The operators of an Internet pornography site were prevented Jan. 6 under a temporary restraining order from using Teen magazine’s name in its Web address (Petersen Publishing v. Blue Gravity Communications, D. N.J., CV-78, 1/6/00). The magazine’s Web address is www.teenmag.com. The magazine’s staff discovered that a site owned by Blue Gravity Communications under the domain name www.teenmagazine.com connected visitors to porn sites and bounced them to other porn sites when they attempted to exit. Petersen Publishing, the magazine’s publisher, claims that the publication received complaints from puzzled teenage girls.
Teen magazine said that its own website receives 20 million page views a month. The magazine, which was founded in 1957, has a paid circulation of more than two million. U.S. District Judge Joseph E. Irenas issued the TRO against the company and its owner Thomas Krwawecz III. Krwawecz said in a statement that the site had been dormant until it was sold Dec. 9 to Fla.-based Cyber Entertainment Network, which operates 14 adult sites and approximately 3,000 other sites that lead to them. Krwawecz said that Blue Gravity still owned the site and blamed the delay in transfer on Network Solutions Inc., which registers domain names.
