[ga] David Streitfeld in WP: Making Bad Names for Themselves

[James Love <love@cptech.org>]

Subject: [Nc-tlds] David Streitfeld in WP: Making Bad Names for
Themselves
   Date: Fri, 08 Sep 2000 09:15:42 -0400
  From: James Love <love@cptech.org>
    To: nc-tlds@venice.essential.org

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A30525-2000Sep7.html

Making Bad Names for Themselves 

By David Streitfeld
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday , September 8, 2000 ; A01 

SAN FRANCISCO -- No one has ever heard of Stonepath Group. In fact, a
company by that name won't exist for another two weeks, when the
stockholders of Net Value Holdings will vote to dump that dull moniker
and go with the sleeker Stonepath.

But if Stonepath is yet to be officially born, it's already prepared for
a lifetime of brickbats. Among the Internet addresses it has reserved
for itself are StonepathLosers.com and StonepathBadThings.com, as well
as half a dozen other cruder variations.

   [snip]

"Ultimately I suppose you can't control what anyone says about you,"
said President Lee Hansen. "But why make it easy for them? You can call
this paranoid, but it's also proactive and protective."

You can also call it popular. The start-up Stamps.com just registered
six Internet names, all variations on its corporate title with a
vulgarism attached. The consumer-products conglomerate Johnson & Johnson
locked up 43. United Parcel Service signed up for UPSstinks.com,
IHateUPS.com and UPSBites.com as well as four names containing words
that UPS executives probably don't let their children use.

   [snip] 

 . . Intuit, whose best-known product is Quicken financial software,
just registered a Web address whose name boldly states that the program
is despicable. Intuit officials will probably never activate this site.
They just didn't want someone else to be able to register and activate
it.

   [snip]

That tussle was nothing compared with the high passions aroused by
Verizon Communications, the telecommunications company formed by the
merger of GTE and Bell Atlantic. Before the new brand name was announced
on April 3, Verizon registered 724 new Internet addresses that had
Verizon in them, according to Company Sleuth.

On April 4, the hacker magazine 2600--best known for being the leading
defendant in Hollywood's ongoing legal efforts against those who would
break the encryption on DVD movies--decided to tweak Verizon by
registering VerizonSucks.com.

"If our experience with past phone companies is any indication, Verizon
will in all probability be thought of this way in the near future," the
editors later explained.

But that name, it turned out, had already been registered by the company
itself, along with 56 other self-critical names. So 2600 registered
VerizonReallySucks.com.

Shortly thereafter, the magazine received a letter accusing it of
trademark infringement violating the Anticybersquatting Consumer
Protection Act, and demanding the transfer of the unused domain name to
Verizon under threat of suit.

The editors for 2600 fired back that this was a misapplication of the
anti-squatting act. "This law was designed to protect companies against
those who would register their name and hold it for ransom," they
responded. "But this is a statement, an opinion, one which in no way
would be confused with the actual name of the company."

The magazine essentially turned over its anti-Verizon domain name to the
Communication Workers of America; it now documents CWA's strike against
Verizon. The magazine called on other hackers to exercise their free
speech rights by criticizing Verizon in domain names, and registered for
itself
VerizonShouldSpendMoreTimeFixingItsNetworkAndLessMoneyOnLawyers.com.

At this point, Verizon--confronted with Web sites like
VerizonDoesReallySuck.com, VerizonMonopolisticBastards.com and dozens of
others that can't be printed in a newspaper--says it's so sorry the
whole thing happened.

   [snip]

Of course, none of the companies interviewed said its goal was to
squelch free speech. But a few said they didn't mind making it a bit
harder. "You build a lot of brand equity in a name," said Hansen of
Stonepath. "The last thing you want to do is see it tarnished."


  [snip]

Danaher Corp., the huge tool manufacturer based in the District, has not
only registered the usual self-critical variations on its corporate
name, but gone a step further.

Danaher's chief executive is George Sherman. Among the domain names
recently registered by the company: GeorgeShermanSucks.com.



-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176



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-- 
James Love  mailto:love@cptech.org http://www.cptech.org
Consumer Project on Technology, P.O. Box 19367, Washington, DC 20036
voice 1.202.387.8030  fax  1.202.234.5176
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