Guntersville, Alabama—
Politics has certainly entered the 21st Century. It used to be that candidates accused each other of taking their campaign signs. Now in 2010, the charge is stealing internet domain names.Ed Teal, a candidate for Marshall County Sheriff has filed a lawsuit against his opponent, incumbent Scott Wall's, chief deputy, Doug Gibbs. In the lawsuit he accuses Gibbs of "cybersquatting."
Cybersquatting is using an internet domain name that could have someone else's name in it, to make profit off their name or to prevent that person from using it themselves.
In Teal's lawsuit in U.S. Federal Court, he claims that in January he went to register a website for his campaign. He discovered that almost all of the web addresses he could use, for example www.edtealforsheriff.com , had already been registered.
Using a court order, Teal's attorneys discovered that current chief deputy, Doug Gibbs had registered 19 web addresses that use some variation of Teal's name. Teal also claims that Gibbs did this while on taxpayer's time.
In the lawsuit, Teal asks that the court order Gibbs to surrender these addresses.
Teal issued the following statement: "The obvious intent was to deprive my campaign from the use of the internet in support of my candidacy. If the Sheriff cannot manage his own deputies, how can he be trusted to address the real challenges that face Marshall County such as illegal immigration and infiltration of crystal meth?"
Sheriff Scott Walls responded by saying, "Although Mr. Teal's lawsuit has nothing to do with the Sheriff's Office or me personally, he is attempting to relate this issue to the campaign . I do not endorse the behavior Mr. Teal alleges and I respect his right to have the court decide the civil case."
Doug Gibbs told The Arab Tribune that his attorneys have advised him not to speak about the lawsuit.
