by Donna Ladd
Thursday, June 10, 1999
Comments: 10 posts
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Squatting Is A Political Right by Donna Ladd Thursday, June 10, 1999 Comments: 10 posts | |
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It reads like a cyber wall of graffiti: www.Georgebushsucks.net, www.Bushsux.org, www.Bushbites.org, www.Bushblows.com. But if it is graffiti, the victim is tagging himself. These sites, and dozens of similar, sophomoric Bush URLs, are registered to the George W. Bush presidential campaign.
But these pols are bumping along uncharted territory. The jury's still out on whether a virtual URL shopping spree is a wise campaign move -- or a blatant sign of political paranoia likely to backfire. Question of Integrity "I would say it is smart if you want to protect the integrity of your site," said Becky Donatelli of Hockaday Donatelli Campaign Solutions in Alexandria, Va. Her GOP consulting firm currently advises the potential Senate campaigns of Rudolph Giuliani (NY) and Rep. Bill McCollum (FL), as well as Sen. John McCain and other state GOP groups. The firm made headlines in April when it launched HillaryNo.com, which it calls a "comparison site" between the mayor of New York and the first lady. It later launched RudyYes.com. But more quietly, the firm also bought up 18 more URLs, including some negative to Giuliani (RudyNo.org, NoGiuliani.com) -- and several positive to Clinton (HillaryYes.com, YesHillary.net.) Donatelli calls such a buy-up "reserving around our site," and denies mudslinging. She says a candidate must "protect your brand" -- by beating competitors and unfriendly citizens to the names. "You don't want someone to take your URL and make a parody out of it," Donatelli added. "People have gone out and made it big business, holding them (URLs) hostage." Warehousing vs. squatting Indeed, "cybersquatters" have enterprised their way into hefty payoffs recently with speculators reserving extensive lists of domains through Herndon, Va.-based Network Solutions, which, until recently, was the sole agency doling them out. Compaq Inc. paid $3.3 million to buy altavista.com, the name of its popular search engine. And Steve Forbes paid $6,500 for the privilege of using his own name [www.forbes2000.com] in his online presidential campaign presence. But the two examples are radically different. In the first, Compaq had a trademark to protect. Forbes did not. That makes political cybersquatting somewhat uncharted territory. "If they don't have a trademark, they don't have a case," said Michael Froomkin, a University of Miami law professor who served on the World Intellectual Property Organization's domain advisory panel. Network Solutions agrees. "Our domain name dispute policy is appropriate for trademark holders … so our policy is not the right vehicle," said spokeswoman Cheryl Regan. She added, "[W]e have not fielded disputes from candidates." Network Solutions routinely purges domains that go unpaid; one strategy for campaigns is to reserve a list of domains, effectively taking them off the market for a couple of months, and then not pay the $70-per-domain fee. Froomkin is adamant that political domains should not be regulated. "In a word, no," he said. The professor also draws a distinction between cybersquatting (buying up domain names that "belong" to someone else, such as Giuliani's HillaryYes buys) and "warehousing" (Bush reserving variations of his own name). In the commercial world, Froomkin added, warehousing is an ethical way to protect one's own trademark -- say, Microsoft purchases Microsoftbites.com to keep someone else away from it -- while cybersquatting should be subject to trademark scrutiny. But in the political arena, pretty much anything goes. Exceptions might include one campaign mounting a convincing parody of another campaign, or a parody site so convincing that users cannot tell if it is the real one, he added. Or legal issues could arise if one campaign tries to sell an opponent a domain, such as Giuliani hinted to the New York Post that his camp might do if Clinton wanted any of the HillaryYes sites. An Overnight Success Most important to remember, Froomkin said, is that Internet parodies are protected exactly as traditional media. "People see the word Internet and their brains fog over. The rules for judging content on the Internet are the same rules we use for magazines or pamphlets," he said. "Being petty and being illegal are very different animals," Froomkin added. This could be good news for Zack Exley, a Boston computer consultant who recently made headlines by posting GWBush.com, a site parodying and criticizing the presidential frontrunner. Exley said he posted the site "just for fun and to make a political point." He added, "I didn't think anyone was going to see it." In an ironic twist in online politics, Bush's own actions turned the site into an overnight success, helping it draw nearly 7 million hits in May, compared to some 30,000 for his real site. In recent weeks, the Bush camp has waged a campaign to quash GWBush.com, first serving Exley with a cease-and-desist letter, arguing that the parody violated Bush's copyright and is deceptive. Bush's attorneys then filed a complaint with the Federal Elections Commission, arguing that Exley should register as a political action committee and, thus, include the site's costs on the Web site. In a press conference, Bush called Exley a "garbage man" and said, "there ought to be limits to freedom." Froomkin said he visited Exley's site and realized within 20 seconds that it was a parody site -- and thus should be protected free speech. "It sounded almost frivolous; maybe it's actually frivolous," he said of the Bush complaint. Bush's attorney, Benjamin Ginsberg, did not return phone calls. The Bush push is scary, Exley added. "I'm worried because these laws are hard to figure out. … (Legal fees) could wipe me out." He said he suspects the Bush camp wanted to scare him and other citizens out of mounting negative sites in the future. "He wants to set a precedent." The opposite effect But Exley said he is not bowing to intimidation tactics. "All of a sudden, I wound up with a publication with tens of thousands of people reading every day. It's one of the weirdest things to happen on the Internet. I didn't think he'd (Bush) be so stupid about it," Exley said. Froomkin agreed. "It backfired on them horribly," he said of the Bush camp. Not only is Exley fired up to be David to Bush's Goliath -- "now it's not for sale" -- his publicity has motivated other Bush detractors to sign up negative variations not held by the campaign. "It's been a mini speculative name frenzy on domains that include the word 'Bush.' It's a big joke on the Internet," Exley said. Being a "big joke on the Internet" is not exactly a smart online goal for candidates. Even Donatelli, whose firm spearheaded the Giuliani buy-up, admitted that a desperate negative name buy-up is "not a great trend." She advises candidates to reserve sites related to their "brand" and let the other ones fall where they may -- rather than "drawing all that attention" a la the Bush camp. Most vital, Donatelli said, is that the Internet must remain free of regulation, particularly in the political arena. "The Internet is a fairly freewheeling environment. If you start restricting who can buy URLs, it's the first step toward regulating the whole thing. "I am a Republican," she added. Donna Ladd writes about technology for the Village Voice. She also writes a weekly Silicon Lounge tech-politics column for the alternative press. E-mail her at donna@shutup101.com.
Is there anything ethically wrong with cybersquatting? How about cybersquatting in a political campaign? What is your opinion of Giuliani's actions? What about Exley's?
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6/10/99 11:03:41 AM Academie
6/10/99 11:17:56 AM Sparky
6/10/99 11:18:36 AM Sparky
6/10/99 11:38:59 AM Rosemary
6/10/99 2:36:00 PM apeepo
6/10/99 3:29:10 PM Paul
abuse@127.0.0.1
6/10/99 7:17:01 PM
6/10/99 7:18:18 PM Donna Ladd
donna@shutup101.com
6/10/99 7:36:44 PM Russell Morrison
russelllm@aol.com
6/10/99 9:01:45 PM Dana Blankenhorn
dana.blankenhorn@att.net
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