An article in the Miami Herald yesterday talked about the story of Steve Thiele who registered the domains miccosukeetribeofindians.com, miccosukeetribeofindiansofflorida.com and a site named after tribe chairman Billy Cypress, billycypress.com.
The Miccosukee tribe is major tribe in Florida and own and operate a casino.
According to the story when the tribe’s attorney contacted Mr. Thiele this week demanding the domain names, he said
“””””‘I’m not looking to sell it, but you can buy it,”””
“””””For the names, he claims the tribe offered him $5,000.
He said no.
Then, $20,000. $50,000. $100,000. No. No. No.
Thiele, a former bodyguard with 20-inch biceps and ties to the infamous Miami River Cops, is unwilling to budge for a penny less than $500,000.
Now the tribe is threatening legal action.
”I was using it to start a Miccosukee fan site,” “””If they think they got a case, let’s have a jury decide. I’m not worried about that. I’ve been in court before.”””
All Thiele’s sites lead to 1stunna.com. The Web site has nothing to do with the tribe’s. Instead the site features shirtless Thiele, in front of a red Dodge charger with 24-inch wheels
The legal representative of the tribe is giving Thiele until Thursday to hand over the domain names before taking legal action.
The article quoted my good friend and co-owner of the TRAFFIC shows, Howard Neu, who is also Broward County lawyer specializing in Internet domain name cases, who said he thinks Thiele’s chances of winning any sort of legal case are slim because of copyright laws.
“””Quite frankly, if I were him,” Neu said, “I would have taken the $100,000.’
sounds like a nice guy too : http://1stunna.com/PAGE_3.html
Adam
And he sounds quite proud of it.
I would take the $100K 🙂
If the Indian tribe owns a Casino and can pay $100k for the domain names they could pay him the $500k for the domains easy.
Casinos are BIG business – they make big dollars.
It is typical of the Herald to misquote me. I never said anything about Copyright laws. Our discussion was solely about Trademarks, but apparently the reporter doesn’t know the difference
OK, this guy lost the charger, foreclosed homes and the list goes on. Claims to be 35 on myspace and in addition makes 250k a year. LIER, thats all he is and in addition to that now this lowlife is going to play with the big dogs, good luck there
All I can say is that this guy LOOKS like a total fag (excuse the language).
“Look at me mom, your son is a 40 year old wanna be gangsta!” Yeah!
The guys an idiot pure and simple. The domains are long tail rubbish, and not worth anything. the guys a greedy mug, and gives honest domainers a bad name. Hope he loses the case and it costs him a packet. To quote Mr T, “the guys a fool”!
Howard. I knew when I saw the quote that that you would be taking them to task. If the media would get it right more often, people would have a much better understanding of what was in bounds, and what is unlawful. To often, these cybersquatting articles are riddled with errors and misquotes.
Maxe
Think Mr “T” said: “I pity the fool”
… and a fool and his domains are soon parted…
Big man, big shoes and long long long domain names
and big appetite too….take the money and run..man.
Make good with the casinos, they might hire you as their big gun.
This reminds me of Syms’ slogan: “Educated customer is our best customer.” Perhaps, domainers should adopt the same cliche: “EDUCATED Domainers are the best Domainers.” I think if this guy is following domain news or the economic news as whole, he should consider himself lucky, in this bad time, that some could offer him such amount for not so popular long names. I hope he doesn’t regret his decision.
Thanks MHB, i never watched enough A team obviously!
This guy is more grist for CADNA. He should count his lucky stars they offered him 100K because he’s going to get nailed in UDRP arbitration if they go that route. Unfortunately, if the mainstream press picks up on this story (the AP is already on it) Mr Thiele may find himself becoming the 2008 posterchild of the (gangsta?) cybersquatter. And that’s the last thing we need.
This made me laugh quite hard, this guy could not be more of an idiot. I think we should all vote him “Idiot of The Year”
I agree with most people here. Take the money. This your end user you will make 10,000% profit on original purchase. Dont be greedy, the money is good take it and move on to some new domains. Then again this guy doesny sound like a real domainer.
“He should count his lucky stars they offered him 100K because he’s going to get nailed in UDRP arbitration if they go that route.”
The guy has a press section on his site featuring the crimes he has committed – I doubt he is too worried about the UDRP arbitration!
Yup. Looks like he can add this to his list of “credentials”.
He did lose his domain. A blogger reported it. No one else has.
http://socialmediapress.blogspot.com/2008/12/bodybuilder-seeks-1-million-in-domain.html
Sally
Thanks for the update.
He deserved to lose the domain, both on legal grounds and on the general laws of stupidity.
I’m about 98% certain I went to junior high school and high school with the Stunna. He was a real pr*** back then too, but he’s definitely upped the ante in his adult years.