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Microsoft to sue Mike Rowe for Copyrights
An anonymous reader was among a host of submittors noting that a 17 year old named Mike Rowe has been sued by Microsoft for copyright infringment of their name.
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Ms Sasha Dot doesn't get ideas!
Sue someone for having a name.
Michael Hunt? Richard Hertz?
Get his site listed on /.
Mike Rowe Soft. Duh.
Wait until VA Soft hears about Mr. Slas H. Dot's
Trolling is a art,
His name is Mike Rowe and he owns
www.mikerowesoft.com.
That's enough to call MS's lawyers into his backyard.
They offered him 10 canadian Dollars for his domain. He was not amused.
Get it now?
Apparently they pulled this rather common scam of offering him a rediculously low amount ($10) for the domain. Then when the target flips out and says it's worth at least $xxx, they sue their asses for trying to profit off of a domain name.
The Register should know better.
Apple sueing Fiona ?
"Honey, I feel a certain distance between us..." "Really? A 31ms ping ain't that bad..."
Don't make them an offer. It seems that the big catch here is that Mike made a $10,000 offer to Microsoft ('s lawyers?), and that single act essentially made their case that it was a bad-faith registration.
Shouldn't that be "trademark" infringement? I didn't know Microsoft had exclusive distribution rights to the series of sounds in their name.
I'd bet a nickel the reporter who wrote the first story and editor never looked up the difference between "copyright infringement" and "trademark infringement," and then the story was duplicated to other news services without anyone bothering to double-check it.
...he also suffered a massive DDoS just minutes ago. Hmmm, I wonder why...
Comment removed based on user account deletion
I hate to row against the tide here, but given the lack of corroboration in the article (no comments available from MS, no documentation from WIPO, etc.), I have to wonder if this story is on the level.
At the least, we're certainly only hearing one side of the story.
hotmale.com next? ;)
p.
I guess every person whose first and last name sounds similar to Microsoft and has registered a domain, is in the same risk group. Happily Mike Rowe doesn't sound like 'SCO' does he ?
MySQL Error 1040: Can't return sig, Too many connections!
I thought that he had legally changed his last name to "Rowesoft" (hey, it's 6 in the morning, gimme a break), in which case I think it would be totally within his right to have his own name as his domain name. ...but I don't think he has a chance in this - I'm pretty sure this will just set a precedent that phonetics imitating corporations aren't allowed either.
I belong to the ______ generation.
The phoenetic similarity may not be evident to someone that doesn't speak english natively...
And in other news Microsoft announced the deployment of "Super Fun Happy Life Status Altering squads" to be used against those corporate criminals that use the name William or Bill Gates.
Be you Admins? nay, we are but lusers!
Slashdotting that poor poor mikerowesoft.com website. That $10,000 settlement just got sucked up in bandwidth useage!
(yeah yeah, I clicked it too...the Devil made me do it.)
"Draco dormiens nunquam titillandus."
Isn't getting his site /.'ed bad enough?
It must be Thursday... I never could get the hang of Thursdays.
After trying the legal route, Microsoft today took a teenagers website offline by taking their case to Slashdot.
The resulting traffic accomplished what their legal papers were previously unable to do...
Mike Rowe owns the domain MikeRoweSoft.com
Microsoft objected and offered to take it off his hands for "out of pocket expenses" rather than suing him into oblivion. Given that Mike's expenses were about $10 and that he had spent time and effort building up a web presence based on his own name, he made a counter offer of $10,000.
Now Microsoft is claiming Mike Rowe is trying to domain squat for profit and bringing out the big guns.
He was damn unlucky.
Question is, how many Microsoft customers and potential customers are dumb enough not to spell the name right, but smart enough to guess it as "MikeRoweSoft"?
[Ducks for cover]
1. Have child.
2. Name him/her Microsoft.
3. Sell when Microsoft tries to buy it for $10.00.
4. Profit!
Microsoft is suing some guy named Mike Rowe, with a web designing company named "Mike Rowe Soft". Somehow "Mic ro soft" thinks his name is threatening their trade marks.
...and offered to sell them the name. To lawyers, that means that he had no real intention of ever using the name, merely profiting from it. (He was just trying to be fairly compensated for his work.)
So, from a "legal" standpoint, he is going to have a tough time of things. He plans to fight though, and I sure wish him luck!
libertarianswag.com
I wonder if they will go after www.smartredirect.com who seem to own mycrowsoft.com
Don.
---------
Eatthepuddingeatthepuddingeatthepudding
Slashdot - The Home of the Tortured Analogy
As I view this post it's at 0 points. It'll be interesting where it goes.
quiquid id est, timeo puellas et oscula dantes.
...if they just bought Mike Rowe a bottle of viagra.
Oh, so this is more legal-system-as-advertising-vehicle and not simply life immitating Onion?
Truly a fresh slant on 'paying the bills'.
