Reid’s online site up, in race

Like many others, refrigeration repairman Gene Smith seven years ago put a few bucks into a fledging, online endeavor. Unlike others, the meager investment paid off more than 100 times.

Clark County Commission Chairman Rory Reid, who plans to run for governor next year, last month paid Smith $10,000 for the Internet domain name roryreid.com, after first threatening to sue him for rights to the name.

"People charge a lot," said David Cohen, Reid's campaign manager, who returned a call placed to the candidate. "I thought it was a pretty fair price after checking with other campaigns to see what they had paid. ... It may sound ridiculous but these things are valuable."

Reid wasted no time attempting to recoup his investment. By Thursday, roryreid.com, under its new ownership, was soliciting contributions for Reid's gubernatorial campaign and exhibiting flattering photos of the candidate.

A former Clark County employee, Smith paid a small sum for the domain name in 2002 before Reid, the son of U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., ran for the first of two terms on the County Commission. At the time, Rory Reid was a member of the state's Taxicab Authority.

Smith also lined up domains featuring names of other politicians such as erinkenny.com and yvonneatkinsongates.com, as well as chipmaxfield.com, oscargoodman.com and johnensign.com.

The acquisitions were part investment and part opportunity to lampoon Kenny and other county officials Smith blamed for the loss of his job and what he saw as corruption on the commission. Kenny and three other commissioners serving at that time were sentenced in 2006 to federal prison on bribery-related charges.

Smith said it was great to pocket $10,000 for one of the domain names. He had considered giving Reid the Web site free after receiving a letter in June from lawyer Gregory R. Gemignani, who works with Reid at the law firm of Lionel, Collins and Sawyer. Like his son, Sen. Harry Reid has been associated with the firm.

The letter states that Rory Reid is a public figure, that Reid did not give Smith permission to register the domain name, that Smith's intent to profit from the name is "troubling" and that Reid could sue Smith under federal law for misusing the domain name.

In addition, Gemignani's letter demands that Smith "promptly transfer domain name ownership to Mr. Reid."

"I was thinking about giving it to him just to avoid the hassle, the threat of legal action and the deadlines that they were giving me," Smith said. "I was getting nervous. I thought, 'Here we go again. I am going to get dumped on by the political machine.' With Harry Reid involved, I thought that -- after what county commissioners did to me -- what can the Senate majority leader do to me? ... But, then I thought, I paid for these domain names fair and square."

Smith didn't hear again from Reid's campaign until last month after Smith posted on roryreid.com a couple of political cartoons poking fun at Rory Reid and his father.

Within days, Cohen paid Smith his $10,000 asking price. Cohen said the price was reasonable, although Smith had received an appraisal from the GoDaddy.com Internet service pegging the Web site's value between $80 and $164.

Campaign contribution disclosures, filed with the state eight months ago, said Reid had raised $669,000 for the governor's race. Reid is believed to have raised far more since then, however.

Since Smith registered the political domain names, the Internet has become an important campaign tool, as seen in President Barack Obama's 2008 campaign. Acquiring roryreid.com was vital, even though his campaign already controlled roryreid.net and reidforneveda.com and rory2010.com.

Most voters presume the campaign's official site is roryreid.com, Cohen said.

Smith, a former air conditioner repairman, was fired from his county job in 1998 when he was accused of having county-owned appliances at his home. He took to the Internet to bother county officials after the state Ethics Commission in 2001 cleared Kenny of wrongdoing in response to a complaint by Smith.

He claimed that the former county commissioner promised him his job back if he and a friend broke into the county administration building after hours to dig up dirt on former County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey.

At that time, Kincaid-Chauncey was seeking re-election against Kenny's friend, former North Las Vegas City Councilwoman Stephanie Smith. Kincaid-Chauncey in 2006 was sent to federal prison on unrelated charges.

In addition to scooping up domain names featuring politicians, Gene Smith in 2001 also launched a Web site, snitchonclarkcounty.com, where county employees and others could anonymously report wrongdoing at the county.

