Web guru affronts online companies
Toolbox
By JOSHUA LARKIN Staff Writer - Published: May 29, 2005
In the 2000 Montpelier mayoral election, incumbent Charles Karparis faced a relatively unknown candidate named Michael Nelson. Karparis won, and Nelson essentially disappeared from the political scene in the capital. Now five years later, Nelson's name has resurfaced, but he isn't running for office.
A self-described Internet guru, Nelson has created a network of Web sites that offer everything from car parts to spy gear to information about Internet law. But somewhere deep within the maze of Web pages, hypertext links and online shopping carts, Nelson ran into trouble with a well-known Vermont business.
On April 27, Nelson, a Norwich University graduate and a Las Vegas businessman, agreed to cancel domain name registrations for 22 Web sites that were called into question by the owners and attorneys of the Vermont Country Store, a Weston business known for its catalog and old-fashioned store. Accused of "cybersquatting," Nelson had registered domain names similar to those of the store's and had created a number of Web sites that were critical of the store's owners and its attorneys.
He was also accused of threatening people involved in the case, and was ordered by U.S. District Court Judge J. Garvan Murtha not to contact employees of the Vermont Country Store, members of its law firm or their family members.
Prompted by the publicity surrounding the case, others are now sounding off about business deals gone sour and threats from Nelson.
And according to Dave Johnson, a system administrator at the Stowe-based Internet service provider, Power Shift, Nelson's behavior is that of a classic cybersquatter.
"When somebody registers a domain and they don't work for the company, that's cybersquatting," Johnson said. Along with this, Johnson said people who register and use Web sites to defame or spread lies about companies and individuals are also referred to as cybersquatters.
"I've had about three years of issues with Michael Nelson," said East Montpelier inventor and businessman Damian J. Renzello.
According to Renzello, nine years ago his mother came up with an idea for portable ice skating rinks. Renzello saw the idea as a golden opportunity, and so he began manufacturing the "Porta-Rinx" out of his shop on Route 14.
At around that time, Renzello said he met Nelson and allowed him to sell the rinks for a commission.
Sometime around 2002, Renzello said, he offered Nelson a position selling the rinks online. From there, Renzello said, things went bad.
"So he goes onto my Web site and copies everything but the Porta-Rinx name," Renzello said. "That's like going to Coca-Cola, putting a piece of duct tape over the name on the can and selling it as Mike's Cola."
After he complained to Nelson about the pirated marketing materials, Renzello claims, Nelson registered a number of closely related domain names and began directing Web traffic to Renzello's biggest competitors. Nelson, he said, even went so far as to register his given name and middle initial, www.damianj.com.
As of May 20, entering www.damianj.com into a Web browser brings up a Web site hosted by BiCoastal Consulting, one of Nelson's many company names. (Nelson also uses the moniker BiCoastal Hosting and Nelson Telco, among others.)
Links on the site direct traffic to other BiCoastal sites, and no contact information for Renzello's company could be found on those sites.
And it was one of those sites that West Berlin resident Jayne Nold-Laurendeau came across when she was in the market for a portable rink.
Specifically, Nold-Laurendeau said she had met Renzello at a meeting a few years ago and was convinced that the Porta-Rinx was the product she wanted. When she searched for the rink online though, she couldn't find Renzello's site.
Instead, she came across one of Nelson's sites.
"When you type in 'porta rink,' you get Michael Nelson's site," she said.
And when she sent an e-mail to inquire about purchasing a rink, it was Nelson who connected her with Renzello. According to Nold-Laurendeau, Nelson forwarded the e-mail to Renzello and told him that Nold-Laurendeau was a "good friend" and he should treat her right.
"He did at least pass me on, so you can't fault him there. But nowhere on the site did it say Damian's name," Nold-Laurendeau said.
In a phone interview last week, Nelson denied having wronged Renzello, claiming that he was the inventor, and therefore the rightful owner, of the portable skating rink idea.
"Mr. Renzello has stolen my intellectual property and most likely perjured himself before the U.S. PTO (Patent and Trademark Office)," Nelson said.
Moreover, Nelson said he had never worked for Renzello, but rather, that he had entered into a deal with Renzello in which he would sell the rinks while Renzello manufactured them. Renzello denies that this was the case, citing published newspaper articles from the late 1990s as proof that the idea was his.
Montpelier business owner Clare McAfee has also had trouble with Nelson, stemming from a business deal made in 2004. According to McAfee, she contracted Nelson to build her a Web site for her wig and makeover business, The Wig Goddess.
After paying Nelson approximately $2,400 for a Web site shell, hosting and search engine optimization services, McAfee said she felt she'd been ripped off because the site was poorly constructed and didn't allow her to display her wigs appropriately.
"He put up a Web site and it was so bad," McAfee said. "My 7-year-old could have built a better Web site."
When she called to ask Nelson to correct the problems, McAfee said, Nelson didn't help her with the situation, and so she informed him of her plans to contact the Better Business Bureau.
