain. I think it would be a slam dunk case.

It looks he would have a good case, just reading the Wikipedia on it. Though, that law is very much against the the libertarian ethics espoused by people like Walter Block. I would bet there is very little chance that the owner gives the site up for free or RP demands it. If RP wants it, he should pay the person what it is worth. (Though I would be very surprised if its worth the 50k that someone said the owner paid for it.)

[AdamT]

I just listened to the Ron Paul on AJ tube and at the very end Ron mentions how it is unfortunate he doesn't have RonPaul.com and his default homepage has to be ronpaulhomepage.com

You know what's funny, is ronpaulhomepage.com is available, so I doubt Ron said the correct domain on the show. Either that, or incompetent staffers didn't grab it yet.

http://i.imgur.com/uCSVw.jpg

[sailingaway]

You know what's funny, is ronpaulhomepage.com is available, so I doubt Ron said the correct domain on the show. Either that, or incompetent staffers didn't grab it yet.

http://i.imgur.com/uCSVw.jpg

oh damn.

[Rudeman]

He doesn't even need ronpaul.com, there's a good domain available if he wants it. Much better than ronpaulhomepage.com or whatever he's choosing to use.

[sailingaway]

OK, this seriously pisses me off.

Ron is in his seventies. He has no reason to 'understand the workings and technical import of the internet' but MANY true believer supporters of his do, and he needs to hire them and get off this 'people who ran campaigns for totally different type of people' kick. Now that he is not running as a candidate maybe he'll be open to that. Would some of you PLEASE submit your resumes to him already?

[Carson]

Should we be bad mouthing his campaign team? Aren't we it?

[kathy88]

Guys stop it. Qh4dotcom owns it. All Ron has to do is contact him. Geesh.

[kathy88]

It wouldn't be very libertarian of him to go seize someone's property.

ROFLMAO at you.

[sailingaway]

Guys stop it. Qh4dotcom owns it. All Ron has to do is contact him. Geesh.

no, that is ronpaul.NAME not ronpaul.com

[Danke]

How about RonPaulLand.com ?

[AdamT]

How about RonPaulLand.com ?

Available. RonPaulForever.com would be awesome too, but it's taken.

[qh4dotcom]

It looks he would have a good case, just reading the Wikipedia on it. Though, that law is very much against the the libertarian ethics espoused by people like Walter Block. I would bet there is very little chance that the owner gives the site up for free or RP demands it. If RP wants it, he should pay the person what it is worth. (Though I would be very surprised if its worth the 50k that someone said the owner paid for it.)

It was auctioned on Ebay a few years ago and sold for more than $25,000....considering that Ron Paul has more name recognition now than a few years ago, it could be well be worth $50,000 or more.

[kathy88]

RonPaulFuckingRocks.com

[kathy88]

no, that is ronpaul.NAME not ronpaul.com

Oh shit my bad and here I thought all YOU idiots couldn't read.

[SpreadOfLiberty]

Available. RonPaulForever.com would be awesome too, but it's taken.ronpaulfever.com

is available

[Confederate]

How about RonPaulLand.com ?

I'm sure Petar would be willing to share pixyland.com/ronpaul with RP

[sailingaway]

RonPaulFuckingRocks.com

love it. Maybe the RonPaul.com guy would realize that makes a far more awesome fan page name, anyhow and they could swap...

[sailingaway]

ronpaulfever.com

is available

also good.

[2ndfor1st]

It doesn't matter what the guy paid for it, he's using Ron's trademark to profit. It will be the guy's loss. He understood the risks before forking out $25k for it, believe me!!! Ron Paul would win in an arbitration dispute resolution (UDRP) court for about $2000, and not have to pay the guy anything.

[Rudeman]

Someone with any contact with Ron Paul or his reps pm me. (I don't own ronpaul.com but have a good domain idea and would like to pass it on to him, I may end up registering it just to hang onto it for him).

