In a victory sure to encourage Tod Hunter and the adult actress Starwars.com, Mercenary Pictures Performer/Producer/Director Lexington Steele has won back his eponymous domain from cybersquatters. Russian Communications used Steele's picture on the site LexingtonSteele.com, which then sold other products. "I am sure people mistook this for my official website," Steele said in a press release from HentaiPR.
Steele made do with lexsteele.com and lexonblondes.com in the interim, and both serve as his online presence.
"I have been trying to get the domain back for years," he said.
Steele enlisted the help of San Francisco attorney Holly Pranger, who suggested filing a domain dispute with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names And Numbers (ICANN). The case was then submitted to the National Arbitration Forum. The ICANN route involved less up-front expense than a federal lawsuit, though a win with the feds would allow for restitution of legal fees.
An Atrocity, You Say
Pranger noted that squatting on porn stars' domains is common. "It is an atrocity that these porn squatters wrongfully profit ... they should be stopped."
Now the Holocaust - that was an atrocity. But we get your point; what do we own if not our names?
Steele is a three-time AVN Male Performer of the Year, and Mercenary recently won Best Ethnic Series at the VIBE Awards of Porn for Black Reign.
Are you a porn luminary whose name is being squatted on by Russian Communications or others? Drop me a line via the Contact page.
posted by Gram the Man
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Monday, January 17, 2005 
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