January 07, 2000 02:43pm
Porn Site Ordered To Drop Mag Name
Source: AP
(CAMDEN, N.J.) - A federal judge ordered the operators of an Internet pornography site to stop using Teen magazine's name in its Web address.
The magazine's president, Lynn Lehmkuhl, said staff discovered the pornography site last week and soon heard from puzzled girls. Teen, published since 1957, says the average age of its 2 million subscribers is 15.
"I was horrified. It was really hard core. Not even Playboy. It was really, really creepy," Lehmkuhl said.
The operator of the porn site, Blue Gravity Communications, and its owner, Thomas Krwawecz III, were temporarily restrained Thursday from using www.teenmagazine.com by U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas. The magazine's Web address is www.teenmag.com.
Irenas scheduled a hearing for next Friday on whether to impose an injunction against Blue Gravity. He ruled, however, that the magazine was likely to prevail because it would be irreparably injured if the site used the name.
Messages left Friday for Krwawecz at his home and at the company were not immediately returned. The porn site could no longer be accessed Friday.
Teen's lawsuit is among the first in the nation to rely on a new federal law banning "cybersquatting," the practice of using company trademarks in Internet addresses in hopes of forcing the companies to buy the rights. The magazine seeks unspecified damages, including any profits the defendants made from using the name.
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