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Good for Mason Malmuth. He's the proprietor of the long established and very popular TwoPlusTwo.com posting forum.
It was just reported that Malmuth is suing poker pro Dutch Boyd for his attempt to capitalize off of TwoPlusTwo.com's exhaustive work over the last decade through the registration of domain name TwoPlusTwoPoker.com (which we will not be hyperlinking to). The Boyd registered domain name does not go to any particular site at this time nor is it showing up in any Google searches.
Boyd called the suit "without merit and is designed to encourage me to pay him off or face a substantial legal bill defending myself against it." We call Boyd's move "Sleazy, Scummy and downright disrespectful to the poker community." And he knew exactly what he was doing in paying the $75 or whatever it costs these days to register similar domain names in hopes that people will inadvertently type the wrong URL and land on his site.
Whether Boyd intends to launch a new site using that domain name remains to be seen. Quite frankly, it really doesn't matter.
Here is the irony in the statement released by Mr. Boyd: "It (the suit) is designed to encourage me to pay him off."
Actually it is Boyd who would likely benefit from this action. The hope being that TwoPlusTwo.com and Malmuth would pay Boyd a substantial fee for that particular domain name.
Malmuth is doing the right thing by setting an example. No way should he have to pay Boyd for that domain name and the rest of the poker community may want to pressure the pro into handing it over.
To those who say Malmuth should have done the due diligence and obtained the web address in question himself, I'm here to inform them that Malmuth is keeping busy with his popular site and can't be spending time waiting around for similar sounding domain names to become available. Domain names will sometimes become available with little or no advance warning. Apparently some people have way too much time on their hands. Personally, I believe this is no different than identity theft. Every single person lured away from Malmuth's site through Boyd's efforts is potential revenue lost over at TwoPlusTwo.com, which relies heavily on ad sales and book purchases. Dutch Boyd was well aware of this when he registered the domain name.
I've been following TwoPlusTwo.com before there was such a thing as a "poker phenomenon" and before they even had a real posting forum platform back in the late 1990's. Boyd himself admits he is very familiar with the TwoPlusTwo.com website so he has no defense by claiming to be unaware of its existence. What a damn shame that some cockroach has to come along and try to steal some of their business with absolutely zero effort outside of the mere purchase of a domain name.
Boyd got one thing right when he states that Malmuth's "strategy will work, and he will be successful." Malmuth has some very good lawyers on his side and - yes - he will be successful.
I was both disgusted (by Boyd's action) and thrilled (by Malmuth's response) upon first hearing about this matter.
Here's to hoping Dutch Boyd relinquishes that domain name FREE OF CHARGE. His intent is very clear but there is still time for him to do the right thing.
Christopher Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
