AOL Threatens Peng, Demands Domain Handover

nutznboltz writes "According to the Peng project website AOL has sent them a cease-and-desist letter claiming that Peng, a GPLed software project is commerically exploiting AOL and has until Oct 15th to hand over the pengaol.com domain name." Update: 10/12 17:45 GMT by T : As several readers have pointed out, the domain name in question is actually pengaol.org, rather than pengaol.com.

Comments

.org not .com

[bjschrock]

It looks like the name in question is pengaol.org, and they've moved the site to another location. So they've either already given up, or are just getting ready to just in case.

Correction:

[flogger]

They are asked to hand over the pengaol.org domain name. Not the pengaol.com

Hmmm

[FreeLinux]

Registrant:
STEPHANE GUTH (PENGAOL-DOM)
3 Rue Des Vergers
BLIESBRUCK,57200
FR

Domain Name: PENGAOL.ORG

Administrative Contact:
GUTH, STEPHANE (SGM450) birdyisme@AOL.COM
3 Rue Des Vergers
BLIESBRUCK, 57200
FR
+33387022871
Technical Contact:
Departement Noms de domaine (CP1146-ORG) internic@AMEN.FR
AMEN.FR - Agence des Medias Numeriques
12/14, rond-point des Champs-elysees
PARIS
FRANCE
+33 1 46 51 95 60
Fax- +33 1 46 51 95 60

Record expires on 30-Jun-2003.
Record created on 30-Jun-2001.
Database last updated on 12-Oct-2002 13:39:17 EDT.

Domain servers in listed order:

PARIS.AMEN.FR 217.174.192.229
NS2.AMEN.FR 195.154.205.4

I'd suggest that Peng move to the domain and tell AOL what they really think.

BTW, seeing as Peng is French, are there any Nazi references or links on AOL? Let's hope not for AOL's sake.

Come on AOL,

[norweigiantroll]

Go pick on someone your own size. Gaim, Peng, Jabber, etc., seems like AOL just likes to harass non-profit, open-source projects. Come on, these people are working (mostly for free) on the software, giving out the software for free, and releasing the source code too. AOL should be ashamed of itself for for harassing people who are just trying to help their fellow man.

Here are the culprits.

[FreeLinux]

Arent Fox

Why not drop them a line.

They didn't look at the site

[Ektanoor]

It seems that looking at sites/articles is not a problem among certain /.-ters. If one looks well at this letter, then he may note that they only have taken a look the the name of the site...

Besides it seems that Peng's development came into a halt somewhere in August. This news is in the first page in French- "Peng ne sera plus maintenu" 03.08.2002. So, the claims come a little out of sight and rather harsh. Again, we see that lawyers are also bad readers, love to shoot first, blindly and stupidly.

Download While You Still Can

[fire-eyes]

Of course, this is only a suggestion.

http://osdn.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/penga ol /peng1.04.tar.gz

http://unc.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/pengao l/ pengaol0.96.tar.gz

Re:Wow

[AnyoneEB]

DUN is probably just as bloated, it just loads with Windows and can't be removed (like IE), so it seems fast and light.

Under Windows 9x you can remove Dial-Up Networking, but you need it installed for some LAN features including internet sharing (even if you are sharing cable/DSL). As far as I can see there's no option to remove DUP under Windows XP, but it might be hidden away somewhere.

Shame

[TheophileEscargot]

I've used Pengaol before, and it works fine. Essentially it's just a tunnel: if you have a valid username and password you can use it as a normal ISP from Linux. You don't have access to the AOL chatrooms or proprietary content (or didn't when I used it a year or so ago), and you have to sign up from a Windows machine: you can't create an AOL account with Pengaol.

I don't see how AOL are being harmed by this, since you still need to be signed up with them. Hopefully they'll keep the project going in spite of this harassment.

Re:Well, he should've not done this

[Anonymous Coward]

Peng can now be found here: http://www.peng.apinc.org/

reverse engineering ?

[ramzak2k]

Did you guys read there About page ?

they have a line that says,
"This program includes a reverse ingeenering of the Aol's protocol. "

Arent Fox guys must be drooling over that statement licking their DMCA plate.

They took my domain also

[Joe Jordan]

This is nothing new. AOL has been doing this to virtually any domain name that has the letters "A" "O" and "L" in sequential form for as long as I can remember.

I also had an a-o-l domain name. "EnhanceAOL.com" was my site before I got a cease and desist from Arent Fox claiming that I was diluting their trademark. My site was an aol add-on site - software that actually improved upon their client software (hence the term 'enhance aol'. They don't look at the "content" of your site. They don't care if your trying to save the poor starving children of the world. If you have "aol" somewhere in your domain, they're going to take it.

Don't believe me? I found this site: search.wipo.int which lists at least some of the AOL domains that have been repo-ed by AOL -- If anyone knows of a better source please post because I know there's been more.