After that, McAfee claims, Nelson put banner advertisements for her competitors across the top of the site.
Worse, McAfee said Nelson then threatened to harm her business by spreading false information about it. At that point, McAfee and her husband, Chris, said they dropped all the complaints out of fear of what Nelson might do.
"You know, with him, he just pushes a button and destroys your business," Chris McAfee said.
And when McAfee asked Nelson to take the site down, she said he refused, claiming that he owned the site.
According to Nelson, McAfee's allegations are completely false. Nelson said he was contacted by McAfee to build a site and per their agreement, his company produced heading tags, marquee scrolls and the fonts used on two sites, www.wiggoddess.com and www.shopwigs.com. McAfee, Nelson said, then refused to pay for the work that went into the sites. At that point, Nelson said he "terminated the relationship" because she wouldn't pay her bill.
Nelson said McAfee still owes him approximately $2,800 and that under his business contracts, he is allowed to keep the sites up to recover his losses.
Currently, www.shopwigs.com is online and "powered by BiCoastal Hosting." Contact information at the top of the site does connect to McAfee's business in Montpelier. As for www.wiggoddess.com, McAfee said she built and maintains that site herself. Nelson however, said she is using his material on the site.
"How come she's using our intellectual property if it's not up to snuff?" Nelson asked.
Along with McAfee and Renzello, at least four other Vermont business owners and residents said they've had issues with Nelson in the past, but said they weren't willing to speak on record out of fear of retaliation.
Nelson said the complaints that he's heard about him are "small potatoes" and that he has "chancellors" of universities and prominent business people worldwide who would attest to his sound business practices. Nelson declined to provide contact information for those people.
But these accusations and those made by the Vermont Country Store are only the latest. In 2001, Norwich University obtained a restraining order against Nelson because he allegedly threatened members of the school's faculty and their family members. And in court documents from the case, Nelson explains his plans to use the Internet to change policy at his alma mater.
In affidavits filed in Washington Superior Court on June 7, 2001, Norwich's director of alumni affairs Edward Burkart Jr., senior vice president Richard Hansen, executive assistant to the president Judy Bailey, and administrative assistant Jackie Barnett accused Nelson of being verbally abusive and hostile on school grounds.
Nelson was also accused of making an anonymous threat against children of the school's faculty. The documents also show that an anonymous caller, believed to be Nelson, phoned Burkart's home and "… made allegations that a rape had occurred in the Norwich office of Edward Burkart Jr., though no such incident occurred."
Nelson characterizes the affidavits as being riddled with lies, conjecture, speculation and opinion in his "Preliminary Answer Directed to Affidavits and Request for Order" filed on June 11.
In a second document filed that same day, Nelson writes that he would not threaten or act hostile towards anyone. He wrote that he would handle things in a court of law and through the use of technology.
"Why would a person of my education and background resort to making any type of threat or action which is seen as hostile or eluding [sic] to violence," Nelson wrote. "When I can simply research the plethora of court cases against the Plaintiff Norwich University, as I already have in this very Court and Federal District Court in Vermont and in other states. After collecting these lawsuits I can then and have been scanning them into the computer and assembling a website to be launched on to the world-wide-web [sic], for all the world to see," Nelson wrote.
Later in the document, Nelson writes that his "goal" is to decrease enrollment at the school, and he implies that his larger goal is to drive Norwich into bankruptcy through his Internet campaign.
Although no Web site about Norwich and its lawsuits could be found, BiCoastal Hosting currently hosts three sites – www.norwich.ws, www.norwichmessenger.com and www.norwichcadets.com – that display Norwich type materials. A disclaimer at the bottom of one site informs visitors that the sites are not connected to Norwich University.
Such closely related domain names are what landed Nelson in court with the Vermont Country Store. According to court documents, Nelson was operating a site using the name Montpelier Vermont Country Store. When he was asked to stop, he registered a number of other similar domain names. In the weeks that followed, Nelson also created Web sites that were critical of the Vermont Country Store and its owners, and the Burlington law firm Gravel & Shea and its attorneys, which represented the Vermont Country Store.
According to Nold-Laurendeau, she stumbled onto the site about William Shouldice IV, a Vermont Country Store executive, and she was shocked by what she found.
"It was just a horrible site, it was so defaming," Nold-Laurendeau said. Information on the site, she said, accused Shouldice of selling cigarettes to minors and told of how Nelson could no longer walk in front of the store due to a restraining order against him.
The Web sites about the Vermont Country Store and its attorneys and another site directed at Federal Judge J. Garvan Murtha also prompted two investigations into Nelson by the FBI and U.S. marshals. According to FBI supervisory special agent William McFalis, the FBI received a call about the sites, and they began looking to see if Nelson was a threat to people's well-being or property. The investigations, McFalis said, "didn't identify a serious threat."
Nonetheless, McAffee and Renzello are hoping others won't be victimized in the way they claim to have been.
"Michael is a smart kid, he's a genius," Renzello said. "But he's using it in the wrong direction."
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