Bill Purdy & allies: back in domain name squatting action [fs]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

---

From: "William S. Purdy" <william.purdy () comcast net>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Fw: articles
Date: Wed, 15 Oct 2003 13:41:14 -0500
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[...]

<http://www.nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=This_Week:Columns:Desperately_Seeking_the_News>http://www.nashvillescene.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?story=This_Week:Columns:Desperately_Seeking_the_News 


[...]

Well, not just yet. The Tennessean has just been punked by either a Bronx 
tech firm or a succinctly titled Web site called abortionismurder.org. 
Here's what's going on: The correct Web address for the city's dominant 
daily paper is tennessean.com. A Bronx firm has registered the domain name 
thetennessean.com, however, an address that takes unsuspecting readers to 
abortionismurder.org. There, the reader can download catchy anti-abortion 
songs with titles like "I Can't Wait to See Your Face" and "Precious 
Child." (Music Row, are you listening?) In addition, the reader, who was 
originally just trying to get the day's news, can also learn why abortion 
is murder even in the case of rape and incest and why birth control is dead 
wrong. (The site explains, with an obvious knack for succinctness, that 
"the pill kills.")

[...]

Still, for the anti-abortion movement, taking domain names that sound like 
established press outlets and redirecting them to gruesome sites is the 
ultimate way to target the so-called liberal media.

William Purdy, another anti-abortion activist living in St. Paul, has 
bought more than two dozen Internet domain names that riff off those from 
established news outlets like the Chicago Tribune and Star Tribune. A 
retired railroad engineer, Purdy has been told by the courts to stop it, 
but he keeps filing appeals. The Washington Post is quite understandably 
suing him for using the domain name thewashingtonpostjesus.com, which 
directs people to a site that features a bloody aborted fetus. He explains 
his motives for targeting the Post this way: "They are pro-abortion. Warren 
Buffett, who is pro-choice, sits on their board, and under his direction 
the Post is extremely pro-abortion in their editorial position, and they 
are biased toward pro-abortion in their news reporting. They are pro-death, 
and that's why I targeted them."


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