The National Republican Congressional Committee may be violating federal law.

The NRCC has bought up hundreds of website names that are the same as Democratic congressional members' names, and built sites that deceptively look like official reelection websites for these members, only to redirect donations to the NRCC.

Cute, but it my violate federal anticybersquatting laws that disallow people from trying to use website names that are copyright-protected because it is someone else's name, that person is still alive, while the NRCC ostensibly profits from people who may have intended to donate to a Democratic member and not the NRCC.

Yes, there is an exclusion for parodies and fair use, but you cannot use johnboehner.com, whereas you can use johnboehnerfail.com.  Don't believe me?  Read this:

"In 2000, Madonna won a lawsuit against a cybersquatter who had bought Madonna.com and set up a porn site. (The same guy registered, among other names, wallstreetjournal.com.) Likewise, Hillary Clinton won a case in 2005 against an Italian woman who had bought the domain name Hillaryclinton.com."

Further, it just smells of cheap, college-level pranks.  This only earns Republicans enmity, especially as these cases get filed in federal court and the spotlight is focused directly on the NRCC.  But worst of all for Republicans, they may be liable for statutory damages of $1,000 to $100,000 and treble punitive award.

Dumb.