A simple DNS prank against former GOP VP nominee and current Alaska Governor Sarah Palin has finally come to the attention of Alaskan authorities, resulting in a cease-and-desist order as well as somewhat misdirected copyright claims. The owner of the site in question has caved to legal pressure, although one has to admit that the whole series of events was worth a chuckle. Houston-based DJ Shu Latif registered Crackho.com ages ago (according to a Whois search, 1998), but decided to give the site a fresh face in 2008 after Governor Palin was chosen as the Republican Vice President nominee. She changed the DNS settings so that all traffic to Crackho.com would go directly to Sarah Palin's official website. The change apparently flew under the radar until earlier this month, when Alaska's Attorney General Michael Barnhill sent a letter (PDF) to Latif demanding that she knock it off. Clearly, Barnhill and gang have no real understanding of DNS and URL redirects in general, because the letter asserts that Crackho.com made illegal use of the official seal of the State of Alaska without permission, and that Latif was in violation of the federal Copyright Act. Nevermind that the seal was on Palin's own site.
I can understand a politician wanting to protect their image...or whatever it is their hired legal guns think they're protecting, but you'd think that there would have actually been some thought put into the C&D letter sent to Latif. Is simply redirecting traffic to a government website a crime? Or is it simply that Palin's goons don't want her associated with such common Librul riff-raff as DJ Shu Latif?
Whether or not you find this sort of thing humorous (it brought a smile to my face, but it's admittedly not terribly high on originality), I really think that this saga only proves how clueless and humorless some Republicans are. As a public figure, Palin (and her goons) have to realize that parody is but one of the occupational hazards. Latif did not vandalize Palin's official site, nor was any tangible damage done. All he did was redirect traffic from his domain to Palin's official State of Alaska website. Jeebus, you'd think she'd be glad for any additional trafic and the opportunity to get her message out to the unwashed masses. Then again, if there's one thing that the last couple of years have amply demonstrated, it's that Republicans seem to lack the humor gene.
Man, if this is the biggest problem Caribou Barbie and her attack dogs have....
