A lot of people are using the internet to speak out against the companies that they object to. From the global protest sites such as www.stopesso.com to the small one man operations, protest sites are springing up all over the net. But can it be done without attracting a ball of law suites?

Starting these websites can be a problem on two fronts. The first problem is that if you start printing lies about the company they wouldn't be happy about you bad mouthing them. The second is that if you register a domain such as www.xyzsucks.com are you breaking the trademark of xyz?

The first problem is easily to solve - don't say anything unless you can prove it. First of all making up lies isn't going to help the site as it will discredit it if it is discovered to be a lie and secondly it's not really fair on the company. Which is why the can sue you if you start publishing lies. Stick to the truth of why you don't like them though and they pretty much cannot touch you.

As for the second problem there is always the solution of not using the companies name in the website name but then how will people know the site is about that company? The good news is this is not a criminal act so even if the company does get angry, police are unlikely to come round knocking on your doors.

As huumor pointed out on one of my favourite web developer forums:

"if you hate McDonalds and make a "hate" site called www.McDonaldsSucks.com - you are probably more likely going to be #"¤#&"¤-ed by McDonalds lawyers than if you would use www.CrapDonalds.com - with this domain name you're not using the copyrighted McDonalds in it..."

The problem is going to come from ICANN's decisionon whether you can keep the domain or not. Some sites including www.walmartcanadasucks.com have been allowed to keep the names whereas a recent Reg Vardy protest site had its domain handed over to the company.

There is no clear rule on this one although running a search on www.theregister.com throws up some interesting results.