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WIPO Awards 'Sucks' Domain to Vivendi
Sarcasmo writes: "A WIPO Panel has decided in favor of Vivendi Universal in the dispute over VivendiUniversalSucks.com. The arguments made on Vivendi's behalf are strange, to say the least." It's so unjust as to be farcical. When the domain name holder makes a sarcastic comment that he wasn't making any money off the domain (in contrast to the lawyer who was billing a few hundred dollars per hour to handle the dispute), the esteemed Panel takes that as evidence that he wants to sell the domain (which in itself was already a flimsy plank to call "bad faith"). Kangaroo court is too kind a description. ICANN is currently asking for input on the domain dispute resolution process, so if you've been a victim of the UDRP, now would be a good time to speak up.
... Are nothing but a farce. When you have companies who mass buy all available domains, then sell them for ten times the price, and ICANN lets them do this, they are no better than the bulk domain sellers.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
I think it's time for...
vivendiuniversalreallysucks.com
and maybe even
wiposucks.com
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...and sick! I love it. After reading that, I dont even remeber what the original post was about!
Wow, that had me laughing hysterically.
People may be confused by the "sucks" at the end of a domain, because ONE band (primus) owns PrimusSucks? That's just silly! The whole process of Domain name settlements have always been a joke, been this is a new low.
It's so unjust as to be farcical.
...The Farce is strong with this one, hummm?
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
How uncommon it is to see a fair "ruling" regarding domain name disputes involving a company and someone who's not representing a company.
The internet is starting to look more and more like real life, you got more money, you win.
Come on, since when does claiming "I'm not making money off the site" mean "I want to sell the site and you're not giving me enough money"??
If I am to believe John Gray's book, the judge has to be a female, this is too far fetched an understanding of a simple sentence. (no offense intended to the so-called "weak sex" audience)
One shall speak only if what one has to say is more beautiful than silence
If ICANN takes a domain in an act of censorship in the name of IP rights take it to a real cort and sue em.
Hold on I already know the victoms can not afford it.. So what is needed is to stick a civil rights group on this.
EFF or ACLU might be good places to turn.
I don't actually exist.
stating that the addition of the terms "sucks" and ".com" to the Bloomberg mark does not have the effect of escaping confusing similarity
"Microsoft sucks"
"Why do you like MS?"
"Huh??? I hate MS?"
"Oh... It's all so confusingly similar."
DOAC ownz j00, atleast until the next best thing comes out, hehe.
Wasn't the last 'sucks' domain (I think it was wallmartsucks.com or something to the effect) awarded to the guy who registered it and not Walmart? I forget how that one ended, but I do seem to remember him also requesting that Walmart hand over walmartsucks.org and walmartsucks.net since they were obviously registered in bad faith as Walmart wasn't planning on using them.
sic transit gloria mundi
You know ICANN took all this time to mull over new top-level domains, why don't they add ".sucks"? They could stipulate that no one owning a copyright for a name could buy the .sucks domain, and then all of the webmasters with grudges would have their own little playground to make fun of companies. Because all of the domains end in .sucks, they could not be "confusingly similar" to the original since everyone would know what the purpose of the .sucks domain is.
then this guy could buy vivendiuniversal.sucks, and everyone would be happy.
I'm sick of this crap. Time to start a second Internet. Free up all the domain names all over again, and this time, keep out all the corporate lawyers. Let's have some FREEDOM again! Who's with me?
I SAID, who's with me?!
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
[whois.register.com]
The data in Register.com's WHOIS database is provided to you by Register.com for information purposes only, that is, to assist you in obtaining information about or related to a domain name registration record. Register.com makes this information available "as is," and does not guarantee its accuracy. By submitting a WHOIS query, you agree that you will use this data only for lawful purposes and that, under no circumstances will you use this data to: (1) allow, enable, or otherwise support the transmission of mass unsolicited, commercial advertising or solicitations via direct mail, electronic mail, or by telephone; or (2) enable high volume, automated, electronic processes that apply to Register.com (or its systems). The compilation, repackaging, dissemination or other use of this data is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Register.com. Register.com reserves the right to modify these terms at any time. By submitting this query, you agree to abide by these terms.
