You might remember Jerry Falwell's lawsuit against the operators of the web site Fallwell.com which capitalizes on a common misspelling of the anti-gay reverend's last name. The site contains a prominent disclaimer reading "This website is NOT affiliated with Rev. Dr. Jerry Falwell or his ministry" and provides a link to the real Jerry Falwell web site. Falwell, unable to cope with the notion that someone might criticize his anti-gay agenda sued, claiming the site violated his personal trademark on his last name. Last year a three-judge panel of the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the owner of the site did not violate trademark law. Falwell appealed to the Supreme Court.

Now the Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal, so the decision of the 4th US Circuit Court will stand. Christopher Lamparello can continue to operate his web site under the name Fallwell.com.

In its ruling against Falwell, the lower court wrote, "After even a quick glance at the content of the website ... no one seeking Reverend Falwell's guidance would be misled by the domain name http://www.fallwell.com into believing that Reverend Falwell authorized the content of that website."

Falwell has long been a vocal opponent of human rights for gays and is well-known for taking his arguments and reasoning to laughably absurd lengths. Shortly after the terrorist attacks of 2001, for example, Falwell blamed the attacks on gays and lesbians, among others, on Pat Robertson's 700 Club program. He later denied saying what everyone heard him say and finally issued an apology several days later.

The Fallwell.com site features a number of articles about cherry-picking the bible for justification of prejudice, bible verses that fundamentalists ignore, the Commandment that Falwell breaks, and the caveats and dangers of bible interpretation.

Lamparello was represented for free by Public Citizen attorney Paul Levy. Levy commented, "A domain name is not just the source of a Web site, but the substance of a Web site. You can say the name of the person you're criticizing, and you can put their name in the domain name of your Web site."

---Nick

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