Fade to Greed: Capitalizing on Amy Winehouse

Fade to Greed: Capitalizing on Amy Winehouse

A man who reportedly bought the domain name AmyWinehouseFoundation.com hours after the deceased singer’s bereaved father announced plans to set up a substance-abuse foundation, is getting some nasty headlines, even as the singer is earning new kudos.

Winehouse‘s Back to Black album, which has seen a burst of sales since her untimely death, just became the biggest-selling album in the United Kingdom this century, the Official Charts Company announced today. The singer died at her home in London on July 23, at age 27, after struggling with drug and alcohol addiction for years. For celebrities, such posthumous revenue and attention are common.

But marring all the tributes to the singer is a controversy over an accused cyber squatter’s purchase of a domain name. Mitch Winehouse had been raising money for a foundation that would help substance abusers when he learned that the domain name he wanted was taken. At first, no one knew who bought it.

But by Tuesday, The Sun ran a story headlined “Back to blagger: We find gloating rat who hijacked Amy Winehouse Web address,” reporting that the accused purchaser, Martin McCann, was unapologetic.

“I’m not exploiting anything yet. I’ve just bought some domain names. Anybody could have,” he reportedly told the paper. “Detach yourself from emotions and think business.”

McCann also told the paper that the singer is not the “only Amy Winehouse in the world.”

It is unclear whether the dot-org or dot-org.uk versions of the domain name had also been bought by the same person, but the net effect was that Winehouse’s father could not start the online foundation as he’d hoped.

“Instead of concentrating on allocating funding, I am having to send cheques back cos (because) we don’t haven’t got bank ac (account) in that name,” Mitch Winehouse wrote on Twitter. “We all have to bombard the tabloids websites to put pressure on this d—head who stole our foundation name.”

Perhaps it will get straightened out before Sunday, when Winehouse will be honored at the MTV Video Music Awards by Tony Bennett, with whom she recorded a duet.

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