John Zuccarini is one of the web's best-known typosquatters. He
was first charged by the FTC in 2001 after he registered
misspellings of popular domain names or brands, including 15
variations of the popular children's cartoon site
cartoonnetwork.com and 41 variations on the name of pop star
Britney Spears.
Anyone trying to find the official Britney or Cartoon Network
sites would typically land at one of Zuccarini's sites if they
misspelled their intended destination. Once there, Zuccarini held
them captive, according to the FTC, "while he pelted their screens
with a barrage of adult-oriented ads".
In May 2002, a court permanently barred Zuccarini from his
practices and ordered him to give up $1.8 million in ill-gotten
gains. The court also ordered certain bookkeeping and
record-keeping requirements to allow the FTC to monitor his
compliance with the court's order.
The following year, Zuccarini faced criminal charges for the
misleading use of domain names and possession of child pornography.
He was sentenced to 30 months in prison and 36 months of supervised
release.
The latest FTC charges said that he was in contempt of the order
requiring him to halt his practices. Under the new FTC order,
Zuccarini must give up $164,000, conform to enhanced compliance and
monitoring requirements, and transmit a copy of the new order to
his probation officer.
