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Guest Post: Litigation Fall Out From Playboy Mansion Illness at DOMAINfest 2011

This is a guest post written by attorney Enrico Schaefer of Traverse Legal. Schaefer is an experienced IP lawyer whose firm handles cases in a variety of practice areas, including litigation. I have been told that a complaint in the matter below may be filed today or tomorrow.  For more information, contact Mark Clark.

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What started out as a simple post on German domainer Nico Zeifang’s Facebook page two days after the Playboy Mansion Party at DOMAINfest turned into something much bigger. Under the title “Domainerflu count: Who else caught the disease at DFG?” the post generated over 200 comments. Within hours, it was clear that at dozens of Playboy Mansion party attendees were sick, with the same upper respiratory symptoms. Within days, the number of reported illness had climbed to over 150 Playboy Mansion party attendees (no doubt more by now), with many moving into pneumonia.

Ironically, it was the nationalized Health Care providers in Switzerland who did early testing, with one Swiss party attendee reporting positive for Legionellosis with multiple levels of testing. Ron Jackson, whose wife Diana became pretty sick as well, started tracking the illness and reported the matter to the CDC who then involved the L.A. County Board of Health for a coordinated investigation including detailed questionnaires and requests for those who could afford it (or who were in LA and could get the test performed for free) to go through a battery of tests.

As of today, the L.A. Department of Health has confirmed the presence of the Legionella bacteria at the Playboy Mansion, although it has not issued its final findings.

The Los Angeles Department of Health remains circumspect about exact location of the bacteria at the Mansion and is waiting for other positive test results for Legionella bacteria in the samples taken from attendees before issuing a final report. Those of us who went through the testing are being requested to get more tests for comparison in the coming weeks. However, there is little doubt that “it is more probable than not” that the vast majority of Playboy Mansion attendees got sick from a bacterial strain of Legionella as a result of exposure at the Playboy Mansion. The common symptoms, consistency of symptoms with Legionella, timing, prior diagnosis of Legionella in at least one sick attendee and the curious revelation of finding Legionella bacteria at the Playboy Mansion well before the investigation was concluded make this pretty obvious.

I was put in an unusual situation as a result of the illness. I got very sick on Sunday after returning from DOMAINfest, with days of being in bed, long periods were I could barely speak because my voice was just about shut down, fever, wicked pain in my lower back, exhaustion, cough and related problems. My wife, who also became sick but not as severely, was leaving on vacation shortly after I became ill leaving me at home with three young boys trying to get my energy, voice and health back. For the last two years, I had been planning a backcountry hut trip in Colorado at high altitude. It can be a dangerous trip in good health. I had to cancel given the problems with my lungs and breathing. I struggled at home and at work for weeks. I continued to hear about people who were stuck in L.A. because they were too sick to travel, and others whose infection turned to pneumonia.

I asked one of the attorneys in my office to start doing an independent investigation, reviewing expert data on Legionaires, its causes and prevention. How would a place like the Playboy Mansion end up exposing guests to Legionella bacteria? It turns out that the issue really comes down to cleanliness. A little chlorine goes a long way. All of the information suggests that the Playboy Mansion failed to keep their facility clean.

I decided to retain my law firm to represent my wife and I in investigating the matter and, if appropriate, filing a lawsuit against responsible parties. There is information about obtaining legal representation and the anticipated lawsuit to be filed here. I had gone from being a lawyer to a client and this is why I made the decision to hire an attorney to protect my interest.

I see a lot of things as an attorney. A portion of my career was devoted to representing injured people in mass accidents, including class action asbestos cases. Our firm recently handled the largest number of victims from the Crown Princess Cruise ship accident in the Los Angeles, California complex litigation court. “Personal responsibility” is a common theme in tort cases these days. But typically people are referring to the ‘responsibility’ of the person who was hurt.

I know based on my experience that most people who are negligent are quick to point at the victim, without taking any ‘personal responsibility’ for their own actions. Our justice system helps hold people accountable. The “Playboy Plague” was not an accident or act of God. By all appearances, it was an easily preventable exposure at a location, which is paid significant sums to host such events. The effects were much more than a minor inconvenience for me and many fared much worse than me.

So what good can come from all this? I would hope that the Playboy Mansion would clean up its act as appropriate and take the measures necessary to make sure its guests are safe in the future. But the real effect is more likely the other large-scale event locations who see what happened here and find information which causes them to upgrade their efforts to provide a clean environment for their guests. It often turns out that publicity about these types of occurrences can have as much prophylactic effect as courtroom litigation. The Internet is a wonderful thing. It helps people make smarter decisions about many things, including safety. The Internet makes accountability permanent.

There are several other attendees who became ill who have contacted my law firm, and are seeking representation as well. I expect more will join in as more information is publicized about the event. In many cases, the damages for Plaintiffs won’t be unduly large, or have impacted them in a significant manner. Nevertheless, victims will have a shot at ‘fair compensation’ for having the very unpleasant experience of contracting this illness and the knowledge that others may not have to go through the same experience.

And there are questions that still need answers? Has this happened at the Playboy Mansion before? Are there instances where people got sick there but there was no Ron Jackson to step in, coordinate information and contact the CDC?

