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Molson Slapped in Domain Hijacking Attempt
Lew Pitcher writes "Well, it took a Canadian court to find that a Canadian citizen can own the domain name canadian.biz without being a beer (or a beer company). The Toronto Star is reporting
that the Ontario Superiour Court has overruled ICANN's decision to take domain canadian.biz from its current owner and give it to Molson's Breweries (makers of "Canadian" brand beer). A spokesperson for Molsons gave the obligatory statement about disappointment in the decision, and indicated that it was too early to determine if Molsons would appeal the decision. Score one against the bad guys."
Damn... I bet my money on the big guys.
The fact that I can never win a bet altered the course of history, allowing the little guy to win. A victory for society... BUT WHAT ABOUT MY LUNCH MONEY!
The inconsolable and hungry-
With my dying breath, I curse Zoidberg!
Kudo's to the Canadian court, but do they really have jurisdiction over ICANN? Does anyone? Or has this monster finally taken a life of it's own?
The precedent remains an appalling one.
I keep coming back to the concept of "Treehouse" from Tad William's Otherland series. Originally he conceived of it as a 'kill file' turned inside out. (Guess he used to be a USENET afficianado.)
Maybe it's time to create a TREEHOUSE of own with a set of new root DNS server shared on a P2P network. (Of course this TREEHOUSE would be conceived of as a DNS system turned inside out.) I can serve abcdxxxx.com through abdexxxx.com! ;)
By now there has to be sufficient bandwidth out there to support something like this. Good grief if we have enough spare cycles to find extraterrestrial life (seti.org) and bankrupt the RIAA with Napster, we have compute power to leave ICANN in the dust.
how dare you call molson's "the bad guys?" I owe my healthy figure to them and their tasty, tasty beers.
Let's hear it for the molson muscle!
According to the Canadian Press, the winning lawyer states that "On a legal level, it's the first case in Canada that a person who has lost their domain name at the quasi-arbitration stage ... has appealed to a Canadian court ... and it's the first case worldwide with respect to a dot-biz decision from a court."
I hope this decisive victory (for common sense) sets some precedent for future decisions and helps to discourage at least some of the rampant ICANN abuses. Perhaps unlikely, but every victory counts.
Finally, as a Canadian I love this line from The Star article: "We're all Canadian and everyone has the right to use that word. We successfully resisted Molson's attempt to turn us all into beer." Of course, I spent most of university trying to do the same thing to myself - but mostly without Molson's help.
My next sig will be ready soon, but friends can beat the rush!
Thankfully, most of Canada has a thriving microbrew industry these days that makes the national brands taste like sour corn syrup by comparison. The occassional batch stands against the best German or British exports, though not with great consistency.
One strange thing is that the Guiness generally gets better the closer you get to Ireland. Once in a blue moon the Guiness on the west coast has a head you can properly sculpt. The Guiness in Halifax is generally reliable, and if you pick the right place, the Guiness in Montreal can often be excellent.
Quebec is an interesting place beer wise. The beer selection tends to be fairly cosmopolitan. If you do chose a Quebec beer, it'll likely grow some hair on your chest. Barly retisa by the jug.
Molsons primarily appeals to the kind of person were lack of surprise is the only requirement. There are so many good good beers and so many good bad beers, I can't understand why anyone would drink Molsons at all, but there's no explaining taste.
I can see how the judge would look askance at Molson's attempt to patent the Maple Leaf. These days Tim Hortons is a much stronger national brand. They probably ran into the same problem that Microsoft faced in the court room: the judge was all too familiar with their product line.
No, the canadian courts do not have jurisdiction over ICANN.
They ABSOLUTELY have jurisdiction over MOLSON, as a company, as well as the individual who registered the domain in the first place.
Too bad about the decision, by the way could you spare a beer or two , eh?
I routinely drink my sweetie's pee, and let me tell you: hers is much, much better than either Molson OR Budweiser.
And no, I'm not posting this one logged in!
I really hope your comment title was an intentional double-entendre.
Virg
THANK YOU canadian courts! Now I can LEGALLY snap up all those *.ca addresses and squeeze them for BIG BUCKS! Hooray for the little guy!
Hey renehollan, don't you guys in Quebec have a local brew that's like 40 proof? Merci, AC
That's it. Those piss-ant's from up north aren't getting another penny of my beer-consumption budget! :)
Andy
This one seems to have a rather simple answer. Which came first, the word "Canadian" (in some popularity) or the Beer? Hmmm... maybe we were just called Canucks before the beer came around? This was a stupid ruling... while Molson is a good ol' Canadian beer (eh), it certainly doesn't give them a right to everything with "Canadian" in the name. After all, what about "Canadian Airlines" or "The Great Canadian Bagel"... perhaps "Canadian 2-for-1 Pizza?". By the standards of the original ICANN ruling, wouldn't this also give "American Airlines" (or perhaps *shudder* America online) first rights to america.biz or american.biz?