setting up an alternate forum to existing forum

[Aquafire]

Hello everyone,

I am a newbie here and I am thinking seriously of purchasing VBulletin to run my own forum.

But I have a couple of questions that I thought to ask you guys.

Firstly, is there any law or rule regarding setting up a forum on the internet that may compete with an already existing Vbulletin based forum?

For example, suppose a forum already exists called "Happymunchkinsforum.com and I want to register a "happy.munchkinsforums.com or "happy-munchkinsforums.com" as an alternative sites..would that be in anyway illegal. ( note the seperating dot or dash)?

I am really not very happy with a present forum that I am a member of, and feel I could do better by setting up my own vbulletin based forum site.

What do you think...?

Would I be shot for this...or is it a "free-market" when it comes to forums.

I truly hope you can help as I dont want to land in hot water.

Thanks.

Aquafire

[Colin F]

As far as I know it's pretty much a free market. What you'll have to look out for are trademark problems, if the former is a registered trademark, and of course you're not just allowed to copy the design.