Fun_People Archive
15 May
domainnamecumpoliticalstatement.com

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From: Peter Langston <psl>
Date: Mon, 15 May 100 11:55:16 -0700
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Subject: domainnamecumpoliticalstatement.com

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[To thwart anyone from mocking Verizon's wireless service, a lawyer
 registered the domain name verizonsucks.com.  The lawyer is with the law
 firm Arnold and Porter, which represents Bell Atlantic, the company that
 launched Verizon with Vodaphone Airtouch.  -tpak]

Real Cybersquatting Really Sucks
Wired News Report

3:00 a.m. May. 9,  2000 PDT
For a company just a few weeks old, Verizon Wireless sure doesn't take
criticism very well.

So it should be no surprise that Verizon lawyers were not amused when
hacker-zine 2600 Magazine purchased verizonreallysucks.com.  Verizon's
lawyers on Friday sent a nastygram to 2600 publisher Emmanuel Goldstein.

"This letter is to inform you that your registration and/or use of these
domain names infringes Bell Atlantic's valuable trademark rights in the
'Verizon' mark and violates the new Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection
Act,"  warned Bell Atlantic attorney Sarah Deutsch.

That <http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d106:s.01255:>law,  which
Congress approved last year, prevents anyone from registering a domain
name similar to a trademark if they have "a bad faith intent to profit
from"  that trademark.  The problem for Verizon: 2600 didn't want to
"profit" from verizonreallysucks.com. They just wanted to occasionally
poke fun at a large company, which means that the anti-cybersquatting law
does not apply.

"Verizon intends to go after anyone who criticizes them on the Net,
abusing  the intent of this law to accomplish their goal. We cannot allow
this. We call on INDIVIDUALS around the world to criticize Verizon on as
many domain names as possible and to exercise your rights to free speech,"
2600's  Goldstein wrote in an open letter on his website.

Just to prove his point, Goldstein then registered another domain name:
VerizonShouldSpendMoreTimeFixingItsNetworkAndLessMoneyOnLawyers.com


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© 2000 Peter Langston