Cybersquatting Against the Law?

From an article on msn.com on Dec 12--Cybersquatting, the practice of buying up a domain in order to profit from a trademarked name, is prohibited under the 1999 Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act as well as a set of international guidelines called the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy.

To sue someone for cybersquatting, you have to show that they acted in "bad faith," which means they deliberately registered a certain domain in order to profit off your name. There may be added protection for domains that are named after celebrities. Famous people have a right of publicity that prohibits anyone else from profiting off their names or likeness.

However, the First Amendment makes it legal to grab even a famous person's domain name in some situations. The article gave an interesting example--You might not get hillaryclinton.com, but you could register Ilovehillaryclinton.com if you're planning to use it for nonprofit political speech. As long as you're not profiting off a person or company by misrepresenting them, you're probably OK.