Organization:
Secaucus Group Inc
Secaucus Group Inc
295 Greenwich Street (Suite 184)
New York, NY 10007
US
Phone: (973) 503 1785
Email: dparisi@garden.net
Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com
Domain Name: WIPOSUCKS.COM
Created on..............: Mon, Apr 19, 1999
Expires on..............: Fri, Apr 19, 2002
Record last updated on..: Fri, Feb 23, 2001
Administrative Contact:
Secaucus Group Inc
Secaucus Group Inc
295 Greenwich Street (Suite 184)
New York, NY 10007
US
Phone: (973) 503 1785
Email: dparisi@garden.net
Technical Contact:
Dan Parisi
Dan Parisi
295 Greenwich Street (Suite 184)
New York, NY 10007
US
Phone: (973) 503 1785
Email: dparisi@garden.net
Zone Contact:
Dan Parisi
Dan Parisi
295 Greenwich Street (Suite 184)
New York, NY 10007
US
Phone: (973) 503 1785
Email: dparisi@garden.net
The ICANN dispute resolution system has no legal value, it is just a dispute resolution solution. If the output don't match your hopes, you can still take the thing to court (a real one).
I'm going to vote them all out in the next election! Oh... Wait...
I'm trying to teach myself to set people on fire with my mind... Is it hot in here?
grumble grumble stupid tag-stripping code grumble
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Bleah! Heh heh heh... BLEAH BLEAH!!! Ha ha ha ha...
If Disney hold on to this domain to prevent it's use for "fair comment" criticism, can we take it from them citing "bad faith"?
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Such intellectually bankrupt decisions are even more problematic than they first appear because poor decisions serve as precedents that enable more and poorer rulings. The result is a UDRP system that has sent fairness into a death-spiral.
Quite frankly, some of these "panelists" need to go back to grade school.
Whatever happened to "First come first served?".
No, really, I'm dead serious, if a corporation thinks that they can wait years, quite literally, and claim their domanin name...fuck 'em.
McD's, and Coke, I believe did this..and lest we forget etoy and etoys. I've used etoys many times before they went away, never even visited etoy... no confusion there.
If nothing else, forget the "sucks" how about appending "sucksthebigone"...never be a typo as far as I can tell.
Anyone got a sack full of clue sticks? My arms are getting tired.
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
bug.gd: error search engine. Humanity working together to solve all errors.
I know this will piss some (many) people off, but I often find these domain name spats touchingly irrelevant.
...sucks... on a domain doesn't offer much in the way of real criticism. Effective activism isn't as easy as calling people names. If it's just a prank, then isn't all the hoopla a bit overblown?
o ly.html
In the long term, will domain name shortage be a real and continuing problem?
Just putting
Corporate dominance of public discourse is not a new problem. All the free access to domain names in the world will not overcome the fact that most of what most people see/read/hear is controlled by a relatively small group of greedy people. The world is poorer for it, but this is old news.
Try reading some pulped tree products for a great discussion of these problems. I'd start with Ben Bagdikian's classic, The Media Monopoly-- http://www.commoncouragepress.com/bagdikian_monop
You'll find some more pressing media control issues than "...sucks.com".
Sig?
Sigue Sigue Sputnik!!!
www.prolonged-discussion-about-whether-adding-suck s-to-the-end-of-a-second-level-domain-name-makes-i t-confusingly-similar-or-not-when-anyone-with-a-ce ll-of-gray-matter-can-tell-the-difference-sucks.co m
Want Linux games? HERE.
