WebProNews

If you're going to play the domain game, there are some things you need to know. Legal things. Important legal things.

You may not need to know much when you're first starting out – a lot of domainers begin with a very little bit of cash and a computer. But if you play the game right and get bigger, you'll need to advance your hobby to business stage.

A nice post at Aviva Directory goes into detail about legal concerns, ten of them, actually, titled "10 US Laws Every Domainer Needs to Know."

The post isn't just the laws themselves, but also a safety guide of "how to stay out of trouble."

The first one's pretty interesting, addressing the nuances of "domain sniffing": 

“I had a really great domain name idea, which was available when I searched through the registrar, but then five minutes later when I went to buy the name it was gone.”

Anyone who has been in domaining for more than a month has heard dozens of versions of that same story. Although not everyone buys that domain sniffing actually exists, there is mounting evidence that domain sniffing exists in some form or another.

Yes, it does sound like something that would be difficult to handle (or prove).