Conservative political entertainment time.
Obama’s nonprofit advocacy organization, Organizing for Action, has lost their bid to control the domain name organizingforaction.net, which is being used by the owner of the domain to direct the URL so all the hits were directed towards sites that discuss conservative political views and values.
Two others, organizingforaction.com and organizingforaction.org, also belong to an entity other than Obama's advocacy organization.
At the moment, organizingforaction.net is being directed to the YouTube video of Dr. Ben Carson's National Prayer Breakfast speech where he proceeded to rip into class warfare rhetoric, which has been seen in speech after speech from Barack Obama. Carson's speech was given and received applaudes, while Barack Obama sat just seats away.
Before that, according to the LA Times, the domain was being directed to the National Rifle Association (NRA).
The LA Times article explains how Organizing for Action failed to obtain the domain in the first place, who did register it and how they have just lost their bid to control it.
Organizing for Action, President Obama’s nonprofit advocacy organization, has sought to be nimble as it ramps up a national effort to back his agenda on gun control measures and immigration reform.
But it appears the group didn’t move swiftly enough to protect its presence online.
An arbitrator has denied the organization’s effort to obtain the domain name organizingforaction.net, registered by a quick-moving computer technician in Castle Rock, Colo., on Jan. 18, when the news broke that Obama’s former advisors were launching the group.
Derek Bovard proceeded to configure the site so all the hits were directed to the website for the National Rifle Assn. It was one of three domain names for Organizing for Action that the group failed to register before it launched.
“If they don’t like it, they can buy it from me,” Bovard told the Los Angeles Times at the time.
Instead, a lawyer with the firm Perkins Coie, representing Organizing for Action, filed a complaint with the National Arbitration Forum, which handles disputes over domain names.
The complaint argued that Organizing for Action had established “common law trademark rights” through media coverage and than Bovard registered the domain in “bad faith.”
Bovard contended that Organizing for Action did not have any presence when he scooped up the name, and said he had no intention of selling it. He said that the website would be used “to discuss conservative political views and values.”
In a decision issued last week, Karl V. Fink, a retired judge in Ann Arbor, Mich., concluded that Organizing for Action did not provide evidence that the name was “a distinctive identifier” of the group or that it owned any trademarks at the time.
(In fact, the group did not file a trademark registration for “Organizing for Action” until Feb. 7, according to United States Patent and Trademark Office records.)
The two other domains, organizingforaction.com and organizingforaction.org, were both scooped up by a registered Republican who lives in Wellington, Fla.
Both those sites have the same disclaimer with just the actual URL changed within the disclaimer:
The organizingforaction.com:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The website OrganizingForAction.com is NOT affiliated with any 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), or other entity or business that uses the generic phrase Organizing For Action as all or a portion of its name. OrganizingForAction.com is not seeking to prevent you from contacting any such entities, businesses, or their websites, or to disrupt their activities. Therefore, if you are seeking a different entity, business, or website, it is suggested that you perform a Google or other Internet search to locate it.
The organizingforaction.org:
IMPORTANT NOTICE: The website OrganizingForAction.org is NOT affiliated with any 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), or other entity or business that uses the generic phrase Organizing For Action as all or a portion of its name. OrganizingForAction.org is not seeking to prevent you from contacting any such entities, businesses, or their websites, or to disrupt their activities. Therefore, if you are seeking a different entity, business, or website, it is suggested that you perform a Google or other Internet search to locate it.
The lack of foresight and planning on Obama and Organizing for Action, which is hosted on the Barack Obama website, is astounding in it's scope. One would think that they would have registered all forms of the domain name before announcing it's unveiling.
It is an interesting side note that OFA claims to be an independent organization, yet now controls Obama’s Twitter account. The bio for @BarackObama says, “This account is run by Organizing for Action staff. Tweets from the President are signed -bo.” (Source)
Also noteworthy that Organizing for Action listed as a tax exempt 501(c)(4) organization, claiming it is non-partisan.
