FC: Bill Purdy accuses WashPost attorneys of hijacking his domains

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

When last we visited Bill Purdy, he was staying out of jail but was held in 
contempt of court:
http://washingtontimes.com/business/20030205-18096272.htm
> A pro-life cyber-squatter didn't go to jail yesterday, but a federal judge 
> said William Purdy is in contempt of a court order and must pay $500 a day 
> until he stops using a raft of domain names that include well-known 
> corporate trademarks including that of The Washington Post. [...]

Forthwith, this update.

-Declan

PS: The gandi.net registrar is a French corporation in Paris. My 
understanding is that they have not been served with a court order from a 
French court (and they haven't been UDRP'd) so they have transferred a 
number of ex-Purdy domains as a gesture of good faith. But my suspicion -- 
and it's only a suspicion -- is that they're being somewhat Gallic about 
this and may not be in a hurry to agree with a Washington, DC law firm's 
interpretation of a U.S. court order.

---

From: "William S. Purdy" <wpurdy () attbi com>
To: <bglanz () washingtontimes com>
Cc: "Declan McCullagh" <declan () well com>
Subject: Fw: ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL VIOLATION OF MY CIVIL RIGHTS
Date: Wed, 12 Feb 2003 15:21:51 -0600


----- Original Message -----
From: William S. Purdy
To: Olson, Thomas ; Carome, Patrick ; fboyd () faegre com ; Alexandri, Maya
Cc: daltman () mn rr com
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 3:20 PM
Subject: ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL VIOLATION OF MY CIVIL RIGHTS

2-12-2003   3:00 pm

Dear Sirs and Madams,

I am in receipt of an email that Maya Alexander sent to Gandi today 
requesting the ILLEGAL transfer of five domain names that HAVE NOT been 
found by the U.S Court to be "confusingly similar" to the Plaintiffs, nor 
have been ordered by the Jan. 28, 2003 Contempt Order to be transferred - 
i.e. thewashingtonpostjesus.com, thewashingtonpost-motherofjesus.com, 
thewashingtonpostmuslim.com, thewashingtonpostkoran.com, and 
thewashingtonpostjew.com.  This is a blatant attempt by the Plaintiffs and 
their counsel to illegally violate my civil rights by preventing me from 
SPEAKING about the Plaintiffs (namely The Washington Post) and CRITICIZING 
the Plaintiffs (namely The Washington Post) under the FALSE color of law 
.  I hereby DEMAND that you correct this ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL violation of 
my civil rights by immediately contacting Gandi and withdrawing your 
illegal request.  The Jan. 28, 2003 Contempt Order clearly spefies which 
domain names were found by the court to be "identical or confusingly 
similar" in paragraph 3 of the Jan. 28, 2003 Contempt Order wherein it 
states, "Maintenance of registration and/or continued use of each of the 
domain names listed in paragraph 1 violate paragraph 11 of the Court's 
Order of July 23, as clarified by this Court's Order of September 5."  The 
Court chose to list no other domain names other than those listed in 
paragraph 1 of the Jan. 28, 2003 Contempt Order, and YOU KNOW IT.  If you 
do not immediately correct your illegal and unethical request, I will sue 
The Washington Post and its counsel under the appropriate State and Federal 
statutes for violation of my civil rights, and take whatever appropriate 
legal action that is at my disposal.  As you know, you always have the 
right to seek appropriate court orders regarding those five domain names, 
to ask the court to add those domain names, but until that is a reality, I 
am NOT in contempt of the Jan. 28, 2003 Contempt Order, and the Plaintiffs 
have NO RIGHTS or BUSINESS to have those domain names transferred to the 
Plaintiffs.  At the last hearing and the hearing before, my attorney, Mr. 
Altman, reminded the Court, and the Court agreed both times, that I am not 
in Contempt for registration or use of any domain UNTIL I the Court has 
ruled my registration or use of a particular domain name to be 
prohibited.  Likewise, any request by you to a domain name registrar to 
have a non-listed-by-the-court domain name is an ILLEGAL and UNETHICAL 
violation of my civil rights under the color of FALSE law.  What is worse, 
you as attorneys are well aware of the law and the eithical violations 
involved here.   Please conform to the rule of law, and the ethical 
obligations you have as attorneys until and IFyou recieve court 
authorization to request such transfers.

Yours truly,

William S. Purdy
Individual, President of Please Don't KILL Your Baby, Inc, and Shareholder 
of The Washington Post Company

cc: Douglas Altman
      Washington Times
------------------------------------------

----- Original Message -----
From: Alexandri, Maya
To: gandi () gandi net ; support () gandi net ; root () altern org
Cc: Olson, Thomas ; Carome, Patrick ; fboyd () faegre com ; daltman () mn rr com 
; Alexandri, Maya
Sent: Wednesday, February 12, 2003 2:22 PM
Subject: Court Order in Coca-Cola v. Purdy, No. 02-1782

Mr. Lacambre:



    We received your e-mail today reporting on the transfer of the domain 
names listed in the Court's Order.  Thank you for completing that task.



    I am writing about two items of unfinished business.  As you know, the 
Court's Order of January 28 covers not only the specific names listed 
therein, but any domain name that "incorporates, and is identical or 
confusingly similar to" Plaintiffs' domain names and which does not "alert 
the unwary Internet user to the protest or critical commentary nature of 
the attached website within the language of the domain name 
itself."   Order ¶ 10 (Jan. 28, 2003) (enforcing July 23, 2002 Order ¶ 11 
and Sept. 5, 2002 Order ¶ 11).



     We are currently aware of five domain names that are prohibited by 
the Court's Order, but which  Gandi has not yet transferred.  Those five 
domain names are:  thewashingtonpostjesus.com, 
thewashingtonpost-motherofjesus.com, thewashingtonpostmuslim.com, 
thewashingtonpostkoran.com, and thewashingtonpostjew.com.  Gandi is the 
registrar for all of these domain names.  Please transfer these domain 
names to Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive by February 13, 2003.



    In addition, please conduct a search of your WHOIS database for any 
other domain names that should be transferred to Washingtonpost.Newsweek 
Interactive or any of the other Plaintiffs.  We must hear from you by 
February 13, so that we may report to the Court the following day.



    Thank you very much for your attention to this matter.



Sincerely yours,



Maya Alexandri

Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering

2445 M Street, NW

Washington, DC 20037

(202) 663-6714 (direct)

(202) 663-6363 (fax)

malexandri () wilmer com






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