 |
Cybersquatting
Not The 'American Way' - Advocacy Group
 An
organization that says it's devoted to free-speech and civil rights stands
out like a sore thumb among trademark holders aiming to shut down Web site
operators who make hay out of sound-alike Internet domain names. However,
the political action group People For The American Way (PFAW) says freedom
of expression doesn't have to include cybersquatting.
The Washington-based
outfit has turned to a United Nations-backed international arbitrator in
an attempt to clear of Danville, Va., from the domain peoplefortheAmericanWay.org.
Steven Hollman, an
attorney representing the PFAW, told Newsbytes that the case isn't the
first time that the organization has had a run-in with individuals it believed
were misrepresenting the PFAW on the Internet. However, he said, the PFAW
has never needed to resort to a lawsuit or, as in this case, the quasi-judicial
dispute resolution process of the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names
and Numbers (ICANN).
In a complaint to
the Arbitration and Mediation Center of the World Intellectual Property
Organization (WIPO), the PFAW claims that intentionally set
out to deceive Web surfers by registering a domain name that was identical
to its own moniker and then posting a Web site with a home page with a
design that aped the PWAF's own online presence.
"The People For The
American Way have been very active is promoting fee-speech rights," said
Hollman. "So, it doesn't lightly interfere with the right of other businesses
to make political statements."
"However, it has
seen repeated instances where people have either stolen its domain name
or, in one case, even replicated the entire look and feel of its Web site
to promote political messages that diverge from (those of) the People For
The American Way," he said.
Hollman said that
one Web site operator lifted the design of the PFAW site in order to promote
the appointment of John Ashcroft as George Bush's attorney general.
"Normally, people
are responsive when we send them a cease-and-desist letter asking them
to feel free to articulate their political message, but not to do so using
the intellectual property of People For The American Way," he said.
In the complaint
to WIPO, one of four organizations accredited to resolve spats under ICANN's
Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy, the PFAW argues that, in
the U.S., First Amendment protection of free speech is afforded to wielders
of someone else's trademark "only (as) part of a communicative message,
not ... the source of a product or service."
"By using the (PFAW
trademark) as part of a domain name, () identifies the Web site
as being the product, or the forum, of (the PFAW)," the complaint says.
Reported by Newsbytes.com,
http://www.newsbytes.com
.
17:46 CST
Reposted 17:55 CST
(20010823/WIRES TOP,
ONLINE, BUSINESS, LEGAL/CYBERSQUAT/PHOTO)
|
