Seems a wee bit o' infowar is breaking out in the DNS... ........................................ http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/wired/story.html?s=n/reuters /980213/wired/stories/domain_1.html Friday February 13 2:17 PM EST Planned Parenthood wins ruling in domain dispute By Jen Sullivan SAN FRANCISCO (Wired) - In a decision that underscores the thorny and ongoing issue of brand identity and domain names, the U.S. Second Court of Appeals upheld a preliminary injunction issued last March that prevented the use of the plannedparenthood.com domain name for a personal anti-abortion Web site. U.S. District Court Judge Kimba Wood ruled that there was "significant likelihood" that the Web site by Richard Bucci of Syracuse, New York, would cause confusion among individuals seeking Planned Parenthood's actual site, plannedparenthood.org. The .com version has been placed "on hold" by Network Solutions Inc. (NSI) and is not accessible to Web browsers. Planned Parenthood general counsel Eve Paul lauded the decision. "We aren't a big company that owns factories, we just have our name, and women all over the country trust our name," Paul said. "We can't afford to let someone use it for their own political purposes." Paul praised the court's finding that Bucci's use of the domain was misleading. "When you went to that Web site, it said 'Welcome to the Planned Parenthood home page,"' said Paul. "It really had a very negative effect on our ability to reach a great audience out there." In addition to espousing anti-abortion views, Bucci's site promoted his friend's anti-abortion book. Bucci, an anti-abortion activist who also hosts a local radio program several times a week called "Catholic Hour," stopped using the disputed domain name after the judge issued her preliminary injunction, but plans to fight the court's decision, taking appeals all the way to Supreme Court if possible. "Do you remember General Patton? We're going to continue to hold Planned Parenthood by the nose and kick them in the derriere," Bucci said. Though pleased with the end result, Paul expressed dismay over the slow speed of the process, first with NSI, and then with the ensuing legal action. "Network Solutions was very slow," said Paul. "If they had been available, it certainly would have been cheaper. "Our trademark lawyer wrote them a letter, and they sent back a very bureaucratic response, saying that we hadn't crossed our T's and dotted our I's. We went to court but that turned out to be a longer process than we had hoped," she said. Network Solutions' stated policy is that they do not arbitrate in trademark infringement cases. "What insanity has gotten into the minds of the people when they think of domain names and the Internet," said David Graves, director of business affairs at NSI. "What mechanism does the Newspaper Association of America have in place when an advertiser infringes on a trademark in an advertisement? They don't have separate mechanisms." Stanton McCandlish, program director of the Electronic Frontier Federation (EFF), agreed that trademark infringement is purely a legal issue. "NSI has not been doing a very good job," McCandlish said. "They lose registrations, things get screwed up. But trademark is a big open issue. I don't think that anyone can expect NSI to solve that one. Lawsuits are inevitable. There is not any way to get to heart of the matter." Paul said Planned Parenthood was in the process of acquiring the "plannedparenthood.com" domain name. ------------------------------------------------------------ David Honig Orbit Technology honig@otc.net Intaanetto Jigyoubu Has Nike hired Monica to endorse kneepads yet?