County officials threatened to sue the company that hosted that Web site, but backed off after Smith changed host companies and the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada intervened on his behalf.

With regard to Rory Reid's 2010 gubernatorial campaign, Cohen acknowledged that the campaign in June had Gemignani send the letter to Smith.

Cohen said the letter was not intended to intimidate Smith, but was sent to simply advise him of federal laws against "cybersquatting" and give him an opportunity to transfer the domain name to Reid. After Smith ignored the letter for two months, the campaign determined it would be less expensive and quicker to pay Smith than take him to court, Cohen said.

"The question was, 'What was Mr. Smith going to respond to?' He didn't respond to that (letter), but he seemed willing to sell it, and that was simpler and easier" than filing a federal lawsuit against him, Cohen said.

Smith, who in 2001 filed complaints with the state Ethics Commission against Kenny and several county administrators, said he viewed the letter as a threat and that he considered a complaint against Reid.

"I was getting ready to file an ethics complaint against him for seeking unwarranted privileges because he is a county commissioner," Smith said. "They tried to bully me out of $10,000, and then when I wouldn't give it (domain name) to them, they paid me. That is a violation. ... Why would they threaten me before offering me $10,000? It seems weird and it seems like some sort of violation of election law."

According to state law, the state Code of Ethical Standards prohibits an elected official from using his position "to secure or grant unwarranted privileges, preferences, exemptions or advantages for himself."

Donald Greenberg, professor of politics at Fairfield University in Fairfield, Conn., said a layman would view such a letter as a threat, and he pointed out that "anybody can threaten to sue anyone for anything at any time." In addition, he said, the Reid campaign likely secured the domain name for defensive purposes.

"The real reason they did it is because another person could have bought that Web site," Greenberg said. "I don't know that for a fact, but that is my guess."

Peter Vogel, a Dallas-based attorney who specializes in information-technology cases and has handled disputes over domain names, said the Reid campaign probably could have taken control of the domain name without paying $10,000 and without filing a lawsuit that could take a year to get to trial and cost as much as $30,000 to litigate.

For about $1,000, the campaign could have filed a grievance with the international, nonprofit arbiter of domain name disputes, the Internet Corporation for Assigning Names and Numbers, under the 1999 Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy.

According to ICANN's Web site, it is "an internationally organized, nonprofit corporation that has responsibility for Internet Protocol (IP) address space allocation, protocol identifier assignment, generic (gTLD) and country code (ccTLD) Top-Level Domain name system management, and root server system management functions. "

People who have registered a domain name are required to "submit to a mandatory administrative proceeding," if ICANN receives a complaint asserting that: the domain name is "identical or confusingly similar to a trademark or service mark" to which complainant has rights; or that the person with the domain name has "no rights or legitimate interests" in it; or if the domain name is being used in bad faith, according to ICANN's Web site.

Typically, such disputes are resolved within two to three months, which is about the time that lapsed between the campaign's decision to send Smith the letter in June and its decision to pay him.

"Legally, it sounds like the political candidate would get that name if it was challenged before an ICANN arbiter," Vogel said.

Gemignani, the attorney who works with Reid, said Reid's campaign was aware of ICANN's procedures, but decided it would be better not to go that route. Instead, the campaign decided in June to pursue a lawsuit in hopes of getting a ruling that might include damages and require Smith to pay the campaign's legal fees, Gemignani said. Later, the campaign decided it would be cheaper and quicker to pay Smith for the domain name, he said.

Contrary to Vogel's understanding of ICANN, Gemignani said ICANN disputes typically drag on longer than 90 days and can involve many variables, including a drawn out search for the actual party who controls a domain name so that they can be properly identified.

On the other hand, Gemignani said that in similar ICANN disputes he has handled for gaming companies and others, the registrant of the domain name typically "rolls over pretty quick" and transfers the domain name as demanded.

"In this case, the ultimate cost (to buy the domain name) was less and there was less hassle than if we had fought it in court," Gemignani said. "Any time you go into arbitration or litigation, there is a risk."

Contact reporter Frank Geary at fgeary @reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0277.