Tribune Co. Moves to Seize Occupied Chicago Tribune’s Website

From FDL at http://dissenter.firedoglake.com/2012/06/11/tribune-company-moves-to-seize-occupied-chicago-tribunes-website/ :

Joel Handley, a reporter for the Occupied Chicago Tribune and part of the original group that started the newspaper, recalls being contacted by a representative of the Tribune Company after he did an interview with the magazine, Time Out Chicago, last year. Those involved in the newspaper did not want a legal fight, but then the company made it apparent that they wanted the paper to change the font, the masthead and the paper could not be any name that began with a “T” (e.g. Occupied Chicago Times). When they realized how the company was coming after the paper, they decided to get legal representation.

Lawyers from the People’s Law Office in Chicago agreed to push back and help them assert their First Amendment right. Ben Elson says they replied to the Tribune’s complaint by stating the Occupied Chicago Tribune was a parody, satire or commentary on the Chicago Tribune. The Tribune backed down.

Now, the Tribune is using an entity that Elson describes as being a body setup to handle disputes over “abusive registrations of domain names” where people have tried to “profit off of someone’s established website or trademark.” This fact alone should lead a reasonable person to conclude the complaint lacks “merit.”

“My clients do not profit from publishing their newspaper or their website,” explains Elson. “And they didn’t choose their domain name to disrupt the Chicago Tribune’s business. He adds, “There’s obviously no likelihood of confusion between the website names. I think only an imbecile could believe that the Occupied Chicago Tribune is the Chicago Tribune‘s website.”