[qh4dotcom]

It doesn't matter what the guy paid for it, he's using Ron's trademark to profit. It will be the guy's loss. He understood the risks before forking out $25k for it, believe me!!! Ron Paul would win in an arbitration dispute resolution (UDRP) court for about $2000, and not have to pay the guy anything.

He has a Ron Paul Fan site with Ron Paul content...I doubt he's making much of a profit after web hosting costs.

Like I said earlier, it wouldn't be very libertarian of Ron Paul to go seize someone's property...his libertarian credibility would go down if the word got around....

[sailingaway]

He has a Ron Paul Fan site with Ron Paul content...I doubt he's making much of a profit after web hosting costs.

Like I said earlier, it wouldn't be very libertarian of Ron Paul to go seize someone's property...his libertarian credibility would go down if the word got around....

I don't think it is a question of seizing.

Ron would offer value I'm sure, but I'd like to see it happen. people naturally go there thinking it is Ron's.

[qh4dotcom]

I don't think it is a question of seizing.


The RPF member I replied to was suggested RP should go to court over it


people naturally go there thinking it is Ron's.

At the bottom of RonPaul.com it says
Copyright © 2008 - 2016 RonPaul.com. This website is maintained by independent grassroots supporters. It is not paid for, approved or endorsed by Congressman Ron Paul

[sailingaway]

The RPF member I replied to was suggested RP should go to court over it



At the bottom of RonPaul.com it says
Copyright © 2008 - 2016 RonPaul.com. This website is maintained by independent grassroots supporters. It is not paid for, approved or endorsed by Congressman Ron Paul

and no one reads that and media all the time say it is Ron's page.

[Ivash]

It doesn't matter what the guy paid for it, he's using Ron's trademark to profit. It will be the guy's loss. He understood the risks before forking out $25k for it, believe me!!! Ron Paul would win in an arbitration dispute resolution (UDRP) court for about $2000, and not have to pay the guy anything.

I doubt it. Somehow a polices' department's internet site was not renewed and someone else bought it. That guy held the website hostage until the local police force bought it back. They could not get it back through a court settlement (or the court ruled against them. I can not recall).

[Rudeman]

I just purchased www.ronpaul.co along with another domain (www.realronpaul.com) I'm willing to give both to Ron Paul or just have them redirect to whatever ends up being Ron Paul's domain. PM me if you have any sort of contact with him or the people that will be running the website.

Edit: Currently forwarding both to C4L since that is what RP2012 redirects to until RPs site is up.

[angelatc]

Ron Paul could easily have it taken from the owner under the cybersquating act. It wouldn't be difficult to prove that the owner is making money off of Ron Paul's name.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anticybersquatting_Consumer_Protection_Act

They bought it from another guy named Ron Paul though, so it's pretty unfair if they could be accused of squatting. They didn't register the domain with the intention of making money off Ron Paul.

And Ron Paul had the same chance as everybody else at buying it.

[2ndfor1st]

They bought it from another guy named Ron Paul though, so it's pretty unfair if they could be accused of squatting. They didn't register the domain with the intention of making money off Ron Paul.

And Ron Paul had the same chance as everybody else at buying it.

He's using Ron Paul's "identity" to make money, not just his name. Your identity is your own trademark.

In any event, Ron Paul could, if he wanted to, get the domain name transferred to him for very little money.

[qh4dotcom]

They bought it from another guy named Ron Paul though, so it's pretty unfair if they could be accused of squatting. They didn't register the domain with the intention of making money off Ron Paul.

And Ron Paul had the same chance as everybody else at buying it.

Something else that isn't being considered....the owner is an avid Ron Paul fan and it's possible that some or most of his profits get donated to Ron Paul causes.

[sailingaway]

Something else that isn't being considered....the owner is an avid Ron Paul fan and it's possible that some or most of his profits get donated to Ron Paul causes.

Ron Paul isn't even pushing this. I'm suggesting there be a mutually beneficial trade of value somehow. Maybe including a job to make sure the domain is renewed. I see no reason anyone should be opposed to that avenue being checked out. If he wanted to volunteer it it would be great but for the amount of money he paid, a sale is more realistic.

