Approximately two-and-a-half weeks ago, the owners of the local restaurant Lock 31, Sam and Andrew Bugna, were informed that the website address www.lockthirtyone.com was sending possible customers to the website for Aroma Thyme Bistro. On first learning that someone had purchased a domain name similar to her own www.lock31.com, Mrs. Bugna said, "I was shocked that someone could be so blatantly unethical and misguided."

Mrs. Bugna believes that Aroma Thyme Bistro owners, Jamie and Marcus Guiliano "purposefully and maliciously" attempted to hurt her and her husband's business.

She explained how she first learned of the domain name's existence saying, "Someone out of state wanted to send food to a funeral and they thought about using us for a catering job. They typed in a different form of our www.lock31.com address and were sent to another website," said Mrs. Bugna. She went on to say, "To me, it was very obvious what had happened."

Marcus Guiliano responds by explaining that he has a consultant who assists him with internet marketing strategies and that the purchasing of the domain name was not a personal attack, but simply smart business. Mr. Guiliano explains, "If it was five or ten years ago, internet marketing would not be a big issue. But at this point in time, it is essential."

To that end, Mr. Guiliano states that he owns over twenty domain names, including www.ellenvilleny12428.com. Mr. Guiliano purchased the wwww.lockthirtyone.com domain name in November of 2006 on the advice of his web consultant with the hope of his website rising in the rankings on search engines like Google looked when people typed in certain keywords. Mr. Guiliano states that his main concern is to promote Ellenville and claims that the more exposure, or number of "hits" his website gets, the better it is for all of the area's businesses.

He claims that if he wanted to sabotage Mrs. Bugna's business that he could have paid a privacy fee, not allowing anyone to know who owned the site, and could have misrepresented them without consequence.

But Mrs. Bugna is not satisfied with that explanation. She says, "It [Lock 31] is our trademark. It is how we represent our business."

As of press time, Mr. Guiliano has changed the domain so that it links to a page that will provide a history of the D&H Canal. Mrs. Bugna says, "I find the effort very transparent. He is only doing that because he got busted."

It is somewhat noteworthy that neither restaurant has had any contact with the other about the issue. Mr. Guiliano commented on that fact saying, "It's a weird way to do business. If I had a problem with another business in town, I wouldn't immediately call the newspapers, I would try to resolve it privately." Mr. Guiliano went on to say that he, "would be happy to sit down," with the Bugnas and resolve the issue.

In speaking with both sets of owners, each feels that the other must make a "first move" if the matter has a chance to be reconciled. Unfortunately, it is unclear what the outcome will be.

In addition to publicizing the issue, Mrs. Bugna, who was to be installed as Secretary for the Ellenville-Wawarsing Chamber of Commerce, says she will not accept her position if Mr. Guiliano, a longtime EWCOC board member, is allowed to remain in his current position.

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