VivendiUniversalSucksALot.comw .c om
VivendiUniversalPue.com
VivendiUniversalPueGrave.com
VivendiUniversalSucksRocksThroughAThinCurlyStra
VivendiUniveraslCanSuckMyBollocks.com
VivendiUniversal-sucks.com
VivendiSuckniversal.com
FuckVivendiUniversal.com
http://www.udrpinfo.com/
Use the top right hand drop box.
Alan L. Limbury, Presiding Panelist
Sir Ian Barker, Panelist
David E. Sorkin, Panelist, (Dissenting in this case)
Note that Sorkin doesn't get to arbitrate many cases on his own.
Things that make you go hmmmm.
Let that be a lesson to the owners of xxxsucks.com sites. You should provide translations of "sucks" in Chinese, Spanish, etc.!
1. All URLs would have to have at least 20 characters. And there could be no dispute resolution and no trademarking. It'd be strictly first-come-first-served -- or even assigned -- and required to be uniquely descriptive. Businesses would have to register with the full business name and location. And the rule would be "no more than one URL per IP." Under this scenario, ford.com might become fordmotorcompanyinc-detroit.com.
2. Links would use these URLs just like they do now, as would bookmarks; and DNS would remain the same.
3. There would be a third, directory level, wherein a person could type in "ford", and a directory page would come up with a list of links, including fordmotorcompanyinc-detroit.com, as well as possibly tedsmithsaysfordmotorcompanyincsucks.com. Everyone would receive one free directory (keyword) listing with their URL. Additional ones would have to be paid for.
The situation we have now is akin to a small town with one phone operator: "Jenny, get me Ford." Problem is, the internet isn't a small town anymore. It's time to implement big city ideas, like (gasp!) phone directories.
This is simple. The owner of the domain was clearly within that definition of deceptively similar. I don't even see why this is being discussed, some guy disliked a business, he didn't say that one his web page, he in essence organized a public entity which defaces them by its existence and he lost when they defended their image. If somebody puts up slashdotsucks.org and slashdot of va chooses to fight it, they'd win too.
Please note the following before flaming and modding:
...the Panel has found that non-English speaking Internet users would be likely to attach no significance to the appended word 'sucks' and would therefore regard the disputed domain name as conveying an association with the Complainant.
This makes sense. That's really all there is to it. Non English speaking people truly could be confused by this. (Maybe it's a new movie called 'sucks' being released by VivendiUniversal ?)
Translating languages is difficult enough, but translanting slang and vernacular is almost impossible. Just try listening to some 12 year old girls describe Britteny Spears (sp?). Or try to remember (if you're old enough) 80's style valley girl speak... it's incomprehensible to fluent English speakers, I don't even want to imagine how non English speakers interpret this. For example, if I bought 'totallygrodyvivendiuniversal.com', how many English speakers would know what the hell it meant, and from the name whether it was a legitimate VU website or not? I doubt any non-English speakers would.
And furthermore, if you are concerned about free speech violations, register "IDoNotLikeVivendiUniversal.com". If that gets taken away, we have a problem.
...non-english speaking people would be going to the VivendiUniversal.com site in the first place. Since the whole site is English, I highly doubt that.
the Panel has found that non-English speaking Internet users would be likely to attach no significance to the appended word 'sucks' and would therefore regard the disputed domain name as conveying an association with the Complainant.
Hmm, the VivendiUniversialSucks.com site starts with: .....
Why Does Vivendi/Universal Suck?
Vivendi is a large, behemoth corporation that exists merely
It's in English. So non-English speakers could actually have some problems reading the site and it is therefore irrelevant if they know what 'sucks' mean. The site also does not feature any VU logos but rants about conglomerates like Vivendi. Surely any reader will immediatly think that it is an official VU site.
I guess that WIPO would like to have an Orwellian version of English with domain names like "VivendiUniversialDoublePlusUngood.com"
Because you have to already know the domain name you are looking for to access the website! If someone else has registered a parody domain name, a person who does not speak Spanish will probably not run into it in the first place.
www.boycottvivendiuniversal.com
whether anyone actually intends to boycott vivendi universal, that would be at least a very wise place to put the old vivendiuniversalsucks site.. watch vivendi try to take THAT one away..