Get thee glass eyes, and, like a scurvy politician, seem to see things thou dost not.--King Lear
...not because they are who they are (MicroSoft, who has de facto dominace over the desktop, and thus are evil according to the tinfoil-crowd), but because no one should be allowed to get away with something as silly as this.
Its not even like the name MikeRoweSoft.com sounds that much like MicroSoft.com anyway, at least not to my ears. Possible the pronocication is different in MS HQ, but... this is plain silly. It would have been a different matter if Mike Rowe had called his website MikroSoft.com, but as he didn't I can't see that even MS's battalions of lawyers can believe they have a case.
Everything in the world is controlled by a small, evil group to which, unfortunately, no one you know belongs.
No, they shouldn't.
The coolest voice ever.
Hey this guy had it coming. Concatenating the word 'soft' to the end of your name is a clear-cut case of trademark violation. He is clearly trying to use Microsoft's name to further his own business - most likely being a poor college student - trying to scam Microsoft's legitimate customers.
I hope they really screw him.
Obviously the site died right away. I was able to copy Mike's message when the topic was still in red. /. rampage coming :)
I don't think he saw the
Wow, all of this exposure is starting to overwhelm me. I appreciate all of the emails I have been getting recently. If I don't respond to you that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it, I have been getting flooded and I am only responding to the ones I see fit. I am starting to get coverage all over the world. I have heard I have been on the news in the UK. That really surprised me. Anyways, thanks for visiting my site. I will keep you updated on everything that is happening.
And on 15 jan 2004:
I received an email from Smart & Biggar, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, informing me that I have been committing copyright infringement against Microsoft. They told me that I must transfer my domain name over to Microsoft as soon as possible. I was baffled by this email, yet thought it was funny at the same time. Microsoft was going after a 17 year olds part time business that he put a lot of time into just because it has the same phonetic sound as their company.
I responded to this email saying that I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the Internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business. A few days later I received an email back from them telling me that they would give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses for the domain name, which came to be $10USD. I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over to Microsoft. In response to this recent email, I sent one back to them describing how much work I have put into my business and that the domain was worth at least $10000. They refused to give me anything more than $10USD so I proceeded to ignore their most recent email. I didn't hear anything from them after their last email.
Yesterday, January 14, I received a package from the lawyers' office FedEx Priority Overnight. Inside I found a book over an inch thick with a 25 page letter explaining to me that I had all along had the intention to sell my domain name to Microsoft for a large cash settlement. This is not the case, I never thought my name would cause Microsoft to take this course of action against me. I just thought it was a good name for my small part-time business. In this letter it explains that Microsoft's customers could get confused between my page and theirs, which doesn't make any sense since Microsoft doesn't design websites. They do, however, sell a program called Microsoft FrontPage, which they say can cause some confusion between me making websites for my customers and them selling a program to make websites to their customers. I think it is just another example of a huge corporation just trying to intimidate a small business person (and only a 17 year old student at that) to get anything they want by using lawyers and threats. It reminds me of the Starbucks thing against the little coffee shop in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
mike's friends say "d00d your name is mike rowe, and that sounds like mic-ro-soft. you should register the domain." and he was all "yeah, and i'll make it something generic and innocuous like a w3 authoring business, and if ms asks for it they'll pay 10 grand for it."
lawyer letters freak out kid, who falls back on the "web authoring business defense."
or maybe he really is a totally innocent entrepreneur, who knows.
Yeah, I know, it's not yet April 1st, but this sure sounds like it
but Microsoft has lawyers, money and influence.
On the other hand, he has a right to his own name and though phonetically similar, I don't think a judge would consider him a direct Microsoft competitor. He wants to show off his web design skills? Does that compete with Microsoft?
I'm more surprised that people aren't cracking jokes like:
"Michael, Rowe the boat ashore."
How did Microsoft find out that the domain name sounded like Microsoft? Do they have some software that monitors the domain registry, or was the site getting popular? I guess they figured he was a easy target, but it seems like David wins against Goliath? :)
:P
In my eyes it seems like the overpaid lawyers that Microsoft keeps in it's stable wanted to give the impression of actually doing something
Does this mean I can sue Dr. Nick Evans for stealing my domain name?
And, more importantly, my likeness without my consent?
(This would have been a lot funnier if he still owned the just nickevans.com domain that had a flash page with a big picture of him on it, but he doesn't anymore...)
I belong to the ______ generation.
what about http://mike-ro-soft.de/ give me a freaking break you microsoft vampires. Man i would sue the entire internet community becuase some people are using IE. They will always find another way to screw the little guys over
HERE
libertarianswag.com
That they feel threatened by a one-man software website? Do they think that he could come up with a better version of their products?
>>esr>>
Here's the google cache of mikerowesoft.com
The article at the Register says:
"Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November..."
IHNJH, IJFLS "Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar"
-mm
charles dickens couldn't have written it better
why do you hope that poor male college students get screwed? maybe you could just attend more frat parties and do it yourself.
