Zuccarini is no stranger to domain name disputes, having lost
actions to actor Kevin Spacey and companies including FAO Schwarz,
Alta Vista and others.
In October 2001, the Federal Trade Commission took action over
his practice of registering internet domain names that were
misspellings of famous brands or names - known as typosquatting.
For example, he registered 41 variations on the name of pop
princess Britney Spears so that fans misspelling her name in their
browser would be taken to Zuccarini's sites.
The most likely candidates to misspell addresses are,
inevitably, children. Zuccarini had at one stage over 5,500 domain
names registered, including, to use examples from the latest
complaint, teltubbies and bobthebiulder.
Once in a Zuccarini site, users were bombarded with a flurry of
pop-up windows displaying ads for goods and services ranging from
internet gambling to porn. In some cases, the legitimate web site
the consumer was attempting to access also was launched, so
consumers thought the hailstorm of ads to which they were being
exposed was from a legitimate web site.
And a Zuccarini site is very difficult to leave. In a practice
known as mousetrapping, programming code at the sites obstructed
surfers' ability to close their browser or to go back to the
previous page. Clicks on the 'close' or 'back' buttons caused new
windows to open, and more ads to appear - in the hope that the user
will click on one and transfer to the advertised site.
Zuccarini, according to the complaint, was paid a referral fee
of between 10 to 25 cents whenever a user moved on from his site to
one of the sites advertised. The scheme earned him up to $1 million
a year, and a huge number of complaints and civil court
actions.
These culminated in May last year when a US District Court
permanently barred Zuccarini from diverting or obstructing
consumers on the internet and from launching web sites or web pages
that belong to unrelated third parties. The court also barred him
from participating in advertising affiliate programmes on the
internet, and ordered him to pay almost $1.9 million in
damages.
But Zuccarini did not comply with the order and in September
this year was charged under the Truth in Domain Names statute.
This new legislation makes it a crime in the US to use "a
misleading domain name on the internet to deceive a minor into
viewing material that is harmful to minors on the internet." It
carries a maximum sentence of four years.
In addition to pleasing guilty to 49 charges under the domain
names law, he also pleaded guilty to one count of possessing child
pornography, according to CNet news.com. Zuccarini apparently made
a plea bargain with prosecutors, agreeing to a recommended sentence
of 30 to 37 months' imprisonment. However, the sentencing judge is
not bound by the agreement.
Sentencing is due to take place on 20th February.
