FC: Public Citizen defends embattled jerryfalwell.com humor site

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

I like the first graf of Public Citizen's response:
http://www.citizen.org/documents/FalwellBrief.pdf
> "In this proceeding, Jerry Falwell, a notoriously humorless right-wing 
> preacher, is trying to shut down a non-commercial Internet site that makes 
> fun of him for blaming the September 11 bombing of American landmarks on 
> the supposed moral decline of America, and quotes the Bible at Falwell in 
> exactly the same way that Falwell likes to quote it at other people..."

Previous Politech message:

"Jerry Falwell demands to own jerryfalwell.com parody site"
http://www.politechbot.com/p-02756.html

-Declan

---

Date: Tue, 02 Apr 2002 11:59:16 -0500
From: "Paul Levy" <PLEVY () citizen org>
To: <declan () well com>
Subject: Response to Falwell effort to bully critic off the web

Today we filed with WIPO in Geneva a response to Jerry Falwell's UDRP 
complaint against Gary Cohn, trying to divest him of the jerryfalwell.com 
name that Cohn uses for a site that parodies Falwell for his hateful words 
last September, blaming the September 11 bombing on America's 
sins.  Falwell complains that the mere fact that Cohn calls his web site a 
parody doesn't make it funny, and that Cohn is misusing Falwell's name to 
create a site that will, supposedly, lure Internet viewers to learn of 
Cohn's "false teaching" about the bible.  We remind the arbitrators that 
they do not have to decide wither whether the site is funny or whether 
Falwell or Cohn has the more accurate view of the bible, because 
Falwell  does not meet any of the three requirements for a valid UDP 
complaint.  In this regard, we argue that Falwell has not established that 
he has used his name as a trademark, that it is perfectly legitimate to use 
of his name because that domain name accurately describes the content of a 
non-commercial web site that makes fun of him, and that there is no sign of 
bad faith.

Our press release is posted at 
http://www.citizen.org/pressroom/release.cfm?ID=1070
The response is posted at http://www.citizen.org/documents/FalwellBrief.pdf
We can supply copies of Falwell's complaint, and of the exhibits to our 
response, on request

Paul Alan Levy
Public Citizen Litigation Group
1600 - 20th Street, N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20009
(202) 588-1000
http://www.citizen.org/litigation/litigation.html





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