To avoid customer confusion, the owner of a domain name should be required to put up a page at that domain that is appropriate to the domain name. Someone putting up a pro-Vivendi site at a "Sucks" domain is obviously attempting to trick customers into thinking that Vivendi does not suck.
__
Do ya feel happy-go-lucky, punk?
Well, kinda. Back in the late 80s/early 90s, Primus fans used the term "sucks" in an ironic fashion. It was kind of an inside joke -- ie, Primus fans would have bumper stickers that said "PRIMUS SUCKS", t-shirts etc. It was a heavily sarcastic way of showing your fanness, typical of the early 90's rejection of corporate culture (grunge, etc.-- Ah, take a moment to remember the glory days before all TV and advertising was wry and tongue-in-cheek and corporate marketers didn't know how to handle "Generation X".)
Seeing as it was originally a joke slogan meant to confuse non-"true" Primus fans, it makes no sense to use it as an example of how the general public might get confused-- that was the whole point!
W
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This is my SIG. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
Anyone else having a .info they registered during the sunrise period "stolen" from them?
.info currently didn't have a trademark when they registered it, regardless of whether *you* have a trademark for it or not! You then win by default and get the domain transferred to you.
It seems all you have to do is pay $295 to WIPO and prove that the person who has the
It is common ground that no use was made of the disputed domain name between the date of registration, February 27, 2001, and the date when notice of the dispute was given to the Respondents by way of "cease and desist" letter on July 26, 2001.
That's right, it was dead space. The whole redirect to geektivism is ex post fact, folks. Capitolizing on /. eyeballs, if you will.
While I think the WIPO decision is a laughable miscarriage of Justice*, I do find it a bit difficult to feel really high and mighty and start saying, "oh, how terribly awful." Even the fellow who registered the thing seems to have a good sense of humor about this whole joke.
Personally, I would wager that he's feeling the same way I am about the whole charade. Vivendi's response and the fact they actually convinced WIPO to give them the domain name is really just prooving this guy's point.
Cheers,
- RLJ
* Justice? These guys are lawyers, come on now...
It's disappointing that the most clever pre-tld suffix the defendent could come up with was "sucks".
Why not be more creative with something like VIVENDIUNIVERSALCANBITEME.COM or VIVENDIUNIVERSALBLOWSGOATS.COM?
Laughable.
Let's think about things for a second. If I opened up a fast food restaurant called "McDonald's Sucks" should I be forced to change my name? Yes.
If I decided to call my bookstore "Barnes and Noble Bites" should I be forced to pick a new name? Yes.
If I decided to starta phone company called "AT&T Blows" should I be forced to use something else? Yes.
Then why shouldn't the same standard be applied to websites? Why shouldn't trademarks be protected? I'm not a fan of being hampered in life by the law, being oppressed by monopolistic behavior, or having commercialism shoved down my throat. However, I believe in the right to have my own name and not have someone slander said name.
Of course we torture people, we need the information --Gen. Pinochet
So stop whining already and point your name client at OpenNIC, the non-ICANN name space. (Of course, OpenNIC includes the ICANN name space as a subdomain).
The only true solution would be to eliminate money in the world and move to a non-magic-fish-based economy. Ideally, we'd all be practicing Utopian Socialism, but unfortunately people are inherently greedy and can't practice such a system without trying to take advantage of each other.
A solution to the problem with music today
They own the best game company (BLIZZARD) there is so they cant be all that bad
It's too bad they don't just make a new TLD ".sucks". Then all the anti-[whatever] sites could be filed in there.
Bravo!
Things like that only makes you wonders whether this world is just. I guess we are see it for ourselves
I'll offer a delegation from my 2nd level domain, so for example, the domain that was taken from "j d sallen" can be replaced with the one I am offering: vivendiuniversalsucks.thekindbud.com.
