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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.
Using aol.com in your domain name for something AOL related is just asking for trouble.
pengdialer.org is available as a domain. Why would you specifically use someone else's trademark in your name, knowing that companies with money will persue a change?
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Seriously though, what were they thinking? AOL _is_ a trademark. Dont get me wrong, I generally agree with a lot of the anti-megacorp stuff (software patents, the evils of the DMCA etc) but in this case they are clearly using AOLs trademark. It seems pretty justified to me.
were you expecting to see a sig here? perhaps you'd rather see the inside of an ambulance!
"Arent Fox asks us as a first step, to suppress every reference to the Aol brand name and logo, and after another (rather sinuous) argument, to hand over the pengaol.org domain name. We have to comply and answer before october 14th, or they will inform Aol of their action."
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.
The human mind is really good at spotting differences. When you read the words "Microsoft" and "Micro$oft" you instantly know that those are very different words. It therefore follows that domain names with different spellings are easily distinguishable and completely distinct.
The domain "micro$oft.com" is not in any way confusable with the domain "microsoft.com". They are different. You have to push different keys on the keyboard to get to these sites.
Now, if some buisness were to have a link to the "micro$oft.com" domain and say "Click here to get to MICROSOFT!" then THEY should get a C&D letter. NOT the owners of the "micro$oft.com" domain.
Any other use of litigation regarding particular choices of domain names is an abuse, and should be stopped.
-ZOD-
Bullshit. AOLSucks.com wouldn't have the impact without "aol" being part of the domain name. They successfully defended the domain under the auspices of fair use.
Just because the letters aol are part of your domain name doesn't give AOL the right to stomp down on your ass - even if the subject of your site is related to AOL.
If you're up to something infringing on their trademark like trying to make money off their good name, then yeah you're violating their mark. But this doesn't.
IANAL, but you should get one. They're really not all that expensive. Stand up to the bully. Tell AOL to fuck off.
aebpr22.zip* eBookReader (old verson)/
TiVo MPEG/
ASPI Me (backdate to 1998)/ PanoTools/ WINE with DX/
Blizzard Jackboots/ peng1.04.tar.gz WMA crack (v7)/
Broadcast 2000/ skie/ Xolox/
DeCSS/ Streambox VCR 3.1b/ xp-stuff/
[user@host Suppressed]$
When will these idiots learn that attempts to suppress software only result in wider distribution. I hadn't heard of Peng until today: now I'm preserving a copy.
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If you're going to hit them, do some REAL damage and check out this Perl driven bio page:
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You are allowed to revese engineer under the DMCA in order to create interoperable software, I believe.
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You are a goddamn idiot. What do you possibly think e-mailing (or /.'ing or DDOS'ing like the posters below) the LAW FIRM is going to do? Stop the law firm from SERVING their CLIENT? DROP the cease and desist? WHO DO YOU THINK IS "MAKING" THEM DO IT? Honestly, I can't believe people actually think that the law firm behind the company is at "fault" for serving their client to the best of their ability. If Arent Fox for some reason refused to send the C&D letter on behalf of AOL, besides its being unethical, AOL would go fire Arent Fox and get another firm. See the point? It's AOL that's doing it, not the firm.
The irony about moves like this is that AOL, in trying to destroy Peng, has instead just brought it to the attention of thousands of people just like you. Instead of helping a few users get around AOL's bloated interface, it can now help hundreds. Plus, since it's open-source, I think it's probably a safe assumption that it is here to stay - even if AOL's pressure scares the author into stopping his work on the program, the source is still out there, and now thousands of Slashdot-readers know about it and are interested in it.
Yet another example of how (surprise, surprise) big companies like AOL Just Don't Get It.
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but really AOL is always going to try to fight reverse-engineering attempts of their proprietary protocols. face it, they suck.
With all the alternative ISPs out there, why would anyone subject themselves to AOL for connectivity? My guess is many families have had their AOL accounts for a while now, and more educated children of those households attempt to cope with the lameness by using this cool dialer.