This has been unfortunate for DOMAINfest which put on the best domain conference ever, and DomainSponsor who shelled out a lot of money to sponsor the party at the Playboy Mansion. Both brands were impacted by the incident, although probably not within the community of people who know them well. Regardless, they deserved better for their A+ effort. Seems like the folks at Playboy may owe them more than an apology before the dust has settled on this one.

The Worst Domain Name Is…

There were quite a few bad domain names submitted in the Crappiest Domain Name contest I held on my blog. I selected the 5 worst names (in my opinion), and you guys voted for the loser… ahem… the winner.

Well over 200 votes were submitted, and the winning domain name was selected by a narrow 3 votes. The domain name that received the most votes for crappiest domain name was Free-Dialup-ISP-Internet-Access-Provider.com.

I don’t disagree with the results. Not only does the domain name have 5 hyphens (I don’t even like domain names with a single hyphen), but there don’t appear to be any monthly searches for the term according to the Google Adwords Keyword Tool. Put simply, someone could build the #1 ranking domain name for this term and not receive a single visit (family and friends aside).

It can be tough to get started in the domain business, and everyone probably owns domain names they aren’t proud to own. Domain investors should use these bad buys as a learning experience.

As for what my plan is for this domain name.  I plan to let this name expire as soon as possible, with the hopes that somebody else doesn’t make this same mistake!

Here are the results of the votiing:

#2: TripDGogglesGlasses.com
#3: Balck-Porn.com
#4: Talebanistan.com
#5: LennyDudes.com

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Please help me raise funds for the  Ronald McDonald House

“What Do You Think of .CO”?

106

I just got back home on a red eye after a ski weekend in Breckenridge, Colorado. I highly recommend a trip out there if you ski… Conditions were great and the weather was perfect, with snow for two of the three days. (Tip: if you drive from Denver to Breck, make sure you rent a SUV or mid-size care with all wheel drive – we lucked out!)

After skiing on the last day, we went to a friend’s house for some drinks and some hot tub rehab. A friend of a friend who we met last year was at the house, and after saying hi and catching up for a minute, he asked me a surprising question, knowing that I am a domain investor:

“What do you think about .CO?”

This person is not in the domain name business, although he does work as a graphic designer. He didn’t know anything about the new gTLDs that are likely coming (.XXX for instance), but he did know about .CO.

I should have asked him his thoughts on .CO, as well as how he learned about it, because that would have been more interesting to know, but I was on vacation and didn’t want to upset my wife by talking business. Anyway, it looks like the .CO advertising and marketing campaign is paying off.

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Please help me raise funds for the  Ronald McDonald House

Monitoring Domain Name Changes

5

Other than sheer luck, how do you know when a domain name like Facetime.com is transferred to another company?

Although this question may have been more appropriate for DomainQuestions.com (hint, hint), I will answer it here because someone asked me this in response to my article about Apple’s acquisition of Facetime.com.

As I mentioned in my article, I can’t personally take credit for discovering the domain transfer, but my bet is that Mark was monitoring the domain name via the domain monitor tool at DomainTools.  With the tool, you can monitor the domain status, a registrar change, expiration date changes, and nameserver changes.

Access to the tool is given to customers with a DomainTools account, even the free accounts.  100 domain names can be monitored if you have a free account, and up to 10,000 domain names can be monitored with the professional account level.

I believe I’ve written about this tool before, but it’s a great tool to use to keep your eye on important domain names, either for your own portfolio, to monitor competitors, or for voyeuristic reasons.

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Please help me raise funds for the  Ronald McDonald House

Cleveland Browns File UDRP for Browns.com

Despite the uncertainty surrounding the current labor situation in the National Football League, the Cleveland Browns have filed a UDRP for the Browns.com domain name.  The cellar-dwelling Browns, who finished 5-11 last season, use ClevelandBrowns.com for its website.

Browns.com has been owned by a registrant in Italy for a number of years. The Whois History results for this domain name go back to 2003, and it appears to me that it’s been owned by the same entity. At the moment, Browns.com does not resolve.

It does look like there might have been football-related links on the domain name at one point, although the owner may not have control over what links were displayed. I find it strange that the football team has taken so long to file a UDRP for the name though, since they must have known another entity has owned it for so many years.

How Can You Get Tons of Publicity?

With the recent launch of the Domain Guardians, there were a number of articles written to announce the news. A  couple of people privately wondered why so many blogs and sites announced the launch of a private business.  Perhaps there was a bit of jealousy since most other product and company launches don’t get the same amount of coverage as this particular launch.

The reason I wrote my article was two-fold.

First off, Mike and Jen have been fantastic at what they do. I mean no disrespect to anyone else at Fabulous or DBS, but to many of us, they were the face of the company. They always attend domain conferences, and whenever I needed anything at Fabulous, Mike was very responsive as my account representative. In a small industry, personal relationships are critical.

Secondly, I believe Domain Guardians offers a unique service that has been discussed by many but not really offered on a large scale. I know some people have individually endeavored on domain name estate planning, but I think this offering will prove to be beneficial for people like me. I can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars on estate planning with numerous experts, but this service would be perfect for someone like me.

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Please help me raise funds for the  Ronald McDonald House

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