TorrentFreak

• Ernesto
• June 25, 2012
• 72
• frostwire
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BitTorrent client FrostWire is striking back at “rogue” websites that abuse the company’s brand for commercial gain. The company has filed several WIPO domain disputes and recently scored its first victory against the domain name frostwirereview.com. The WIPO panel concluded that the domain was registered in bad faith, and ordered it transferred to FrostWire.

For more than a decade all sorts of shady companies have ripped off novice file-sharers by tricking them into downloading scam products.

The sites in question appear to offer downloads for software such as uTorrent, Vuze, LimeWire and FrostWire, but these free clients come with a twist.

In some cases people have to pay for the download ‘service’ while others simply install a malware-infested program on users’ computers.

Growing tired of these scammers, the company behind the FrostWire BitTorrent client decided to take action. To protect their brand and prospective users, earlier this year the company filed several domain name disputes with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO).

“The initial motivation goes back many years ago when the fraudsters started hurting lots of FrostWire users and our reputation,” FrostWire’s Angel Leon tells TorrentFreak.

“It wasn’t until this year that we learned about the WIPO mechanism from some friends and we decided to do it once we saw the fraudsters started appearing on the first page of search results on Google.”

And this effort has not been without success.

FrostWire has now gained control over the domain name frostwirereview.com after a WIPO panel concluded that it was registered in bad faith. The site in question profited from offering counterfeit FrostWire installers and passing off third-party software as FrostWire.

“It is clear that the website at the disputed domain name blatantly seeks to confuse Internet users into thinking that the website is the Complainant’s or at the least is authorized by the Complainant and that the Complainant’s FROSTWIRE software may be uploaded from this site,” the panel writes in its decision.

“The Panel finds that the Respondent is seeking to confuse consumers and is using the disputed domain name to attract consumers for commercial gain to its website by creating a likelihood of confusion with the Complainant’s FROSTWIRE name and mark,” they add.

Talking to TorrentFreak, FrostWire’s Angel Leon explained that they still have cases pending against several other domains, including frostwire10.com, downloadfrostwire.org and frostwirefree.net. Although the problem might not go away by seizing a domain name, the FrostWire team told us that it’s better than taking no action at all.

“We know they won’t go away 100% but it’s a great step in the right direction against this type of internet fraud,” Leon says.

For more than a decade all sorts of shady companies have ripped off novice file-sharers by tricking them into downloading scam products. The sites in question appear to offer downloads...