I'd say there will come a time when people will have to bite the bullet and give up those AOL screennames. They suck at broadband, they're heavily tied into dial-up, they spam the crap out of you, and shove content down your throat all the while confining you to their obnoxious sandbox and screwing-up your network settings. They do everything in their power to abstract the Internet back into AOL. I find that eeevuuuhl.
I for one have been using EarthLink for years on a slew of operating systems, starting from dial-up up to DSL (over 2 1/2 years now), and it's always been a breeze. They'll send you a CD that'll handle the whole sign-up and installation process, or you can just get an account on-line within minutes, and at the end of the web-based process they'll show you a secure page with your username, password, dial-up number, mail and dns settings with which you can manually configure your OS. And BAM you're done. That's $22/month vs $25/month. And if you are craving spoon-fed content, you can always access your account's "start page". Note that each earthlink account actually comes with uhh i think 7 additional accounts or was it 8 additional? forgot. Each account has its own e-mail box, home page address (10MB quota, not bad) (http://home.earthlink.net/~youraccount), and start page. Oh, also the EarthLink DSL account also gives you .. uh .. i think 20 hours of free modem dial-up access, so you can get on-line while travelling through hotels and what-not. They *will* bill your ass if you go over 20 hours though. careful.
Anyway this was just an example of what i find to be a really good nationwide alternative to AOL, but there are other local ISPs all over the place. I'd stay away from local phone companies for DSL service, and go thru a re-seller of their service instead. Phone companies might give you connectivity but they won't give you nearly as many "on-line" perks as other true ISPs will, make sure you comparison-shop. For example verizon assigns you some obnoxious cryptic email address when you get their DSL package. *lame*.
Also keep in mind that any time a local phone company advertises their DSL service to you, i'm pretty sure there has to be at least one other company that offers you similar service, typically with more features for about the same price albeit potentially slightly different service terms. I know EarthLink is pretty-much everywhere, but you have other companies such as speakeasy dsl or something that offer cool plans for gamers.
DSLReports.com is always a good place to look for competitive offerings from various providers in your area.
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You are allowed to revese engineer under the DMCA in order to create interoperable software, I believe.
The D-M-C what ?
They're in France anyway, and is reverse engineering is legal here, period.
(dunno how the EUCD is going to affect this, though...)
Quote: A federal appeals panel has ruled that the operator of Bargainbeanies.com is not violating the trademark of Beanie Babies creator Ty by offering used dolls through the Web address. The case is significant because it supports the ability of second-hand resellers to market and hawk their wares over the Internet without running afoul of trademark laws.
m h
.reg would do that. This is for the same reasons, primarily to advise people that the mark is legally registered and protected by law. It is indisputable fact that the answer to domain and trademark problems was self-evident and is easier to use than the telephone. Honest lawyers have ratified the solution.
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-961090.html?tag=cd_
Virtually every word is trademarked, be it Alpha to Omega or Aardvark to Zulu, most many times over. MOST share the same words or initials with MANY others in a different business and/or country. For example, the World Trade Organization (WTO) shares its initials with five trademarks - in the U.S. alone (please check). This could be any acronym or initialism - including the famous International Trade Centre (ITC) or International Monetary Fund (IMF).
You can legally use any word, words or initials to start a new business without registering a trademark - providing you are not passing off, of course. Take for example the word 'apple'. It is legally used by thousands of businesses - large and small all over the world. Indeed, it is impossible that they all register themselves as trademarks - they are bound to conflict with many others, being confusingly similar. In my local phone book alone, there are at least five using this word - two garages (seems not connected), a car centre, fruit growers and a decorating firm.
The authorities hide the simple solution to this conflict. From correspondence with them and their response, I believe them corrupt. Why? For a start, trademark holders do not own the vast majority of domains - it is obvious that something is needed to replace the registered trademark symbol - a new TLD of
To see major findings please visit WIPO.org.uk - not associated with UN WIPO.org. Although I use the initials WIPO, it is obvious to even the 'crooks' in UN WIPO that this site not associated with them. Same as is obvious to those at AOL that pengaol.org is not associated with them.