Michael Doughney’s site at peta.org was entitled “People Eating Tasty Animals” and it linked to mink and leather merchants, taxidermists, a poultry information service and cattle breeders.
PETA succeeded in winning the name from Doughney in June this year in a US federal court on the grounds of trade mark infringement and cybersquatting (which is recognised as a wrongful act under US federal law); Doughney has now begun an appeal, arguing that his People Eating Tasty Animals site, which is presently being hosted at an alternative address, is protected by the US constitutional right to free speech.
In the case in June, PETA argued that a visitor to peta.org had no way of knowing that Doughney’s site was a joke site before entering it. For parody sites to be protected by free speech, argued PETA, they must be immediately recognisable as such. Doughney, who co-founded and subsequently sold his stake in the ISP Digex Inc. for several million dollars, is taking this argument to the US Appeals Court. His lawyer has indicated that he is prepared to take the case to the Supreme Court, if necessary.