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WHAT'S IN A NAME?

Ron Paul Files International Trademark Complaint Against Supporters

The former Congressman wants ownership of RonPaul.org and RonPaul.com

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by Lisa Fine

Staff Writer t

Image: AP

Former Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, wants fans who created web sites using his name to hand them over to him at no charge. The sites, RonPaul.org and RonPaul.com, were set up to organize supporters and spread the word about the three-time presidential candidate.

In a blog post Friday, the site's operators said they were going to give him RonPaul.org for free and charge him $250,000 for RonPaul.com because it came with a 170,000-person mailing list.

But they claim he did not accept that offer and has filed a complaint with the World Intellectual Property Organization, an agency of the United Nations, asking for control of the domain names. Liberal blogs are pointing out how Paul wants ownership of the sites so much he has turned to the U.N., a body which he views as illegitimate. His followers who run the RonPaul.com wrote about how they feel betrayed.

Back in 2007 we put our lives on hold for you, Ron, and we invested close to 10,000 hours of tears, sweat and hard work into this site at great personal sacrifice. We helped raise millions of dollars for you, we spread your message of liberty as far and wide as we possibly could, and we went out of our way to defend you against the unjustified attacks by your opponents. Now that your campaigns are over and you no longer need us, you want to take it all away - " and send us off to a UN tribunal? That's not cool! We want our old pre-retirement Ron Paul back!

Via RonPaul.com, Gawker and Buzzfeed

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Should Ron Paul's supporters give him the domain names for free?

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Comments (view in Forum)

  • harold_lloyd
    !
    Learned a new thing about politicians, did ya?

    In my experience, politicians are self-centered jerks. They almost have to be in order to succeed. Pity...
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @harold_lloyd No, not really. I've been around politics for years. In over twenty years of knowing elected politicians I've met two that were had ethics, stood for principles and were honest. Seen less then ten others who appeared so, although I never knew em personally.

    Most are, too put it generously as you do, self-centered jerks. But I did think paul was one of the rare ones with commitment and honesty. Learned nothing new about politicians, but learned something new about paul...

    The only good news here, he was a republican...
  • View all 8 replies >
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    I wish Ron Paul supported the military. I think with the exception of that he would have made a great president. Certainly he would have shrank government to the size it should be and he would have honored the Constitution, something this current administration simply doesn't do. So much wasted potential. His campaign for president never got any traction simply because he wanted to surrender all wars to our enemies.

    I still dream of what $1T in spending cuts in the first year of office would look like. I also believe he really would have eliminated the federal debt by the time his term ended. Hopefully there will be a politician just like him that comes along with the goal of having a strong military, but small limited government. We certainly could use that today.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    In 2008 I would have voted for him, possibly in 2012 as well. But if you take out his support for the founding principles regarding war and military spending you take away a big part of the reason I would support such a candidate. Thus far I am not impressed by his son...
  • u
    Jet_Silverman
    !
    When right wingers say they want "small government", what they really mean is they don't want government to help people. They are all about big government when it comes to policing the world, locking up people for smoking pot, telling people who they can have sex with and telling women they can't abort.
  • harold_lloyd
    !
    "I still dream of what $1T in spending cuts in the first year of office would look like."

    It would look a lot like a depression, to have that much spending yanked out of the economy.

    It's counterproductive, to understate the case by several orders of magnitude, to take a hammer to an economy the size of ours. It would put us in a depression, and it would not do anything for the deficit, much less the debt.

    That's according to Milton Friedman, the Republicans economic guru.
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    @Jet_Silverman: "When right wingers say they want 'small government', what they really mean is they don't want government to help people."

    Government shouldn't be in the business of picking winners and losers. Everyone in this country has the same opportunities for success. Some utilize their opportunities more than others, and thus reap the success of their fruits and labor. Others do not make use of the opportunities they have and expect government to make up for that. I am adamantly against that.

    @Jet_Silverman: "They are all about big government when it comes to policing the world, locking up people for smoking pot, telling people who they can have sex with and telling women they can't abort."

