As "the fight over Web addresses intensifies, some URLs
are not what they seem," according to David Sweet of the
WALL STREET JOURNAL, who noted that if you type in
espn.sports.com, "you'll arrive at ... CBS SportsLine. Same
with cnnsi.sports.com, fox.sports.com, msnbc.sports.com and
quokka.sports.com." SportsLine.com President of Sales &
Marketing Mark Mariani: "It's called smart Internet
marketing." But Quokka COO Michael Gough disagrees: "It's
wrong. It used to be something porn sites stooped to."
Sweet added that ESPN.com "is furious." ESPN Internet
Ventures Manager of Communications Eric Handler: "However
this happened, it is outrageous and our response will be
aggressive" (WALL STREET JOURNAL, 10/27). Mariani said that
the re-routing "ploy ... was meant to be spelled out in a
SportsLine ad campaign using this tagline: 'We just know the
Internet better than our competition.'" But the ads have
been canceled and "by today, the ruse will be dismantled."
While ESPN "threatened legal action," Mariani suggests "the
law is unclear in this area." But he added, "I don't think
it's time right now for us to test it." Mariani: "This is
fun, creative Internet warfare. (Competitors) skirts are in
their eyes right now, so we'll probably retreat and save
(such tactics) for a rainy day." ESPN Internet Ventures
Senior VP Steve Zales said, "A scheme of this magnitude,
apparently involving the misuse of numerous other news
organization trademarks and names, raises huge credibility
issues." Mariani "hints" SportsLine has "surprises coming
forward" (USA TODAY, 10/28).