Someone who is more enterprising than myself could set up some more 3rd level delegations, like vivendiuniversalsucks.mydick.com, vivendiuniversalsucks.greencanalwater.com, vivendiuniversalsucks.theyjustsuckperiod.com, and so on...
WIPO and ICANN have no authority over 3rd level delegations, as far as I know. But that might be an interesting battle if they were to try to take away a domain that was used in this way.
Edith Keeler Must Die
This is why there should be more top level domains available. If "McDonald's Sporting Goods" registered mcdonalds.com first, it would probably result in McDonalds the waste-management..err..fast food chain strongarming them into surrendering the name. So, we could have
mcdonalds.food
mcdonalds.sports
mcdonalds.criticism or mcdonalds.sucks
No confusion there...type in mcdonalds.food looking for sporting goods, and I'll promptly beat you about the head and chest with a hammer. Of course, someone typing companySUCKS.com looking for that company is equally amazing, even in hypothetical considerations. But, this would mean companies can't complain, or at least make a nice-sounding case for themselves.
As for this Vivendi case, its just absurd. Unless the owners of that site were claiming to be affiliated with Vivendi Universal, or made an identical site to hawk a similar product, it boils down to whether or not we are allowed to badmouth a corporation...or worse yet, say their name without praise and a genuflect.
And upon review of the facts, the courts found that Vivendi Universal really does suck, and no damages should be awarded.
More importantly, it must be borne in mind that not all Internet users speak English as their mother tongue.
Maybe so, but how many people on the internet have never seen an american movie? It's pretty dificult to be un-aware of certain american slang terms these days.
vivendisucksuniversal.com
Or, for the more creative types:
vivendisucksuniversally.com
Would non-English speakers be confused and think this is a Vivendi Universal site? And if some would be confused, would it just be really stupid non-English speakers who automatically assume that any domain containing the strings "vivendi" and "universal" must be official Vivendi Universal sites? At what point does individual stupidity become the responsibility of the individual and not the domain owner?
is you have to register *whatever name* and add a *whatever name + sucks*?
Ok, I'll bite, is this included when you register a name?
"Hello, I'd like to register 'mycompanyname'"
"Ok, that is available, would you like to sucks your name as well"
"????"
Heh, and much merriment was had by all.
But on a serious note, the dude has a point:
If that weren't enough, Vivendi has even threatened the owner of VivendiUniversalSucks.com, which points to this page. Although they have no legal grounds for such a threat, they believe they can unethically bully ordinary citizens into giving up legitimate first amendment speech against them.
Yeah, I'm going to summone my powers for stating the obvious, because it it often over looked, the obvious, that is and say:
"This suprises no one".
And why, I ask, does it seem these four letter acronyms are the main perps in bullying private citizens? WIPO, MPAA, RIAA et al?
I dunno, but it seems to me that at least one citizen is not going to be a corporation's WIPO'ing boy (whipping boy).
Oh, and not to make lite of this person's plight but he hinted at the phrase "corporate ethics" which as most of us are aware is an oxymoron.
If it is not on fire, it is a software problem.
If the non-English speaking visitors are confused by the work "suck", then they are really going to be confused when they realize the web site's content is in English too!
http://www.askthevoid.com
One of the key points of the ruling was the judgment that non-English speakers might confuse the domain name with Vivendi trademark. The fear is that someone would stumble onto the website and think that it's Vivendi, when it's actually not. However, it seems to me that a nonanglophone would find the page utterly unintelligible, assuming the thing was written entirely in English. It would be equivalent to a nonfrancophone stumbling onto a page with a domain name of whatever "vivendisucks" is in French. The nonfrancophone might not make the distinction, but if the page were written entirely in French, it would also be quite meaningless to that person. Thus, the supposedly infringing domain should not cause the slightest harm to the trademark holder, unless if the person viewing the page somehow thought the graphics layout of the page to be unworthy of an international corporation. All of which is to say, the primary premise of the ruling seems utterly ridiculous.
