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

Well, he should've not done this

[Anonymous Coward]

Using aol.com in your domain name for something AOL related is just asking for trouble.

Not wanting to be offensive, but...

[mhesseltine]

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?

Sleezy Law Firm?

[Unknown Relic]

"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.

Re:Uh

[overshoot]

Seriously though, what were they thinking? AOL _is_ a trademark.

Yes, it is. Therefore it's illegal for me to market my company "Another Old Look" (which sells faux antiques) as "AOL."

On the other hand, it does not prevent me from using their trademark to refer to them, as in the ISP help page, http://www.sample.com/help/former_aol_users which explains the Internet to people who have only used AOL.

Just as there is no trademark infringement if an auto parts manufacturer sells decorative wheel covers designed for Cadillacs and calls them "Roulette Wheel Covers for Cadillac," there is no trademark infringement for someone who provides accessories for AOL mentioning that fact. They're not claiming to be AOL, they're describing a context.

Bullshit

[Sean Clifford]

Using aol.com in your domain name for something AOL related is just asking for trouble.

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.

Re:Bullshit

[neuroticia]

Except for one thing. It allows the user to connect to AOL, bypassing AOL's software, bypassing AOL's control over their Online Service. It removes advertising, AOL's content, and other parts of the AOL user experience that AOL wants to provide.

If AOL wanted to provide Linux users with their software, they would. If AOL wanted to allow users to dial up to their OSP without using the AOL interface, they would. But they don't.

AOL is an Online Service Provider, not an ISP. They make part of their income off of fleecing companies and convincing them to join up. Anything that allows the end-user to avoid seeing the companies that have joined up, is effectively removing some of the selling power that AOL has.

On top of AOL's aims to provide a specific user experience, and get funding from various companies based on the number of eyes that will see their content, AOL is also required to defend their trademark--otherwise they will lose the right to defend their trademark, and it will become a term that lapses into common usage, thus usable in ways that AOL would not like.

AOLSucks is fine, it's a commentary site. It's non-competitive with AOL, and does not deny that AOL is a trademark. Pengaol is a violation of AOL's rights. Sucks, but it's true.

-Sara

One more for the "Suppressed" directory

[vegetablespork]

[user@host Suppressed]$ ls

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.

Re:Uh

[ChopsMIDI]

Therefore it's illegal for me to market my company "Another Old Look" (which sells faux antiques) as "AOL."

Actually... that instance would be okay because the two companies are completely unrelated.

AOL is just an acromyn, but only when used in the right context references American Online.

Re:Uh

[andyf]

Actually, I really don't think it would be illegal if you were in a completely different product arena. Basically, if there's no likelihood of confusion, it's less likely that you'll get in trouble. In the pengaol case though, I think there would be a likelood of confusion, but there probably wouldn't be for "Another Old Look" calling itself AOL. (Though you could probably get a lawyer to argue anything.)

Re:Here are the culprits.

[nettdata]

If you're going to hit them, do some REAL damage and check out this Perl driven bio page:

http://www.arentfox.com/cgi-bin/bioEditor.pl

Re:Wow

[asteinberg]

I didn't even know that existed.

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.