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St. Paul Man Ordered to Shut Sites

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 10:06 p.m. ET

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) -- A federal judge has ordered a South St. Paul man to shut down his anti-abortion Web sites with domain names that are confusingly similar to the trademarked names of some of the nation's best known companies.

U.S. District Judge Ann D. Montgomery issued a temporary restraining order Tuesday against William S. Purdy Sr. on behalf of McDonald's Corp., PepsiCo Inc., Coca-Cola Co., The Washington Post Co. and Washingtonpost.newsweekInteractive Co.

She ordered Purdy to immediately shut down his Web sites with the confusing names and transfer their ownership to the appropriate companies.

Montgomery also ordered Purdy not to create any more Web sites with names similar to trademarked names owned by the companies and that don't alert Internet users to nature of the Web site's content within the domain name.

Purdy said Tuesday that he'll appeal the injunction. He said he is buying addresses like bloodycoca-cola.com or pepsideathmills.com to continue his anti-abortion protest.

Purdy, who represented himself, argued that the companies don't like what he has to say and that the issue is one of free speech. He has said that he opposes the Post's abortion rights editorial position and Coke's contributions to Planned Parenthood. He said it was impossible to criticize a company without using its name.

Most of the sites, which divert traffic to anti-abortion Web sites, were set up July 4. The sites contain disclaimers and graphic images of aborted fetuses.





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