Great Britain: pissed = inebriated.
United States: pissed = angry.
Great Britain: football
United States: soccer
So a domain name that were to use the word "pissed" could certainly cause confusion even within the English-speaking world.
Same thing goes with "sucks". Now of course Great Britain might fall in line on that particular word, but what about the rest of the English-speaking world?
This is an example of why centrallized controling organizations cannot be trusted. They will always exhibit a tendency to decide in favor of the current centrallized power organization.
When designing systems, please always bear in mind that centralized points of control need to be avoided.
Even within a business organization this is usually true. Information will only flow to those who need it (perhaps to make the proper decisions) if it is able to do so without repercussions to those who transmit it. (OTOH, legal precedents make it clear that any such information should have a short expiration date. And that it should be automatically deleted after that date.)
Please remember, the feeling of pain that one experiences when one touches a hot stove may save one from a more lasting injury. And you aren't supposed to like it.
.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
As a matter of civic.. er... communal pride, this cannot be tolerated.
To quote ICANN's own website:
Decisions under the Uniform Domain-Name Dispute-Resolution Policy are subject to challenge by court action. The long list of their outrageous abuses of power can, still, be found here although the text of this particular decision isn't on that page yet, it's back, as I'm sure someone else has posted and I just missed it here.
So, we collect some money and make some phone calls to the ACLU and bring ICANN to court. This is a surrealistic violation of ICANN's own charter, not to mention of our sensibilities, and even if we lose (which we probably will) we should take it to court to generate bad press for them.
The good and new comes from no quarter where it is looked for, and is always something different from what is expected.
According to Dotster, http://www.vivsucks.com is still available. If I wasn't so poor, I'd register it myself. Would someone be kind enough to purchase it and donate it to the guy who just got the shaft from WIPO?
It is kind of funny to think that www.vivendiSucks.com will probably redirect to www.vivendi.com... Kind of like if www.MicrosoftAKAUltimateEvil.com redirected to www.microsoft.com...
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
So are you suggesting that the guy who registered vivendiuniversalsucks.com was planning to start a multi-national media conglomerate?
No, the person to whome you replied is merely shilling for WIPO and/or Vivendi Universal (who does suck, greatly). Perhaps they have even been paid to, as well known Microsoft astroturfers here and on K5 have been observed doing, or perhaps this person (or a close friend) have a vested interest in either this case in particular or the corrupt process in general.
Or perhaps that person really is as stupid as they appear, as your sarcastic response amply demonstrates their argument to be.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
My bullshit meter goes off the scale when the same group that allows p0rn cybersquatters to 'steal' domains from churches and small non-profit groups decides to squash some poor person who registers a *sucks.com domain. Even my non-technical friends Clearly understand what those domain names imply.
;)
What should have been done, was to sell the vivendiuniversalsucks.com domain to a p0rn site and let them battle it out... now THAT would be fun to watch
"Whoever would overthrow the liberty of a nation must begin by subduing the freeness of speech."--Benjamin Franklin
I'm sick of this crap. Time to start a second Internet. Free up all the domain names all over again, and this time, keep out all the corporate lawyers. Let's have some FREEDOM again! Who's with me?
Er... you mean something like freeWeb, which operates on top of freeNet??
Remember "Bring 'em on"? *sigh
since there is no primusreallysucks.com precedent, this domain should be allowed by a 3rd party.
... or perhaps, since even non english speakers know what fuck means, vivendifuckspigs.com is also not taken, and would satisfy the WIPO's requirements for a protest site.
FYI you can still buy WIPO.Sucks.net for $30 at Register.com not to mention VivendiStillSucks.com
Help fight continental drift.
http://vivendi.isverybad.com
.net and .org TLDs) just for cases like that.
http://vivendiuniversal.isverybad.com
Kindly provided by yours truly. Let Vivendi claim they have a trademark on "is", "very" or "bad".
