Rod Dixon at CircleID has an interesting piece on the domain name dispute which came to light recently between Penguin and the private owner of katie.com. Penguin published a book called katie.com four years ago even though there was a website with the same domain name registered to an individual, Katie Jones.

"In 2000, katie.com was published by Penguin Putnam Publishing; according to the publisher, the book provides an "eye-opening account of teenager's descent into the seductive world of the Internet." Apparently, the publisher successfully took on the ambitious task of publishing a book about the "world of the Internet," yet did so somehow without any awareness that the book's title was identical to a pre-existing domain name. This misstep ordinarily may constitute a minor distraction for a publisher of a book on other topics, but a book about the Internet targeted toward young readers, should likely require a rerun of the printing press with a different book title, if the current domain name holder refuses to sell or license the domain name...

...Unfortunately, individual domain name holders are not widely known to receive compensation for interference with the enjoyment of their intellectual property. Too often, it seems individual domain name holders find their interests viewed as entirely irrelevant...

...legal rules governing property rights in domain names have largely resisted reformulation when directed toward freedom of expression or non-trademark-oriented uses. Hence, Katie Jones not only was without a low cost forum to assert her own rights, but could have been forced to defend a domain name she had lawfully acquired. Some commercial interests have demonstrated an implacable and ferocious appetite for domain names held in non-commercial use by individual domain name holders. In addressing her own circumstance as a domain name holder, Katie Jones indicated that the situation she faced was: "like having your home address made into a book title, and then everyone shows up at your doorstep looking for the main character…Domain name owners have just as much at stake as regular property owners.""

The publisher has now decided to change the title of the book.