[Confederate]

Ron Paul isn't even pushing this. I'm suggesting there be a mutually beneficial trade of value somehow. Maybe including a job to make sure the domain is renewed. I see no reason anyone should be opposed to that avenue being checked out. If he wanted to volunteer it it would be great but for the amount of money he paid, a sale is more realistic.

Or perhaps hiring the guy as the webmaster? He obviously has the experience...

[sailingaway]

Or perhaps hiring the guy as the webmaster? He obviously has the experience...

that is sort of what I meant, and suggested then someone didn't like his design.. whatever. It would be a deal between him and Ron, in any event. I bet people would chip in to acquire it, though.

[qh4dotcom]

Maybe including a job to make sure the domain is renewed.

Don't you think the extremely valuable RonPaul2012.com domain needs to be renewed BEFORE RP starts thinking about managing another domain? It's expiring on March 23, 2013

[sailingaway]

Don't you think the extremely valuable RonPaul2012.com domain needs to be renewed BEFORE RP starts thinking about managing another domain? It's expiring on March 23, 2013
no, for one thing that is in March. And anyone knowledgeable could renew it, our job is to get Ron the person to do it, somehow. Regardless Ron should have his name, imho. HE may not care about 'an old youtube website for an old campaign' so may not be thinking about it. He needs people who KNOW that is valuable.

[Confederate]

Don't you think the extremely valuable RonPaul2012.com domain needs to be renewed BEFORE RP starts thinking about managing another domain? It's expiring on March 23, 2013

How do you know it's not on auto-renew?

[eleganz]

Don't you think the extremely valuable RonPaul2012.com domain needs to be renewed BEFORE RP starts thinking about managing another domain? It's expiring on March 23, 2013

The fact that they already took down all of the ronpaul2012 content more than likely means they don't even want it.

I don't know how, not renewing the 08 and 12 campaign domains mean that whoever runs his sites are incompetent and certainly has no correlation to how a Ron Paul owned, www.ronpaul.com would be run.

[sailingaway]

The fact that they already took down all of the ronpaul2012 content more than likely means they don't even want it.

I don't know how, not renewing the 08 and 12 campaign domains mean that whoever runs his sites are incompetent and certainly has no correlation to how a Ron Paul owned, www.ronpaul.com would be run.

the youtube account outranks tons by virtue of its view count. that is valuable in harnessing internet dominance. He should renew it. But a ronpaul.com with a web savvy employee could be run spectacularly.

[gerryb1]

I'm sure whoever owns it would be willing to sell it for a fair price.

If he is making $10,000 a month from it, $300,000 purchase price would probably be fair.

[CPUd]

You know what's funny, is ronpaulhomepage.com is available, so I doubt Ron said the correct domain on the show. Either that, or incompetent staffers didn't grab it yet.

http://i.imgur.com/uCSVw.jpg

He said "Ron Paul's Homepage," which was registered a couple days ago:



Registered through: GoDaddy.com, LLC (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: RONPAULSHOMEPAGE.COM
Created on: 09-Jan-13
Expires on: 09-Jan-14
Last Updated on: 09-Jan-13

Registrant:
LE Zellers
PO Box 1347
Lakeland, Alabama 33802
United States

Administrative Contact:
Zellers, LE
PO Box 1347
Lakeland, Alabama 33802
United States
727-479-0000

Technical Contact:
Zellers, LE
PO Box 1347
Lakeland, Alabama 33802
United States
727-479-0000

Domain servers in listed order:
NS37.DOMAINCONTROL.COM
NS38.DOMAINCONTROL.COM

[sailingaway]

He said "Ron Paul's Homepage," which was registered a couple days ago:

well he should absolutely get both, talk about building up yet another one for someone else!!

--

dammit!! I just went to buy it for him and it is already taken!! http://www.godaddy.com/domains/searchresults.aspx?isc=cjc10OFF%3f

I sure hope Ron picked it up!