BEACON WEB SITE GETS DROP ON COPYCAT.Byline: JUDY O'ROURKE Staff Writer SANTA CLARITA Santa Clarita, city (1990 pop. 110,642), Los Angeles co., S Calif., suburb 30 mi (48 km) NW of downtown Los Angeles, on the Santa Clara River; inc. 1987. Situated in the Santa Clara valley and nearby canyons, Santa Clarita includes the former towns of Canyon Country, -- A popular community Web site that was recently mimicked by a copycat appears to have shut down the imitator, its owner said Tuesday. Dave Bossert Dave Bossert is the Creative Director for Special Projects at Disney Animation. He studied at the Character Animation program at CalArts. Among his classmates were Joe Ranft, Butch Hartman, Ralph Eggleston, and Ann Telnaes, among others. said his two-year-old West Ranch Beacon Beacon, city (1990 pop. 13,243), Dutchess co., SE N.Y., on the E bank of the Hudson River; settled 1663, inc. in 1913 when Fishkill Landing and Matteawan villages were united. was stolen by an unknown imitator, who focused on analyzing the founder's often-candid commentaries and criticizing his views. "The Internet is still the Wild West but there are regulations being put in place there to curb abuses," Bossert said. The site -- www.westranchbeacon.com -- draws more than 10,000 hits a month and traffic has grown substantially in the past six months, he said. Its offerings include original material, blogs and links to news articles. Attempting to protect the venture, Bossert registered about 10 variations of his site's copyrighted and trademarked name -- but he seems to have missed one. The domain name for the imitator site -- alternately called TheWestRanchBeacon, TheWestRanchBeacon.com and TheWestRanchblog -- was registered June 5 by an entity calling itself Westranch Beacon. Bossert became aware of the imitator June 8 when its creator spammed his site repeatedly. He told the imitator to shut down the next day, and the site apparently closed down June 15. Whois.net, which gathers information about networks, domains and hosts, shows a Stevenson Ranch Stevenson Ranch, California (in the 91381 ZIP Code) is a Los Angeles County, USA, unincorporated community west of Santa Clarita a few miles south of Six Flags Magic Mountain amusement park. The Stevenson Ranch fountain was redone in 2007. address for the copycat. The copycat's Web hosting Making a Web site available on the Internet. Many ISPs host a few personal Web pages for an individual at no additional cost above the monthly service fee, but the address is subordinate to the ISP; for example, www.friendlyisp.com/pat_smith. company, 1&1 Internet Inc. headquartered in Chesterbrook, Pa., allows people to register domain names with a company name and not an individual's name, said Richard Winslow of the company's customer service department. Bossert contends that the copycat violates federal law enacted in 1998, which is designed to prevent abusive Tending to deceive; practicing abuse; prone to ill-treat by coarse, insulting words or harmful acts. Using ill treatment; injurious, improper, hurtful, offensive, reproachful. registering of domain names. Bossert serves as president of the West Ranch Town Council, which is in the midst Adv. 1. in the midst - the middle or central part or point; "in the midst of the forest"; "could he walk out in the midst of his piece?" midmost of exploring governance options for the west-side communities, including Stevenson Ranch and Castaic. Bossert's Web site is not affiliated with the Town Council, which will soon launch its own Web site. judy.orourke@dailynews.com (661) 257-5252 |
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