Wikipedia Art controversy

The Art controversy is a domain name ownership dispute between the Wikimedia Foundation and artist Scott Kildall over the domain name art.org. The domain was registered to Kildall on 9 September 2008 and was used in February 2009 to promote a performance art project called Art.
Kildall, working with artist Nathaniel Stern, created a article entitled " Art", which was intended to serve as a space for collaborative performance art. The article was created on 14 February 2009 and deleted 15 hours later due to it being a nonencyclopedic entry.
According to Ars Technica, artist Scott Kildall received a letter on the 23 March 2009, from Douglas Isenberg, counsel for the Wikimedia Foundation, requesting "that the art.org domain be transferred to Wikimedia. " Kildall and Stern subsequently sought counsel from James Martin, who responded to Mr. Isenberg, saying that "We have concluded that my client has not violated any of Wikimedia's legal rights."
Paul Alan Levy from Public Citizen has agreed to represent Kildall and Stern in the case that Art goes to litigation. He has stated that, "I'm sad to see that did this." Mike Godwin, attorney for Wikimedia, posted a note to the Wikimedia Foundation List stating that "No litigation was threatened or commenced." However, Wikimedia has not withdrawn its original letter so that the status remains in legal limbo. have characterized the dispute as one of fair use over the use of trademarks in domain names, supporting Art's argument that its use of the trademark in a noncommercial referential way is protected by fair use.
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