John Zuccarini (born September 20, 1947) is an American businessman who served time in federal prison for violating the

Truth in Domain Names Act The PROTECT Act of 2003 (, 117 Stat. 650, S. 151, enacted April 30, 2003) is a United States law with the stated intent of preventing child abuse as well as investigating and prosecuting violent crimes against children. "PROTECT" is a contrived a ...

. Zuccarini operated a

domain name speculation Domain name speculation, popular as domaining in professional jargon, is the practice of identifying and registering or acquiring generic Internet domain names as an investment with the intent of selling them later for a profit. The main targets ...

business. He is reported as owning 5500 domains before his arrest.

Domain name speculation

A domain investor registers or buys generic

domain names A domain name is a string that identifies a realm of administrative autonomy, authority or control within the Internet. Domain names are often used to identify services provided through the Internet, such as websites, email services and more. As ...

that have the predicted potential to be sought after by another person or receive type in traffic by people expecting to find keyword related content. Zuccarini, however, registered thousands of domains that were close misspellings or "typos" of popular sites such as

Cartoon Network Cartoon Network (often abbreviated as CN) is an American cable television channel owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. It is a part of The Cartoon Network, Inc., a division that also has the broadcasting and production activities of Boomerang, Car ...

and

Homestar Runner ''Homestar Runner'' is an American Flash animated comedy web series and website created by Mike and Matt Chapman, known collectively as The Brothers Chaps. The series centers on the adventures of a large and diverse cast of characters, headed by ...

or even acquired domains identical to well-known brands such as

Hot Wheels Hot Wheels is an American brand of scale model cars introduced by American toymaker Mattel in 1968. It was the primary competitor of Matchbox until 1997, when Mattel bought Tyco Toys, then owner of Matchbox. Many automobile manufacturers have ...

, which is the modality of a

cybersquatter Cybersquatting (also known as domain squatting) is the practice of registering, trafficking in, or using an Internet domain name, with a bad faith intent to profit from the goodwill of a trademark belonging to someone else. The term is derived fr ...

as opposed to a domain investor.

Prosecution

Companies holding brands misrepresented by Zuccarini have taken overwhelming action against him through dozens of arbitration cases pursuant to the

UDRP The Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy (UDRP) is a process established by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) for the resolution of disputes regarding the registration of internet domain names. The UDRP curren ...

and state and federal lawsuits. The

Federal Trade Commission The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is an independent agency of the United States government whose principal mission is the enforcement of civil (non-criminal) antitrust law and the promotion of consumer protection. The FTC shares jurisdiction ov ...

in October 2001 charged Zuccarini's business practices violated federal law and sought an injunction. A federal court granted an injunction that "permanently bars the defendant from: redirecting or obstructing consumers on the Internet in connection with the advertising, promoting, offering for sale, selling, or providing any goods or services on the Internet, the World Wide Web or any Web page or Web site; and launching the Web sites of others without their permission", and ordered Zuccarini to relinquish nearly $1.9 million in gains. After this decision, Zuccarini fled the U.S. for the

Bahamas The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to ...

. In 2003, the

was passed to address concerns created by Zuccarini. The law makes it a federal crime for "whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a person into viewing material constituting obscenity" and "whoever knowingly uses a misleading domain name on the Internet with the intent to deceive a minor into viewing material that is harmful to minors on the Internet". On September 3, 2003, Zuccarini was arrested in Room 448 of a

Holiday Inn Holiday Inn is an American chain of hotels based in Atlanta, Georgia. and a brand of IHG Hotels & Resorts. The chain was founded in 1952 by Kemmons Wilson, who opened the first location in Memphis, Tennessee that year. The chain was a division ...

Hollywood Hollywood usually refers to: * Hollywood, Los Angeles, a neighborhood in California * Hollywood, a metonym for the cinema of the United States Hollywood may also refer to: Places United States * Hollywood District (disambiguation) * Hollywood, ...

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

, where he had been living for 10 months. It had been assumed that Zuccarini remained in the Bahamas. Zuccarini became the first man prosecuted under the new legislation. On December 10, 2003, John Zuccarini pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 2½ years in prison on February 26, 2004. Zuccarini was released on November 4, 2005.

References

External links

FTC Press Release
{{DEFAULTSORT:Zuccarini, John Living people American computer criminals 1947 births