    Government should enforce the rule of law. It is the purpose of government. So yes, I do believe we should be the enforcers of law and order. Marijuana is illegal, I don't care who has sex with who as long the sex is between two competent consenting adults, and I don't care "per se" if woman aborts, however the rights of the baby should be considered too. We have a mandate to protect life and a baby is a life.
  • View all 11 replies >
  • Denizen_Kate
    !
    @bsking - "I have always had a sense of humor... it's just twisted beyond recognition " That is the truest statement you have ever made on this site. ;-)
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    Not everyone can take time off from the civil war for a pacific island vacation. Some of us need to work to help pay Ron Pauls pension.
  • o
    OhWiseOne
    !
    @PoliticalSpice I respectfully disagree. Rand is better than his father. Perhaps you'll have a change of heart once you hear his reply to POSUS.
  • o
    OhWiseOne
    !
    @PoliticalSpice For one, he's taken very seriously as a presidential candidate. His father never was. He is not seen as anti-Israel, and his father was. Lastly, he is positioning himself right now as the alternative to the establishment Rubio. Smart move. I will never vote for Rubio. Not because he's Hispanic but I don't agree with amnesty. A lot of GOP voters don't either.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @OhWiseOne Interesting take. I will keep it in mind as I watch him. I doubt I'd vote for him though, I could haveimagined voting for his dad. But I do hope he suceeds on hemp...
  • View all 9 replies >
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    @PoliticalSpice - He certainly was a part of it. He helped to fracture conservative support for Romney. He wouldn't work to unite his supporters to vote for Romney, also Paul wouldn't endorse nor campaign on Romney's behalf. These are things that hurt Romney's campaign. I think this country would be in far better shape right now, today, if Romney had won. In a few weeks we are going to see personally the disaster that is obama.
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    @Neo_NtheMatrix Interesting. I didn't realize romney considered him a factor cause felt if he did he would have given him s bit more in the platform and at convention to woe him. I followed those events and was surprized at the time.

    When you say see in a few weeks you are, i'm guessing referring to the sequester vote?
  • Neo_NtheMatrix
    !
    @PoliticalSpice - Ron Paul has a decent sized base and every vote counts. Yes, I'm referring to obama's sequestration where he plans to castrate the military. We are all going to pay a high price for this.
  • Fitz
    !
    The republican party blew the election by selecting a moderate to run. There is no significant difference between a moderate republican and a democrat. Neither promote freedom and liberty.
  • DARSB
    !
    I do enjoy Rep Paul's use of a UN decision making body to pursue his personal interests. It's been his modis operandi for decades, but instead of using the House of Representatives he's simply shifted to the UN's WIPO.

    Shifting to agencies that meet a particular personal goal does seem to be a family trait. When son Rand became cross with the American Board of Ophthalmology he up and started his own certification board for eye surgeons - which so far has not met the minimum standards of such an organization but does allow Senator Paul to claim he is a "board-certified" surgeon without the unnecessary fuss of explaining to prospective surgical patients how meaningless that title really is. http://goo.gl/bOlJU
  • PoliticalSpice
    !
    Yea, like he's mad at his son and trying to hurt his chances, or the opposite, trying to help his son take stands against him to make him lookmore respectable. Hmmm. That is why I am a politics junkie. So interesting to follow and figure out....
  • u
    cpeter133
    !
    He's irrational--I mean, even more than usual. The time to sue would have been when those sites were created, not now when they are no longer politically expedient. And of course he wants them for free; he feels entitled to the work of others.
  • stepped_in_it
    !
    Sometimes like a champion boxer who tries a comeback, it is best to just retire and not "comeback" to get your butt whupped! You don't own your name and did not build up the web site. You don't get it for free. But, hey, if you succeed, I'd like to know. My last name is spread out all over a popular northern gas company. maybe I can sue them too!
  • Dan_Tien
    !
    I don't think that he is the only celebrity who has had to fight for his own name as a domain name. These people didn't even do it to make money off him. Maybe he should check into the cost of creating such a website if he had hired consultants to do it before demanding it for free, then compensate them appropriately.
  • u
    Penn1699
    !
    Like I've said before, the politicians are all the same. He needs to buy the names period. Just for spite and to teach him a lesson I would quadruple my price. B**tard!
  • billyleewoods
    !
    The people who started the site, and who are currently running it should shut it down now. Destroy the 170,000 name mailing list and put their support behind someone else who will probably screw them in the end as well.
  • u
    CommonSense
    !
    Seriously?! Ron Paul has around $3.5 million and lots of assets. So why is he doing this? He isn't broke.
    http://www.davemanuel.com/pols/ron-paul/
    What's gotten into him? I never agreed with him on everything but I've always respected him for at least being genuine and not just a career politician. I thought he was about his ideals and now he's alienating his supporters using the UN of all things in order to get more money.
    His supporters should give him the sites and then find someone more suitable for them to support.
  • u
    RPSonEPS
    !
    Your username speaks the truth! What the Ron Paul fans don't know is that his shoddy campaign was really about wracking up some extra cash to add to the Ron Paul Family Retirement Fund. Oh, he loves employing family, so that he keeps the money within it. For the nay-sayers, Google: Ron Paul Nepotism.

    Another thing his fans failed to notice was that he ended his 'campaign' with excessive positive funds. This is not what most candidates do. They run their campaigns all the way until their in the red.

    And to add more shame to the Ron Paul fans who donated to RevolutionPAC, their public reports of expenditures had "Adminstrative fees" around $750k, and actual spending on campaigning (i.e. signs, organizing events, ads, etc.), it was only like $200k.

    The Paulbots got bamboozled, and they still haven't figured it out!