Don't even think of tying in www.nlgja.com if you want to visit the Web site of the National Lesbian and Gay Journalists Association - the link takes you to a porn site known as GaySpyCam.
Needless to say, the group was rather surprised and is trying to decide what if anything to do about the URL which is close to the group's own www.nlgja.org. The trade magazine Editor & Publisher says NLGJA board president Robert Dodge found the porn site was registered to New Links For Guys to Jack At - which forms an acronym identical to the journalists' group.
E&P says the contact for the company is Harold A. Meyer III, who was contacted last month by NLGJA vice president for broadcast Rose Arce. Marce says she thinks Meyer was only too well aware his acronym lined up to the journalists' organization before he registered www.nlgja.com. And, Arce says, Meyer "didn't name a price, but he did request compensation for removing the site, and he had seen the (real) NLGJA Web page. I think he's just trying to extort a few bucks."
Meyer denies he's cybersquatting and called himself a traffic manager for adult entertainment sites. But he acknowledged that he "probably" requested some type of compensation when Arce contacted him.
Dodge, though, says the gay porn site is hurting a legitimate professional group. The NLGJA works toward fair and accurate news coverage of the gay and lesbian world. He says the group will pursue "every legal remedy" to get Meyer's company to stop using the acronym for its Web site URL. The group can either go by way of the Internet Corp. for Assigned Names and Numbers, submitting the case to a neutral panel of experts who'd determine bad faith; or, it could try litigation.
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office says there is now no trademark registered for NLGJA. Under litigation, the journalists' group would have to work under last November's newly-passed anti-cybersquatting law. Dodge tells E&P his group is indeed considering legal action, but he did not elaborate.
This isn't the first time a company or group found a URL identical to its own leading Web surfers to porn. The official White House Web site is www.whitehouse.gov, but those who type in www.whitehouse.com end up going to a porn site as well.
