home

Right Talk...Left Talk

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 11:06:40 PM EST
Tags: (all tags)
Share This: Digg! StumbleUpon del.icio.us reddit reddit

Unfair Witness has some photos up of Jeff Gannon on his radio show at RightTalk.com.

Several TalkLeft readers have sent e-mails this past year telling me that TalkLeft is re-directed to RightTalk.com. It isn't, but I figured out that these readers transposed "lefttalk" for "talkleft." If you go to "leftalk.com", you do go to RightTalk.com.

Now what does a right wing radio station need with a name like LeftTalk?

< Freeway Blogger to Strike Again | Kansas Seeks Files on Abortion Patients >

  • The Online Magazine with Liberal coverage of crime-related political and injustice news

  • Contribute To TalkLeft


    • Display: Sort:
    Right Talk...Left Talk | 8 comments (8 topical)
    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#1)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 03:28:53 AM EST
    TL - In the domain business it's called traffic hijacking. By some estimates about 40% of the registered domains exist to catch mis-spellings. I seem to recall that Amazon owns over a thousand domain names that are variations on their name..... -C

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#2)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 03:58:28 AM EST
    Cliff misses the point. The analogy would be more apt if Barnes and Nobles had registered a thousand variations on the name Amazon.

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#3)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 04:22:35 AM EST
    No, Cliff has not missed the point, Amazon went ahead and proactively registered those domains from preventing Barnes and Noble from doing the same. Illegal, or not, it does happen. Talkleft can either take steps to prevent such things, or sit back and hope everyone on the Internet plays nice.

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#4)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 08:05:02 AM EST
    Brian - Thanks. ca - I wasn't actually making a particular point, I was just providing some information around the issue. I could probably dig around in my consulting kit bag and find the legal citations that say where the legal boundries are, exactly, including court cites from our (then) IP attorneys. The basic guidelines are that if you are using a trademarked string then you can be forced to give up the domain, but otherwise it is wide open. For example, if Amazon registered BarnNobel.com and re-directed it then they'd be OK. If they had BarnesAndNobel.com they'd be on pretty shaky ground. If they had BarnsAndNoble.com they'd lose. I would guess that lefttalk.com redirected to xyz.com would easily pass the "ok" test. Is it right or wrong? I got no dog in that fight and don't really have an opinion. -C

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#5)
    by kdog on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 12:48:05 PM EST
    How else do you expect anyone to visit their site?

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#6)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 05:45:34 PM EST
    reps always enable the underhandedness of the right. is it legal/illegal. does'nt really matter, it's wrong. moral mandate my a$$.

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#7)
    by Johnny on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 10:09:27 PM EST
    Yah some guy was arrested for purchasing a ton of domains like barbydoll.com, dizney.com and redirecting those to p**rn sites. Sick-O. This is more like when Dubya bought a bunch of websites that were bashing him and redirecting to his campaign site... Misleading and non-truthful, but hardly illegal.

    Re: Right Talk...Left Talk (none / 0) (#8)
    by Talkleft Visitor on Sat Feb 26, 2005 at 07:32:58 AM EST
    Yes, you can register several or thousands of domain names to protect your cyber identity and it's probably a good idea if you want to have a long term cyber presence. I have registered severals for reasons related to this thread. But doing that or not doing that does not change the sleazy aspect and intention of your competitor or enemy who registers a domain similar to a known cyber identity and then uses it malevolently. In the example cited, if you misspell amazon and end up at another bookseller site, you are still looking at books. It's good business if a little underhanded. In the realm of ideas, if you want to talk left and get spun to a right wing site, it's a little less clear that you really got what you wanted: books, left leaning conversation. This isn't rocket science. Probably should register rocketscience.com now that I think of it.

    Right Talk...Left Talk | 8 comments (8 topical)