Extremely weird encounter at Rio front desk
I just busted the $1100 Mega Satellite to the $10k O8 (lol at the structure, btw), and was on my way back to my room.
I figured I'd stop by the Rio front desk quickly to get a few waters, which they hand out for free. The customer at the front desk, a guy who appeared to be around 50, immediately recognized me and called me by name. He immediately told me that he listens to radio, and in fact had already listened to three of the four hours of today's show. He went on to talk about the "More Rake is Better" billboard, and suggested PFA also put up a billboard.
He said his name was Eric, which was on his ID, but I couldn't see his last name. He said that after he checked in, he would "tell something interesting" to me.
I asked the woman at the front desk for waters, but she didn't understand for some reason.
"Get this man some water, he's Seven Stars!", said Eric.
She completed Eric's check-in and was on the way to get my bottles.
"Take a look at my last name, tell me if you remember it from about a decade ago", he said, showing me his ID.
It read, "Eric Parkinson".
:what
Don't recognize that name?
Let me jog your memory:
http://www.adrforum.com/domaindecisions/616302.htm
He went on a domain squatting spree in 2005, registering every domain name of every bracelet winner and/or prominent poker player. I won my bracelet on July 4, 2005, and he registered toddwitteles.com on July 5, 2005.
Here's another article about him, involving a 2007 squatting situation with someone unrelated to poker: http://www.post-gazette.com/business...s/200705180322
At first I tried to ask him to simply return to the domain name to me, but he quickly demanded $1500. I told him to fuck off, at which point he threatened to put porn on the domain to get back at me (though he never actually did it).
I attempted to get the domain back through the ADR Arbitration process, but they had a ridiculous requirement to prove a "trademark" on the domain name, meaning that I was fucked because I hadn't trademarked the name Todd Witteles.
The arbitrator did rule that I successfully proved "opportunistic bad faith registration", as well as the facts that Parkinson had a pattern of ongoing bad faith registrations, as well as the fact that he had no rights to the name Todd Witteles.
Unfortunately, because I could not show a trademark, nor did I qualify for a "common law" trademark (which I tried in vain to assert), I lost the arbitration. I also spent $1100 in fees on the whole thing, even though I did all the work myself.
Around 2012, the domain fell back into my hands due to an oversight on Parkinson's part, which is why I have it now.
When he showed me who he was, I rolled my eyes and pulled my head back, and he laughed.
I asked, "So wait, you listen to my show?"
"I listen all the time," he replied. "As I told you, I even listened to today's. And I've lurked on your forums for 10 years."
Then he said, "See you around", tapped me on the shoulder in a friendly way, and walked off.
Unbelievable.
