Slashdot Mirror
When the WIPO Is On the Other Foot
slashdoter writes: "Last year Kenneth J. Harvey defended
his domain name Wallmartcanadasucks.com
( note the two ll's ) from Wal-mart.
so what does he do now? What every red blooded canadian geek would, demand
all of Wal-mart's domains with Wallmart ( two ll's ) in them. This would be really cool if he wins." This may be an opportune time to mention WIPO's new report on the domain name system, which recommends an assortment of new protections for trademarks in the domain name system. I haven't read it all yet, but the recommendations include taking domains away from the current holders and reassigning them, blocking new registrations of various classes of words, etc.
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$x=~y+ -xz+\0-Tx+;print$_^chop$me for split'',$x;
Your first post did sound like a raving maniac.
Seriously though...
Just because a corporation sues somebody doesn't make them think they are 'above the law'. They are just using the law to the fullest extent to try to get what they want; something that, although it seems unfair, everyone has a right to do. Of course, it takes money to do that.. so really only corporations and the rich can take this to the fullest extent, which is where the injustice kicks in.
Before you slam all corporations, realize that corporate officers are merely protecting the assetts of the corporation, something they are required BY LAW to do, lest they be the personal and direct target of a class action lawsuit from their shareholders. So blame the shareholders!
the register article doesn't actually say that he asked for wallmart*. he is "demanding that Wal-Mart hand over to him the URLs wallmartcanadasucks.net, wallmartcanadasucks.org and wallmartcanadasucks.ca.
Hey, could somebody let me know what the current url for "Artificial Turd Industries" is?
Every time I go to www.ati.com now, I get some silly high-tech company rather than everyone's favourite fake dog poop vendor.
I, for one, say that this sort of domain name seizure by a large corporation from a small operator *MUST* be stopped.
(Really, though, does anybody know how much ATI the smaller was paid for turning over the domain?)
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If a tree falls on an anonymous coward yelling 'first post' in the forest, does anybody hear?
Corporation are not human beings. They have no souls. They also have ZERO interest in talkign or doing things that are moral or right. They are only interested in making money. It it costs less to do the right thing then OK but if it costs more (the usual case) then you can go fuck yourself. Corporation exists to make money not to obey some god, promote a better world, help the community, or do the right thing. The corporation is the ultimate satanic entity (as defined by the church of satan and also pretty much as defined by the bible). A creature that exists ro promote the seven the deadly sins and to profit from them.
War is necrophilia.
I noticed you used the word "should". Unfortunately that is not possible. For profit corporations can not exist to reflect human interest especially if by "human interest" you mean the vlaues you were tought as a kid or are likely to pick up from some sort of religion. OTOH if by "human interest" you mean satisfying the endless greed and cruelty of human beings then of course corporations are perfectly suited for that.
War is necrophilia.
Has anybody else ever though of this whole *sucks thing as a different kind of Better Business Bureau?
At least with one of these sites you can go and look at what people don't like about the company, all the BBB will tell you is that x number of people have filed complaints. Whenever I go look at something like wallmartsucks.com I don't find myself especially impressed with what most of these people have to say.
I mean seriously, I spent some time working for a retail computer outlet a few years ago and the one thing I took away from it is that you can't make everybody happy. I don't doubt that some people have very legitimate gripes with the company they complain about but most of it is just silly whining. I would think that a company would be somewhat aloof to this, there's nothing at wallmartsucks.com that would stop me from shopping there. (I have my own reasons for avoiding that place)
Is this just a case of a company sending their pet lawyers out to do whatever they feel is necessary or do they really think that their potential consumers are unable to evaluate this guy's gripes and dismiss them? Sounds to me like a better deal than the BBB saying 17 people have filed complaints but we won't tell you the details so you can make up your own mind.
It is proper, as long as you don't try to confuse people and make them think you got the official company site.
There was a case in NY when someone used the company as www.bijaridesigns.com (mispelled), but when the company sued, they lost.
You can always appeal the WIPO decision to a court. Of course, that is the expensive way.
Fight Spammers!
Well said. Golf clap.
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Dyolf Knip
Apparently the WIPO is taking my sig to heart.
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Dyolf Knip
Personally, I think it's great what Harvey's doing here. I mean, I hate that someone can say "Give me your domain names" and such a demand is even considered by the WIPO, but this at least turns the tables and makes the whole system look really stupid. Which it is.
