[October 25, 2009] Six MSU basketball players victims of 'cybersquatter' Tweet Oct 25, 2009 (Detroit Free Press - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- Cybersquatter got your name? Stay dot.calm Michigan State point guard Kalin Lucas had no idea that a Web site with the address www.kalinlucas.com existed. He certainly didn't start it himself. A California-based "cybersquatter" named Luis Zavala and his company Hoopology.com registered the names of close to 800 high school, college and pro athletes, along with celebrities outside of sports. Lucas was one of six MSU basketball players whose cyber names were taken by Zavala. "I don't get it," Lucas said when asked about the situation last week. "So somebody bought what?" According to Chicago law firm Winston and Strawn, Zavala's Web site displayed ads using the name of Toronto Raptors forward Chris Bosh to create revenue for his company. That is, until Bosh sued for the rights to return his domain name to his possession. "I definitely didn't know about that," Lucas said. "I'm just finding out right now -- I didn't even know anything about it. I'm going to sue, too." Thanks to Bosh, there's no need. Bosh won his case and was awarded $120,000 under the guidelines of the Federal Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. He also won the rights to all of the domain names this month, and he'll donate them back to any affected athlete as well. In addition to Lucas' name, Zavala also bought the domain names of Durrell Summers, Isaiah Dahlman, Draymond Green, Raymar Morgan and recently graduated forward Marquise Gray. Players from Michigan and other local schools also were affected. Typing in any of those names with a .com at the end leads the user to a page with the details of the case, along with contact information for the athletes and celebrities who want to take back possession of their unique domain names. To see more of the Detroit Free Press, or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.freep.com Copyright (c) 2009, Detroit Free Press Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]