falwell parodies and personal jurisdiction

Back in June, I wrote about the owner of two sites parodying Jerry Falwell who had success against a legal challenge by the Reverend in arbitration. Within a few weeks after that defeat, Jerry Falwell's lawyers filed a complaint in a federal court in Virginia. This article, Falwell parody site preaches free speech, is an update on the status of the proceedings. Defendant Gary Cohn's attorney works for Public Citizen, which issued a press release Monday about the case. The release provides a link to the brief filed in support of their motion to dismiss, and to another page which contains some of the other documents filed during the lititgation. Part of their argument focuses upon the lack of personal jurisdiction over the defendants. As for in rem jurisdiction over the domain names themselves, the brief also addresses that particular issue.