Re:They took my domain also

[Joe Jordan]

Just out of curiosity, did you ever end up going before WIPO? How did things pan out?

I had just started advertising the domain for less than a months time before I got my first 'cease and desist'. I ignored them hoping they'd go away, but got another one about a month later. I wasn't about to risk lawsuit from a multi-billion dollar corporation, so I called Arent Fox and told them they could have it if they refunded the 2 year registration fee. They did, and I did. I didn't know as much back then as I do now, but I'm not sure if handling the situation differently would have resulted in any different outcome.

Re:Did AOL initiate this?

[portmonk]

From the Arent Fox website:

E-Commerce Transactions

Following are representative e-commerce and telecommunications transactions handled by Arent Fox attorneys:

AOL Legal and AOL Business Affairs. Represented AOL Legal and AOL Business Affairs in a multi-year, multi-million dollar strategic marketing alliance to offer Network Solutions= (NSI) domain name registration and value-added services globally across America Online, Inc. brands. Network Solutions= services will be available through co-branded sites across AOL, AOL.COM, CompuServe, Netscape Netcenter, Digital City, ICQ, and Spinner/Winamp, including the international services, making it easier and more convenient than ever for businesses and consumers to create an online presence.

Re:Bullshit

[Anonymous Coward]

Something like AOLSucks can receive special protection under the law (because of the type of speech), while using AOL in the name of a related product does not. If you own company XYZ, do you want someone else to setup a company called XYZ next door? Most business owners wouldn't.

The real question is "Why was AOL in the domain name?" Was it because they wanted to relate their product to AOL? Yes. That's why they're in the wrong. It's not as if they set up a domain years ago for a product called Paola, and then AOL came along and said "Hey! AOL is in there!" It's not like when Gateway 2000 stole gateway.com from it's legit owner.

Re:Sleezy Law Firm?

[LoadStar]

Note the last sentence. It sounds to me like it's not AOL initiating this, but in fact a sleezy law firm looking to create themselves some from by finding people to sue. They're probably hoping that peng will not comply, and thus generate themselves a juicy law suit.

No, Arent Fox probably does represent AOL Time Warner. This doesn't, of course, preclude that they are a sleazy law firm, but then again, most law firms can probably be described as sleazy.

Arent Fox is a pretty major law firm. I recognize the name from various Apple rumors sites - Arent Fox is the law firm Apple uses to go after the rumors sites when they break an NDA.

In this case, it's very likely that Arent Fox is retained by AOL Time Warner to pursue any and all copyright infringement cases they find. They are likely given a wide jurisdiction to act in AOL's behalf, up to the point of filing a law suit against a party. IANAL (but I did stay at a Holiday Inn Express), but I believe this is fairly standard in agency law.

What you describe is common in Germany, from what I understand, where any lawyer can go after a party, without having any kind of agency relationship with the offended party. (I vaguely remember a case involving SuSE of this type, I believe.) I don't believe that this type of action is legal in the US. I believe you have to be retained in an agency relationship with a party before you are able to pursue legal action.

Re:Not wanting to be offensive, but...

[seann]

because in french
AOL means
"contact"

Silly Thing to Expect To Get Away With

[reallocate]

AOL makes its money from all the "ad-laden" content and services it spoonfeeds to its subscribers. So don't expect them to produce software that enables AOL users to ignore that content. Or, to allow someone else to do the same without a legal challenge.

AOL has dallied with Linux dialers in the past, getting, I believe, at least one to beta. They've probably done the math and decided the costs of supporting Linux as an AOL client are more than the revenue they'd take in.

Under U.S. law, anyone who has registered a trademark must be seen to defend their rights to that trademark against infringers, or risk losing the trademakr altogether via a court decision that the trademarked language or art has lapsed into general usage. Years ago, Xerox went after use of the word "xerox" (which they'd trademarked) to refer generically to any copier. Even ran TV commercials telling people not to say "please xerox this".

Marketing a product that combines duplication of a proprietary product's functionality with an infringement of that product's copyright is tantamount to inviting a cease and desist order.

If you don't like this, at least realize that your real target isn't AOL but trademark law.

Section 1201(f)

[yerricde]

You are allowed to revese engineer under the DMCA in order to create interoperable software, I believe.

True, under the letter of the law: 17 USC 1201(f). But good luck proving in court that your "means are necessary to achieve such interoperability".

Re:Not wanting to be offensive, but...

[valmont]

heh. i speak french fluently. and AOL does NOT mean contact. but that did get you a +1 though! congrats :) hey, nice butt ;] hehe.

There are other reasons

[akadruid]

In the UK, at least until recently, AOL ran the only unmetered dialup service that did not require a BT telephone line.
In addition to that it was a fast, reliable and cost effective service. I hate the dialer as much as the next /. reader but the service was the best.
I have now moved and have an excellent ADSL connection but for six months AOL was the best solution by far.