Fox TV host Glenn Beck has lost a suit he filed against the creator of a satirical Web site spreading a rumor that even the site itself admitted was false: Beck raped and murdered a girl in 1990.
The decision is vindication for Florida computer programmer Isaac Eiland-Hall, creator of glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com, who argued that the accusatory tone of the Web site mimics a Beck interviewing technique, in which he poses accusatory questions to people in a way that makes them look bad regardless of their answer.
The satire argument passed muster with the one-man panel for the World Intellectual Property Organization, a branch of the United Nations dedicated to protecting intellectual property.
"Respondent appears to the Panel to be engaged in a parody of the style or methodology that Respondent appears genuinely to believe is employed by Complainant in the provision of political commentary," wrote panelist Frederick M. Abbott, "and for that reason Respondent can be said to be making a political statement. This constitutes a legitimate noncommercial use of Complainant's mark."
Although he lost the case, Beck still received the domain name he sought, but not because the arbitrator awarded it to him. Rather, Eiland-Hall gave it to Beck himself, but not without getting in a good parting shot.
In a public letter to Beck handing over the site (which is now down) Eiland-Hall let Beck have it one more time.
"Here you go you big crybaby," he wrote. "I chose to criticize you using the well-tested method of satire because of its effectiveness. But, humor aside, your rhetorical style is no laughing matter."
