WIPO: Anti-Glenn Beck Domain Name Was Not Defamatory

Legal disputes over allegedly defamatory statements on blogs and social media sites are fairly common.  But what happens when an individual claims that the domain name itself is defamatory?

On September 1, Isaac Eiland-Hall registered the domain name — glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlinthe1990s.com. The Web site found at this domain name contained the following notice: “This site is parody/satire. We assume Glenn Beck did not rape and murder a young girl in 1990, although we haven’t yet seen proof that he didn’t. But we think Glenn Beck definitely uses tactics like this to spread lies and misinformation.”

Within 24 hours, the site received over 120,000 page hits. Beck’s lawyers asked the domain name registrar to take the site down. The registrar refused.  Read more »