Koch on the defensive, buying anti-Koch URLs

The billionaire Koch Brothers appear to be on the defensive against the Stop Koch, Save Wisconsin buzz on the internet lately, after spending over $40,000 to get Gov. Scott Walker elected less than a year ago, $400,000 supporting Walker’s agenda earlier this year, and $250,000 on Republican state senators in Wisconsin’s recent recall effort.

Last Wednesday, following Wisconsin’s last recall election where it turns out Walker and the GOP lost over 70,000 voters since November 2010, Koch Industries registered at least three anti-Koch domains: StopKoch.com, StopKochIndustries.com, and AntiKoch.com.

Domain research site WHOIS.net indicates the sites were registered on August 17, the day following Wisconsin’s final recall effort. If you go to the sites now, you’ll see they’re directed to tech group Melbourne IT, which specializes in “Online Brand Protection,” among other things. And as you can see from the html code, the title of each page is called “Melbournce IT DBS – Parked Page.” Parked there, presumably, so dissenters can’t.