In a bizarre development, Bollywood actress Sherlyn Chopra accused a website owner of registering a domain in her name and using it to make profits and defame her. It seems that Sherlyn is unaware of the copyrights act involving domain names. Anyone can register a domain on any name and that is legally valid. If she knew about it, then it could be a cheap publicity stunt to grab the public attention.
Sherlyn made a desperate bid to take back the domain www.sherlynchopra.com from Pankaj Gupta, a Delhi-based webmaster and SEO, but in vain. Sherlyn knew that she might not get any help from the police, since there is nothing illegal in acquiring a domain in the name of a “celebrity”. So, she decided to go to media. It’s really surprising to watch major TV channels like IBN 7, Aaj Tak and INDIA TV telecasting the news repeatedly.
Sherlyn’s alleged that the website owner Pankaj Gupta is running an escort website and has given her phone number on the site. But these allegations turned out to be baseless. If we believe the people, who have been browsing that site for long, the administrators of the website ( www.sherlynchopra.com ) had clearly mentioned that “They were not affiliated or endorsed by Sherlyn Chopra or her Management. All images were the property of their respective owners like photographer, company etc.”
Sherlyn said on camera that she talked to Pankaj politely, but he never relented. However, Pankaj has a different version. He admits that he got a call from Sherlyn’s lawyer sometimes back, but that was not polite. Her lawyers threatened him with dire consequences if he did not stop operating under that domain name. the language Sherlyn used for Pankaj Gupta before the media, clearly shows how politely she talked to him. Pankaj says, “she called me a Domain Chor (Domain Thief). She should know anyone can book a domain in this world and no such word called Domain Thief exists.”
Ironically, when asked about her favorite actress on Aaj Tak, Sherlyn was seen struggling to find a correct answer for a while. When she is unable to answer a simple query like this, her knowledge about the domain registration, Site Rank and Copyrights Infringement could be easily guessed.
Sherlyn accused Pankaj of displaying the images of porn stars/escort girls on that site. This is what she said to Mid Day – “Somebody called Pankaj Gupta has illegally registered a domain in my name, www.sherlynchopra.com , and is running a website dealing with porn stars and escort girls. This “motherf****r” is screwing my efforts to get rid of the sleazy actress tag by doing this!” This is a big word to be used in any civil society and that was least expected from her.
According to Pankaj Gupta, he only displayed the Adult Friend Finder Ads on this site, which is not against any Cyber Law. It is the World’s Largest Sex & Swinger Personals Community and has a page rank of 6 on Google Index. They also have a branch in India called Indian Friend Finder. Nobody has ever raised any objections on their Ad business.
Certainly, this is not a battle to be won for Sherlyn, if she continues to pursue the matter. Perhaps she is eyeing for some publicity to compensate for the loss in her latest release “Red Swastik”, which busted in the box office. But, it’s sad that she is making another person “scapegoat” for her own benefits. It’s yet to be seen how the public react to this publicity stunt. If it goes against her, she may not again get a chance to revive her fortune in Bollywood.