I registered those domains (along with "are" instead of "is", plus the
What's incredibly disturbing about this opinion is that there was a perfectly legitimate, NON-COMMERCIAL gripe site up at VIVENDIUNIVERSALSUCKS.COM, which aired the opinions of both myself and David Sallen, the owner of the domain. Rather than recognizing this, and David Sallen's and my free speach rights, the UDRP panel took it upon itself to decide that our critical free speech just wasn't good enough in it's opinion. This is absolute garbage, plain and simple.
In any event, if anyone wants to take a look at David's response to the complaint in this matter, I've posted it at Geektivism. Feel free to drop by and leave comments about this case. I will be updating my site regularly to reflect ongoing news in this atrocity of a UDRP decision.
MD
Dan Parisi owns a ton of "sucks" websites with no content on them. His name turns up time and again in these UDRP stories because of that.
Is he a squatter? Of course he is. But he's not registering these domains in bad faith to shake down the entities which purportedly "suck", he's doing it to shake down the pissed-off people who get burned by Corporation X and want to put up a "sucks" site.
Learn to spell: nickel, missile, lose, solely, amendment, speech, kernel, probably, ridiculous, deity, hierarchy, versus
Registering a domain name costs $10-$20. Add the cost of some low end hosting for a year and you're looking at $50-$100.
Filing a complaint with ICANN costs $1000 or more. Add to this the cost of lawyers required to draw up the complaint and a company like Vivendi Universal is probably looking at $5000 to take the domain name.
Why not simply register a new name and wait for Vivendi Universal to get around to taking that one as well. Then repeat the process until you get bored or Vivendi runs out of money. Remember it costs a company about 100 times more to take a domain from someone as it does to initially register it. Under a system like this a few geeks could easily wage a guerrilla war against any opponent and either make them stop taking domain names, or drive them into bankruptcy.
So if Vivendi Universal now owns vivendiuniversalsucks.com here are a very short list of a few similar domains might still be available. With a little imagination I'm sure there are hundreds if not thousands of possible domains that embody the basic idea that "Vivendi Universal Sucks".
vivendiuniversalreallysucks.com
vivendiuniversalreallyreallysucks.com
vivendiuniversalsucksbad.com
vivendiuniversalreallysucksbad.com
vivendi-universal-really-sucks-bad.com
vivendi-universal-really-really-sucks-bad.com
vivendiuniversal-reallyreally-sucksbad.com
etc...
SVM, ERGO MONSTRO
(posting as AC for no discernable reason)
I see no other benefit.
Today, representatives of VivendiUniversal won a victory against the holder of www.gostickyourheadinapig.com because "Vivendi Universal" translated as "Go Stick Your Head in a Pig" in an obscure pidgin dialect used by 12 islanders living on a Melanesian atoll. Vivendi are now pursuing the islanders for inadvertently defaming their organisation, "VivendiUniversal really do care about our porcine customers, and we think their conduct is appalling and in bad taste".
Xix.
"Everything is adjustable, provided you have the right tools"
IANAL... blah blah
This is a good idea. Courts have upheld the "unauthorized" use of trademarks for parody and criticizm. However, each former domain holder would need to sue ICANN, unless a court granted class-action status to such a case. Either way, you're looking at mucho denerio required for such a case.
I tried registering VivendiUniversalReallySucks.com, but someone beat me to it. Darn! Guess I'll have to register FuckVivendiUniversal.com
well..
firstly, what they say about language and confusion is perfectly valid. I'm French, Vivendi is French as well, and i can tell you that about 40% of the French people surfing regularily on the net don't know what "sucks" mean. So, yes, it is misleading. I don't like WIPO a lot, but, from their point of view, it's understandable.
