Save the tasty animals!

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.


Having already won the prize for “Activist Group With the Least Sense of Humor,” People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals won its “cybersquatting” court case yesterday, according to a PETA press release.

PETA had filed a suit against Michael Doughney, who registered the domain name “peta.org” in 1995. Doughney used the Web address to mock the activist group by creating a pseudo-non-profit organization called “People Eating Tasty Animals.” PETA won its case in part on the basis of the Anti-Cybersquatting and Consumer Privacy Act, which protects against misappropriation of domain names for commercial benefit.

The judge ruled that Doughney “clearly intended to confuse, mislead, and divert Internet users into accessing his Web site, which contained information … harmful to the goodwill represented by the PETA mark.”

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

BEFORE YOU CLICK AWAY!

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And the essential ingredient that makes all this possible? Readers like you.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to devote the time and resources to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate