Understand this from the getgo…this is not about .mobi. It happens to be a popular dot mobi forum, Mobility.mobi.

The issue is HostGator shutting down Mobility.mobi because of one complaint from one person.

The issue is if you use HostGator, this can happen to you.

Here’s the storyline.

One Friday March 27, Mobility.mobi was off the internet and the site resolve to a HostGator page telling webmaster to contact HostGator.

What happened and why this happened is the basis of the blog post.

A person complained to HostGator that he was getting spam because Mobility.mobi had his email address posted.

HostGator shut down Mobility.mobi from this one complaint.

That is it. That is all. There is no more to the reason.

Last year, America.mobi popped up for sale. First on eBay and then other sites. The greatest concern was there was a TM attached to the registration as this was a reserved name awarded to a TM holder.

But the burning question was, Was the TM legitimate?

Information from the public WHOIS database was published. This had the registrant’s name, address, phone number and email. I called and had a lengthy discussion with the owner. Long story short, the TM was legit. The holder was a programming whiz kid and he developed a search engine. The result was a product that stole the show at a competition. At the urging of many notable MS, Apple, and other big names in attendance, this kid created a name for the product and registered the TM – America.

That teen is now studying law at University of Florida. Being into tech and new tech and armed with a TM, he successfully applied for and was granted the domain name America.mobi.

This information is NOT second-hand as I personally called to inquire not only about the domain but the TM also. No way would I ever consider buying any product or service (tangible or intangible) with a TM attached unless I had the rights to the TM.

I did not end up buying it and the TM holder (at the time) would sell the TM seperate from the domain sale but to the new owner. In other words, the TM was not part of the package but was branded software and scripts.

As a side note, if what the TM holder says is true, then he should have gotten patents instead of a TM. According to the TM holder, many search engines including google now have some of his TM material written perhaps a decade ago as part of their search engines.

But lets move forward to now.

This past Friday morning around 830am, the phone rang while I was still in bed. The answering machine picked up the message left. Around 11 am I get around to playing back my messages. There was a lengthy message from the TM holder. He wanted me to call him back but went on to say that the reason for his call was he was getting spam mail to his email address because his email was posted on the forum. He wanted me to go back to almost a year ago and delete his email.

A quite odd and unfounded request but, nonetheless, I would oblige.

When I attempted to log onto the Mobility.mobi site that was when I landed on the HostGator lander.

This is no lie – I immediately thought about the Sechlist.org debacle with GoDaddy a couple of years or so ago. A complaint regarding MySpace personal information that was posted on Sechlist.org. Host by GD, MySpace filed a complaint and GD took Sechlist down without notice.

Okay, that was absurd thinking as this kid complaining to HG would not be sufficient to take the site down.

That is exactly what happened.

The entire event and what was said in a letter has been posted and discussed at length at Mobility.mobi. It has been moved to the legal section of the site. This might require you to be a member to view.

The owner/admin of mobility posted the entire complaint submitted.

Again, let me remind you that this is not about .mobi or anything other than a complaint submitted to the host of the site.

The basis of the complaint is as follows:

MOBILITY.MOBI and ANDRES KELLO have violated your Terms of Service
(TOS) by hosting illegal and/or unacceptable material and/or content,
including, but not limited to the following: “Harassment”, “Sites
promoting illegal activities”, “Fraudulent Sites,” and/or “Forums and/
or Websites that distribute” illegal content. Furthermore,
MOBILITY.MOBI has violated Florida Libel and Defamation Statutes,
including Fla. Stat. �836.01, �836.04, �836.09, and �836.11, that
prohibit defamatory content from being posted on the internet.

Under Florida Law, intentionally communicating false statements about
a person with the intent to damage his reputation constitutes the tort
of defamation for which an entity may be held liable for civil
damages, including punitive damages. Intentionally making false
criminal charges against a person without probable cause is also
actionable for civil damages as an abuse of process or malicious
prosecution. MOBILITY.MOBI’s conduct, at the very least has been
reckless, if not intentional.

MOBILITY.MOBI has violated the United States Federal Trademark
Dilution Act (”FTDA”), which prohibits Registered United States
Trademarks from being diluted. The content and information posted on
above URLS violate the FTDA as well as numerous other Federal
Trademark and Copyright Laws, including the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act (”DMCA”).

Quite crafty. Keep in mind that this person is a law student at the University of Florida. Oh, and last year he was working at the USPTO while on summer break.

Basically, someone at HostGator freaked out and pulled the plug. Now, remember, this is really over someone’s allegations of a site being responsible for some email spam he is getting.

A forum with nearly 2,600 members was shut down and taken off line because of this complaint. Think about it. Without any investigation, any confirmation, any notice to the site webmaster, any notice to anyone, without any anything the forum was shut down by a legaleese sounding letter. When the site was back on, that is when Andres posted the complaint.

Hostgator was invited to the forum to respond. And they did.

Here are some points you need to be aware of and HostGators stance on this issue:

“…legal complaints that appear to be legitimate.

“If the datacenter gets a complaint, however, that could result in them disabling the entire server, which will bring down not only the particular website complained about down, but also every other site on the server.“

Did you just read that?

I want to know what HostGator considers legal complaints. Does this apply to any complaint as being legal and legitimate based purely on the premise that a complaint was made? Or is it the legal sounding or composed or tonal complaints that causes HostGator to respond in such a manner?

But here is the real kicker.

How many of you use HostGator? I have two hosting accounts with HostGator, over 80 active sites with them including DNhop.com.

“If the datacenter gets a complaint, however, that could result in them disabling the entire server, which will bring down not only the particular website complained about down, but also every other site on the server.“

How many of you have a dedicated server? How many don’t? How many of you have a shared server?

How many of you would like your site(s), your livelihood(s), your revenue stream(s) shut off because someone registered a complaint?

Do you want to know what this is really about?

He did not know that his registry information is a matter of public record and available to anyone, anywhere, at anytime. He had no idea who, what, where a WHOIS database is, how it is accessed, or what it does.

He had no idea he could get WHOIS privacy.

He is not a domainer.

He was nothing more than a consumer who was getting spam email and the only reason he could think of was his email being posted on a forum (of which he joined in on the discussion) nearly a year ago.

It does not matter if the complaint had any basis or legitimacy to it.

It does not matter because noting was investigated, discussed, or looked into.

It was easier just to pull the plug.