Recently, I drew attention to the fact that some say that Glenn Beck raped and murdered a young girl in 1990, as well as the website: glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.

That site, which only began on September 1, has had a lot of visits.  And among those interested are Glenn Beck's lawyers.

By September 3, lawyers for Beck's media company, Mercury Radio Arts, had contacted the domain registrar demanding that the "highly defamatory domain name" glennbeckrapedandmurderedayounggirlin1990.com be deleted, that the WhoisGuard privacy protection service be revoked, and that the owner's contact information be turned over to the lawyers.

Registrar NameCheap didn't do this, of course, and Beck's lawyers sent another letter the next day, making the same demands. They also showed that they were reading the website: "We also note that it appears you contacted the individual, as he states on his website hosted on the Defamatory Domain that 'my webhost is taking some flak over this website, so if he gets shuts me down, it may take a bit to get rehosted.'"

But the lawyers didn't follow through on their defamation threat.  Instead,

Beck's lawyers also filed a case with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) in Switzerland, the group which handles the worldwide domain dispute resolution process, on the grounds that the new website was improperly using Glenn Beck's trademarked name.

Of course, Beck's name wasn't trademarked when this all began.  But now they've started that process.  Unfortuantely, while most of the "goods and services" associated with the name are obvious ones like DVDs and books containing Beck's special brand of commentary, the mark is also reserved for use on "cups, ice buckets, mugs, non-metal piggy banks, ceramic and porcelain holiday ornaments."

So it doesn't seem that the website is in violation.

As for defamation, there's probably a good reason why Beck's lawyers haven't gone that route.  It's a loser.  For one thing, the site clearly states that it is satire.  And satire it is — it is mocking, through imitation, the very same smear tactics that Glenn Beck himself uses (falsehoods, innuendo, etc.).

But his lawyers certainly are drawing attention to the site, which is probably counter-productive.