secondly www.vivendiuniversalsucks.com currently sucks itself. it is redirecting to a geektivism almost empty web page. if you want to prove efficiently that VU sucks (and it sucks), do it in a more efficient way, and never mind of the name it has, it will work. in France, we have associations and/or websites tending to prove that cable or ADSL companies suck, and their name isn't as silly as for instance _cable_company_pue.com (pue=stinks)
anyway, the problem looks more like "what will be inside", and "how will this be used". for now, the site is empty and useless (like many sucks.com sites, including linuxsucks.com that looks like a MS site: good looking, but empty of anything smart.). moreover, the name itself doesn't matter that much. try to find a way to gather all the clever things against VU (and there are lots of), make a great site from that, find a clever name (not just by lazily adding sucks.com). then, if the WIPO or anyone comes out against you, i'll agree that it is scandalous.
ok, so vivendi is primus, right? they both share the same family name...
erik
Most trademarks share its name or initials with many others. When authorities could put trademark identity beyond shadow of doubt, they are either devoid of intelligence or corrupt.
The United Nations World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO.org) and the United States Department of Commerce (DOC.gov) are hiding the simple solution to trademark and domain name problem.
The US Patent and Trademark Office virtually admitted this, on August 22, 2000: "The questions you raised with respect to trademark conflicts, as well as the proposed solutions, have their basis in good common-sense. As such, they have been debated and discussed quite exhaustively within the USPTO, the Administration, and internationally."
Yet the authorities refuse to admit the ESSENTIAL REQUIREMENTS. To deny this, is to be without honour.
The solution was ratified by honest attorneys - including the honourable G. Gervaise Davis III, UN WIPO panelist judge.
Please visit WIPO.org.uk to see the answer.
> Nice try, but at the core of UCANT's rulings is the principle that Jane Surfer is a dribbling AOL-Time-Warner-Microserf who is too stupid to figure anything out and needs to be protected from her own idiocy.
I was Christmas shopping this weekend when I saw a toy Harry Potter broom. It had a fairly prominent notice on the box, repeated, saying "broom does not really fly".
rant
Meanwhile, IRL, the mundane crapheads are still running things, because there are always going to be more fans of the WWF Smackdown than of All Things Considered, and everybody gets one vote with no literacy tests or competetency tests to weed out the unfit, the uneducated and the superstitious.
My point is that things like Freenet are very dangerous indeed because they provide a sanctuary that lets people develop a false sense of how powerful they are. We know that family size decreases with education - does no one here understand the mathematics of dynamic systems? If the competent hide in a beautiful cyber-utopia, and generate great works, the rate of decay IRL will accelerate. And without new frontiers (e.g., the Americas in the 1600-1900s) to run to, the future looks pretty bleak.
A fibre backbone (actually, a network of strategically placed fibre backbones) set up to do ATM, and PVC links to separate traffic, with wireless nodes at the endpoints would do the best to combat ping delay while maximiziong flexibility. Think of it, You're playing quake off a feed in Tulsa against a guy at the university of Alaska, and you're only three hops away!
Perhaps we can talk all the universities into putting down trunk lines, then segmenting half the bandwidth for private enterprise? It would give them a source of revenue besides football.
You think that I'm crazy, you should see this guy!
Once it becomes private enterprise, even in part, that's when we start having the problems that led us to propose it in the first place. Besides, I'm not so lazy that a company has to do it for me, and bill me each month for it. Amateurs building a network for the heck of it might not be as sophisticated, but it would be more fun, and a great shield against all the corporate/bureacratic shit that causes us to find fault in the current system.
Excuse, me when did domain registration become free speech?
Didn't any of you people have to click-through a license agreement with NSI or your alternative registrar of choice agreeing to be bound by the UDRP or its equivalent with other arbiters?
Please stop making life harder for those people actually fighting for free speech, a la DeCSS/Skylarov/etc, instead of fighting for the right to violate contracts in the name of pathetic humor.
KMFDM pulled a similar stunt in the early 90s. They named one of their many singles "SUCKS" and released t-shirts and stickers.
But was it an entirely sarcastic move on their part? Their first concert in Germany did feature 17 vacuum cleaners running simultaneously on stage....