10.04.09

Enemy of Freedom: Glenn Beck

Posted in Freedom of Speech at 5:29 pm by Clay

Congratulations, Glenn Beck — I now think of you as an enemy of freedom because you’ll try almost anything to shut down those who disagree with you.

Lacking expanded-basic cable, I was mostly unaware of Glenn Beck until recently. Perhaps you don’t know of him, either.

Well, evidently he’s a political talk show host who will make or repeat allegations, then expect a person to prove their innocence.

Someone evidently objected to his methods, and launched glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com discussing the allegations against Glenn Beck.

Now, this is an obvious parody site ripping into Beck because of the alleged damage Beck does to political speech.

Notice the key words “parody” and “political speech”? Either of those things would make it very difficult to overcome first-amendment concerns.

So, what was the seemingly obvious answer for Glenn Beck? Ask the World Intellectual Property Organization to give him the domain because people might think that Glenn Beck put up such a website.

The legal response to that claim is amusing on its own, and I’ll admit I don’t really have much to add — I’m just hoping to help Glen Beck out a bit with his personal Streisand Effect.