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Dyolf Knip
IMHO, the point is to show how fucked up the system is. This situation is a lose-lose situation for WIPO.
If wallmartsucks loses, then the arbitrainess of the system will be exposed(again) in a public forum. If they win, big companies have more to worry about.
Face it, WIPO is an agency of big government and vested interest. They are never going to vote for the little guy.
If you want some version of true justice, then you need to get the WIPO out of the loop, and replace them with a truly democratic body.
How about setting up such a Internet only body, allowing the net denizens to vote and then demanding that the nondemocratic agencies yield to true democratic will.
After all, its democracy that they hold dear, isn't it?
The problem is that the WIPO is filling a vacuum that was made by the growth of the internet. It is entirely possible that the WIPO could be cut out of the loop.
.com tld, all those country tlds are becoming more acceptable as time goes on. With the growth of the internet, chances are somebody will be finding your site through a search engine anyway, making domain names less important.
It could be done through an alternative TLD service like http://www.new.net/. Also, with the shrinkage of
The bad news is a big corporation can outspend most citizens. The good news is that it doesn't neccessarily have to stop you from having a website.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
I think it funny as hell. Companies should know that it is only a matter of time before people start pushing back at them. Corporations think they can do anything they please and they cannot. Domain squatting by corporations is horrible, they eat up everything they can get their hands on including names that have nothing to do with them, mis spelled names, its pathetic.
Finally a Corporation is getting a taste of its own medicine. I hope he wins, it will be send a message to corporations that they cannot bully people around and not expect people to get pissed.
Arathres
I love my iBook. I use it to run Linux!
stainless steel
You point out a very real problem. Many times someone who is right under the law cannot prove it because they dont have enough money. This is 100% wrong. Solution. If you cannot afford to fight ANY case in court, you dont have to pay the lawyer. Make the court system faster, there should be "Honorable Lawyers" (oxymoron?) that fight cases for free. I mean the number one thing people think about when being sued are can they afford to fight the case, that's not right. Justice should not cost any money! Companies can sue anyone they please, except richer companies, becuase they know they can drag it out for so long the other side will go bankrupt. I forget what the movie was called with John Travolta that pointed this very thing out. "A Civil something"
Arathres
I love my iBook. I use it to run Linux!
stainless steel
If you don't like a way a company is behaving there are options. Don't get pissed, get even. Go Gandhi; tear a page from his book and do him proud. The British told him he couldn't make salt. Did he give up? Hell no! He violated the fork out of their intellectual property. And he taught others how to do the same. I think on some level there is an obligation to resist such attempts to control art, expression and information. The record industry wants your money for nothing, and the artists works for free. Steal them. Make it expensive, and difficult for the offending entities to protect their "property". In our world information is nessicary for life; art makes life worth living. We don't have to accept unreasonable restrictions, and many reasonable restrictions come in different flavors of optional. Kenneth J. Harvey knows the score, and he's added a play from his own book. Why fight the system when the system is more than happy to fight itself?
--Jimmy has fancy plans; and pants to match.
It's a WIPO issue because WIPO customarily folds to the big company demands regardless of how it would play in trademark law. And pretty obviously the xSucks.com cases are not trademark violations -- unless x = Hoover.
The purpose of trademarks isn't to let companies control the use of a term in every way possible or restrict speech they find inconvenient, it is to ensure that consumers know which product they are buying when it's identified by a trademark.
I totally agree. The BBB is just another form of corporate bribery (or is it extortion?) Pay money, you get to use the BBB logo, pay enough money and no matter how many complaints you get, the BBB will do nothing. But that's ok I guess, since no one pays attention to the BBB logo anyway.
:), then make sure the company doesn't get it's own name (for example Best Buy cannot own bestbuy.sucks) Sure the site will be one-sided against the company, but hey! a company's web site is one-sided FOR the company so it balances out.
The solution? Group all the "*sucks" sites together into the top level domain ".sucks" Have a private organization run the servers (I'll volunteer servers and my admin abilities if someone has spare bandwidth and a co-lo
BTW, epinions.com does allow people to comment about almost anything. Not sure if their business model is viable, and thus how long they'll be around. But I always check there before buying anything or dealing with a company to see what others have said.
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He had come like a thief in the night,
Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes