Viacom goes after AllSP.com, unauthorized 'South Park' site

Viacom International Inc. has sent a threat letter alleging trademark infringement to AllSP.com, one of several popular but unauthorized video sites that offers full-length, commercial-free episodes of Comedy Central's "South Park."

AllSP.com has been operating since mid-2006 and has largely evaded copyright claims from Viacom, possibly because AllSP's servers are located in Malaysia, and according the site's owner, are therefore beyond the reach of U.S. intellectual property laws.

However, AllSP's domain name is registered with GoDaddy.com, a U.S.-based company -- meaning trademark claims are fair game. Yesterday, GoDaddy received a letter from Viacom requesting that they divulge the identity and contact information for AllSP's owner -- who goes by "Max" but stays otherwise anonymous for situations just like this. The letter notes Viacom's plans to file a complaint with ICANN -- the nonprofit body that handle's domain name disputes.  Here is part of the letter:

As you may know, SOUTH PARK is a registered trademark owned by Viacom International Inc., and, thus, the domain name creates a likelihood of confusion with the SOUTH PARK mark as to the source, sponsorship affiliation, or endorsement of the website... [more]

At first blush, it seems odd that Viacom would specifically target AllSP's domain name -- AllSP.com -- as a phrase that is likely to confuse consumers into thinking it's actually from Viacom. This isn't the kind of clear trademark rip-off you sometimes see when, say, a tissue company calls itself "Cleanex," or a toy company names itself "Toys Are We."

In cases such as those, the trademark in question is highly similar to the original and would almost certainly confuse most people -- possibly into buying from a company you didn't intend to. But it's hard to see how the name AllSP.com -- and remember, it's the name itself, not the content of the site, that's at issue -- is going to trick people into thinking they've found a Comedy Central-sponsored site. Such a claim would make more sense for a site such as SouthParkZone.com -- another big South Park pirate -- whose name actually contains the entire trademark. 

Just in case, however, 'Max' has changed the logo of AllSP.com so that on its home page, SP now stands for "streaming programs":

In March, Viacom and Comedy Central broke ground by posting the entire library of "South Park" online at SouthParkStudios.com. Those episodes are streamed in higher quality video than those shown on unauthorized sites such as AllSP.

"I think they were hoping that by opening their own site with streaming 'South Park' episodes, they would force my site to eventually close due to loss in traffic," said AllSP's Max. But, he added, "it seems since they started doing that it has had no impact on my traffic."

One factor in AllSP's continued viability is that its episodes have no commercials, whereas Viacom's officials episodes contain three 30-second ads each.

Another roadblock that Viacom faces is that its official channel is not yet accessible to viewers in England, Canada, Australia or New Zealand -- "for legal reasons." But you can watch AllSP.com from anywhere.

Max says he plans to switch from GoDaddy.com to a Malaysian domain registrar in the hopes of sidestepping any trademark issues. 

No word yet on whether SouthParkZone.com has received a similar trademark notice. But if they haven't yet, you can bet Kenny's life they will soon.

Of note: SouthParkZone's videos are not available, and a message informs viewers that it is temporarily "performing maintenance."

Comments

[TerraKill]

noobs the lot of you, if i rember rightly the creators of southpark dont mind people watching there show for free on the internet as stated at the begginging of one of there episodes

[DownWithIP]

It's great to see how government sanctioned coercion - i.e. intellectual property laws - are being challenged.