Will the Real Candidate Please Stand Up?: Political Parody On the Internet

Journal of Intellectual Property Law Volume 5 Issue 2 Symposium: The Worst Intellectual Property Opinion Ever Written Article 6 March 1998 Will the Real Candidate Please Stand Up?: Political Parody On the Internet Jon H. Oram Stanford University Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl Part of the Election Law Commons, First Amendment Commons, and the Intellectual Property Law Commons Recommended Citation Jon H. Oram, Will the Real Candidate Please Stand Up?: Political Parody On the Internet, 5 J. Intell. Prop. L. 467 (1998). Available at: http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol5/iss2/6 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. It has been accepted for inclusion in Journal of Intellectual Property Law by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Georgia Law. For more information, please contact . Oram: Will the Real Candidate Please Stand Up?: Political Parody On the ARTICLE WILL THE REAL CANDIDATE PLEASE STAND UP?: POLITICAL PARODY ON THE INTERNET Jon H. Oram* CONTENTS Page 469 INTRODUCTION ................................... I. 476 POLITICS IN CYBERSPACE ........... ............ A. THE PROMISE OF THE INTERNET .... ............ 476 ............ 480 ............ 481 B. THE FIRST STEPS: 1996 .......... C. THE MIS-STEPS: 1996 ........... II. THE DISPUTE OVER DOMAIN NAMES III. How PROTECTED Is POLITICAL PARODY9. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 491 ............... 485 A. PARODY AND TRADEMARK INFRINGEMENT .......... B. PARODY AND UNFAIR COMPETITION .............. 492 C. PARODY AND TRADEMARK DILUTION ............... D. PARODY AND PRIVACY ........................ 505 508 502 * B.A., M.A., Stanford University, 1996; J.D. candidate, Yale Law School. I am grateful to Michael Blum, Aaron Craig, Lisa Elsevier, Kimberley Hale, Gerard Magliocca, Alan Modlinger, J.J. Valdivia, and Fredrick Vars for their advice and assistance. In addition, I would like to thank Afra Zomorodian, who introduced me to the World Wide Web in 1994 by showing me the site with the real time image of the half-empty coffee pot in England, and Sopan Joshi, who informed me of the existence of PlannedParenthoodFederationofAmerica, Inc. v, Bucci. If you have any comments or questions about this Article, please e-mail me at <>. 467 Published by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law, 1998 1 Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 5, Iss. 2 [1998], Art. 6 J. INTELL. PROP. L. 468 1. 2. 3. [Vol. 5:467 Libel, Defamation, and Intentional Infliction of Emotional Distress ...................... False Light ............................ The Right of Publicity ................... E. PARODY AND ELECTION LAW ..................... F. DOES POLITICAL SPEECH MERIT SPECIAL PROTECTION? 509 511 512 515 518 IV. How IS THE INTERNET DIFFERENT FROM OTHER MEDIA? 521 V. POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS ......................... A. LEGAL REMEDIES ........................... B. COLLECTIVE SOLUTIONS ...................... C. TECHNOLOGICAL RESPONSES ..................... 527 528 530 CONCLUSION 534 VI. ................................ http://digitalcommons.law.uga.edu/jipl/vol5/iss2/6 533 2 1998] Oram: Will the Real Candidate Please Stand Up?: Political Parody On the POLITICAL PARODY 469 The Internet these days is like a box of cyber-chocolates: You can try searching for the information you want, but you just never know what you're gonna get. Over the past four years, numerous commentators' have promised that, by providing access to accurate and pertinent information about candidates and public policy issues, the Internet2 will reform the American political system. However, the 1996 election-the first in which the Internet played a significant role 3 -demonstrated that despite politicians' eagerness to exploit the new medium, cyberspace was not yet prepared to shoulder the responsibilities required of a savior of representative democracy. Although the Internet is still in relative infancy, its role in this important area of American life reveals the problems its unique features have engendered. Judicial adjudication of these controversies sheds light on the ability of legal institutions to control the impact of this chaotic medium. While prospects for World Wide Web commerce have advertisers and retailers drooling, the Web's promise to be a cheap tool by which politicians can target messages to millions of voters has yet to be realized. Instead, picture this scenario: It's the 1996 presidential primary season and you are a conscientious voter who wants to find out who the candidates are and what they stand for." ' See, e.g., GRAEME BROWNING, ELECTRONIC DEMOCRACY: USING THE INTERNET To INFLUENCE AMERICAN POLITICS (1996); LAWRENCE K GROSSMAN, THE ELECTRONIC REPUBLIC: THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERICAN DEMOCRACY (1995); Farai Chideye, Recipe for Apathy, 11 MEDIA STUD. J. 83 (1997); Mark Hall, One to One Politics in Cyberspace, 11 MEDIA STUD. J. 97 (1997); Jim Warren, Foreword to CHRIS CASEY, THE HILL ON THE NET, at xi, xii-xvi (1996); Mark S. Bonchek, Grassroots in Cyberspace (visited Mar. 20, 1998) <http'J/www.ai.mit.edu/people/msb/pubs/grassroots.html> (paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Ass'n, Chicago, Apr. 6, 1995); Steven L. Clift, Putting Pen to Paper: Electronic Democracy, Write On! (visited Mar. 20, 1998) <httpJ/www.simonsays.com/titles/0671568507/trail.html>. 2 If you still don't know what the Internet is, see ACLU v. Reno, 929 F. Supp. 824, 830-38 (E.D. Pa. 1996), afld 117 S. Ct. 2329 (1997) (explaining the creation, development, operation, and regulation of the Internet); and Barry M. Leiner et al., A Brief History of the Internet (visited Mar. 20, 1998) <httpJ/www.isoc.org/internet-history/brief.html> (describing the origins and evolution of the Internet). ' See Adam Clayton Powell III, Lethargy '96-Campaign '96 On Line (visited Mar. 20, 1998) <http/www.fac.org/publicat/campaign/lth96powon.htm>. ' Of course, this would likely make you an irrational voter and would definitely put you among the minority of the electorate, since most voters make a rational determination that the process of seeking information about candidates is simply too costly and thus refrain from procuring any information whatsoever. See ANTHONY DOWNS, AN ECONOMIC THEORY Published by Digital Commons @ Georgia Law, 1998 3 470 Journal of Intellectual Property Law, Vol. 5, Iss. 2 [1998], Art. 6 J. INTELL. PROP. L. [Vol. 5:467 You have heard the media trumpeting the Information Superhighway5 for its plethora of political information. So you log onto the Net, boot up your free copy of Netscape, and begin searching for the leading candidates' Web sites. First you try typing potential domain names6 into your browser with the hope of stumbling upon a candidate's home page. You try "http://www.dole.org." Unfortunately, this address is being used by an Internet service provider that hosts, among other things, hom (...truncated)