It appears that the Ohio Democratic Party believes that Senator John McCain will select Tom Ridge as his Vice Presidential running mate. According to the Whois database, on August 18th, Todd Hoffman from the Ohio Democratic Party registered the domain name McCainRidge.net. At the moment, the domain name resolves to a generic Godaddy landing page with links to John McCain buttons and political messages.
While some people might immediately claim that the Ohio Democratic Party is cybersquatting on this domain name, I would like to point out that there isn’t necessarily any evidence of bad faith in this registration – unlike many others who intend to profit from selling the domain name. Should the Ohio Dems decide to post an anti McCain/Ridge website, their rights to free speech would probably be protected under the US Constitution’s First Amendment, although I am not an attorney.
At the moment, the only entity profiting from the registration is Godaddy who is monetizing the name – presumably unbenounced to the registrant. IMO, the real legal question is this: if the Ohio Democrats utilize their First Amendment rights and they attempt to solicit contributions on the site, would this be considered a bad faith registration, as they are profiting off of a famous name/brand?
I think this is more of a John Berryhill question!
