A CNN parody site gets bigfooted.
February 1, 2001 2:15 PM   Subscribe

A CNN parody site gets bigfooted. "Defendant's actions constitute a textbook case of cyberpiracy under the Anti-cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act. CNN and its marks are suffering irreparable harm as a result of Defendant's actions, and they will continue to unless and until Defendant is enjoined." Yeah, right.
posted by tranquileye (4 comments total)
 
What's even funnier is that CNNfn will be renamed "CNN money" later this year! So the "F is beside D on the keyboard" argument is out the window.
posted by iceberg273 at 2:37 PM on February 1, 2001


I liked the chart where he showed that the notoriety of his site was directly linked to CNN employees checking it out.
posted by dhartung at 2:51 PM on February 1, 2001


I thought giving the lawyer his Obi-Wan "If you sue me, my site will get more traffic than you can imagine" attitude id pretty funny too. It would be great if corporations finally understood how counterproductive these things are.
posted by straight at 6:38 AM on February 2, 2001


CNN got a restraining order. All of the site is offline except for a front page that's all about the legal battle.

The lawyers are unfortunately correct, though. Under US trademark law, they have to fight any unauthorized use of their trademarks that they learn about. If they don't, they run a very real risk of losing their rights to the trademark. (This doesn't mean the arguments they're making about "cyberpiracy" aren't specious. They should have stuck to trademark law precedent.)

And I don't think this site qualifies as First-Amendment-protected "parody." This guy fully admits he wasn't out to make fun of CNN or CNNfn. He just thought it would be neat to appropriate the CNNfn trademark and site design because they're known for covering Net economy news. That's not parody, it's just stealing, even if there was no malicious intent.
posted by aaron at 4:42 PM on February 2, 2001



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