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A man files another lawsuit,this time claiming he should be able to keep Jimi Hendrix's name for his Web site's address, along with Jethro Tull's name.
By CHASE SQUIRES
© St. Petersburg Times, published August 16, 2000
DADE CITY -- Land O'Lakes cyber-speculator Denny Hammerton on Monday took another swing at one of the giants of rock 'n' roll in his quest to hold on to Internet sites he has registered.
Hammerton, who sued the classic rock band Jethro Tull in Circuit Court last week, followed with a suit against the estate of the late rocker Jimi Hendrix this week.
Both suits revolve around Hammerton's claims that he is entitled, as a U.S. citizen, to hold Internet sites he registered that use the names of the rock 'n' roll legends as their Web address.
The United Nations' World International Property Organization ruled this year that Hammerton is not entitled to use the Web site names www.Jethrotull.com or www.Jimihendrix.com.
In his lawsuits and on one of his Internet sites, Hammerton rails against the United Nations arbitrators. His suits ask the state court to let him keep his Internet site names and to force Hendrix's estate to pay him $200,000 in damages.
Hammerton has not responded to attempts by the St. Petersburg Times to reach him through e-mail and visits to his Penny Loop home in Lake Pagdett.
But on his www.Jethrotull.com site, in the past week he has added a message, "To all the newspaper reporters that have been clambering around my property, telephoning, e-mailing re: Jethrotull.com & Jimihendrix.com; Why in the world would I want to talk to you when I have my own Internet Newspaper which has had over 750,000 hits in less than 8 months? F--- OFF!"
A Times reporter went to Hammerton's home Tuesday seeking comment. A woman who answered the door shut it when the reporter introduced himself.
H. Reed Wasson, a Washington state attorney and general counsel for the Experience Hendrix management group run by Hendrix's stepsister, said the reason celebrities and musicians protect their names is obvious.
"The only value in the name is the value that the artist created with his work," Wasson said.
The value applies not only to such items as T-shirts and recordings, but also to the artists' names on the growing Internet market, he said.
Wasson was familiar with Hammerton, but said he had not seen the latest lawsuit.
Henrdix's hits included Foxey Lady and Purple Haze.
Hammerton's battles are over names -- Uniform Resource Locators, or URLs -- of Internet sites. The URL functions as a virtual address, followed by .com or .org or .net or other suffix. Sites tied to trademarked businesses, such as bookseller Amazon.com and retailer Priceline.com, have become big business, with shares traded on Wall Street.
But speculators, sometimes called "cybersquatters," realized the potential value of the site names early and paid a fee to the Herndon, Va., licensing agency Network Solutions Inc., to secure the name before anyone else.
Hammerton told the Times last year that he has been securing domain names since 1996, holding such sites as www.paulmccartney.com, www.jimihendrix.com and www.janisjoplin.com. The names were for sale. He said anyone could buy them, including fan clubs or the people whose names are used.
"There's only one of them -- it's a Mona Lisa," he said last year. "Paul McCartney is worth about $25,000."
NSI spokeswoman Cheryl Regan said Tuesday the company was the first to register Internet names in the United States, but is now one of about 50 such firms.
Regan said rules instituted this year provide remedies for companies or individuals who feel their names or trademarks have been inappropriately registered. The WIPO is one of three panels worldwide where complaints can be heard and ruled upon, according to NSI.
According to NSI, 80 percent of domain name owners in the most common areas of .com, .net. and .org own a single name. Most of the registered names belong to a cadre of portfolio holders. Less than 2 percent of all domain name owners hold 44 percent of registered names -- about 59 domains apiece.
An even smaller group of about 5,800 registrants worldwide hold an average 409 names each. Though this group represents a fractional 0.1 percent of domain holders, they control 18 percent of all registered names, according to NSI figures.
-- Information from Times archives was included in this report. Times staff writer James Thorner contributed to this report.