Re: the cybersquatting bill (was: Don't Split the List etc.)

[sam =-= <sam@media.com.au>]

[: hacktivism :]

hi, 

recently, some people got an email letter from IDG saying that the words
'For Dummies' was found on their site and to remove them ... because 'For
Dummies' is a registered trademark of IDG ...

anyone keen on doing something??  note - fordummies.com has been registered
by idg ...

regarding the cyber-squatting type bills - check out :

http://www.eff.org/pub/GII_NII/DNS_control/19991025_hr3028_alert.html

its about: The "Trademark Cyberpiracy Prevention Act," H.R. 3028, is about
to be voted on in the House of Representatives and would be disastrous to
the free speech and privacy rights of domain name holders. EFF urges you to
contact your Representative today and tell him or her to vote no on this
bill. (The bill has already passed the Senate, and is expected to be voted
on any day now in the House.) 

parody is allowed for sure - but what good is parady if no one gets to find
out about it ... 

adios, sam.


>
>As I understand it, the law currently stands with an
>allowance for parody.  It's all right to make fun of
>someone, so long as it doesn't look like you're trying
>to re-direct/hijack their traffic.  (generally, I
>think it's best, in the eyes of the law, to link to
>the origonal site, in little letters, way down at the
>bottom of your page :) - I want to say the guy who has
>gwbush.com did this, until Bush tried to obtain a
>cease and desist order, which upset him enough to take
>it off)
>
>But I'm probably wrong - there are a lot of <hazy> law
>about domain names/registration, and they seem to
>change with whoever is reporting them.
>(I believe it's currently legal to buy a corporate
>website with the intention of selling it to them for a
>huge profit, or to run a parody site with a similar
>name, but if you use the similar name to
>redirect/hijack traffic (http://www.whitehouse.com :)
>you stand to lose a lawsuit)
>
>I'm curious about the specifics of proving you tried
>to contact the owners of the offending site.  Every
>one of my experiences with Network Solutions has been
>fuckin' 'orrible, and I'd hate to see those guys end
>up with more power over the web than they already
>have.
>
>-mia k.  (who onced moved a small porno site's traffic
>to geocities by pretending to be thier corporate
>contact and calling Network Solutions, and is now
>afraid for her homepage because that worked so easily)
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