I'm guessing that comment may have been some kind of lame attempt at humour, because there are a lot of people who come up with some name, add 'soft' to it, and form a Software company. Sure, the guy may have thought it'd be funny, but he's entitled to create a business with his name in it. If Microsoft wins this, I hope he can somehow appeal =) Good luck to him.
MS will win this one. The offer was insulting but there are a few precedents regarding cases like these.
Jesus, the lawyers are being paid more per hour to write that infringement notice than he is being paid for his website. MS should just pay him 2-5k and shut the case. It'll be forgotten in a day or two.
Bush is on fire and its not good for my lungs.
IANAL, but don't microsoft *have* to enforce this to keep there trademark? If they don't, a competitor could potentially challange microsofts ownership of the name.
While it might not be very nice of them, I think politely asking him to hand over the domain was a reasonable request. With some companies *cough*RIAA*cough* the first thing you know about it is a $500,000 lawsuit.
I hope. Even though they managed to set him up for a "bad faith" claim this still seems to be an impossible case for them to win. Mike Rowe is the dude's name after all, this is simply a decent pun not infringment of anything. Unless somebody could misspell microsoft as mikerowesoft I don't see the problem.
vampirical
I don't see any banner/pop up ads, i don't think its about Mike getting paid
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Mike, don't sweat it.
MS, RIAA, and SCO are just having a running contest to see who can get the worst reputation from a lawsuit!
I had trouble going to the website. So here is the Google cache of mikerowesoft.com.
Linus torvolds sues Linax, Linox, Linex and Linix
;)
A goal is a dream with a deadline
Check out my website: blowmesmartandbiggar.com.
No... my name is not Blowme Smartandbiggar. Nor is it Blowme S. Andbiggar.
\\signed\\
Blow M. Smartandbiggar
3cx.org - A truly bad website.
Smart and Biggar.
'nuff said
xGSV Consolation of Dreams
Is Microsoft going to be after me next?
Oh shi
From the article:
He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills.
Well, that's exactly what a trademark is supposed to protect against; someone else using your brand-name for their own purposes. And because the way the trademark law works, Microsoft has to defend their trademarks; writing letters, suing; or else they risk the trademark being generic; free for anyone to use.
Microsoft may be an evil corporation, but I can't blame them for protecting their main trademark.
That the defendants name is Mike Rowe is interesting, but I personally think it is clear that mikerowesoft is intended to look alike and benefit from the name recognition of "microsoft". Mike Rowe can easily invent another domain name that includes his name and build his own brand name without leeching on Microsoft.
)9TSS
Instead he asked for 10,000 dollars so he appears to be extoring M$.
Smartest move ever.
If this is not a hoax (Is the law firm really Smart & Biggar?), then this guy should get some legal help and fight back!
Is Gates really this insecure?
(No, I mean his feelings about his own shortcomings, not security in his OS's).
~8^]
They sound identical:
Mike == Mic, Rowe == ro, Soft == Soft.
The big thing here is that it's his name, he should have the right to his own name and to make a company with his name in the title.
"...stating he had intended all along to sell the domain for profit and that his domain would confuse Microsoft customers."
HAR-HAR!
I would think precedence is what is the driving force in this case. Afterwards, a simple letter will suffice. Always go after the poorest opponent, then the richer ones will be softened. Isn't that first year law school stuff? Geesh.
Well, Mike is reassuringly candid and although we have not seen Microsoft's letter and the company has yet to confirm or deny its threats are real, it seems to hang together.
So The Register readily admits that they haven't seen a shred of evidence other than this kid's word that this has taken place?
Where does the school board find them and why do they keep sending them to ME?
Mike, a self-described computer gook, registered the name in August.
Is this a typo or have I been left behind in the newest slang update? I feel so old.
666-607: 6th floor apartment of the beast
The article points out that this could easily be confused with an article from The Onion. I'd add "or an urban legend".
Did you notice the law firm that he claimed M$ uses to scare him? In order for the law firm to seem smarter and bigger than the peon they are suing, they are allegedly called "Smart & Biggar"! Obviously fake, right?
And then I looked it up, and it's a real law firm!!!!!! http://www.smart-biggar.ca/About/ (Presumably Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh is based on people's names... :-)
How about if Mike Row offers Microsoft $10 for the microsoft.com domain?
"Its not even like the name MikeRoweSoft.com sounds that much like MicroSoft.com anyway, at least not to my ears."
Then you're pronouncing "MikeRowe" incorrectly. It's in fact exactly the same, just spoken with a different rhythm.
My other Beowulf cluster is... er...
/. just took him out for you :-)
Concatenating the word 'soft' to the end of your name is a clear-cut case of trademark violation.
Yeah, like taking the word Microcomputer and concentrating the word 'soft' onto it. No one had ever done that before 1976!
:: NEWS :: April 24th/2003 :: Site Launched
Welcome to MikeRoweSoft Design. I finally had time to design myself a portfolio to show off all of my work so I hope you enjoy.
My most recent work is located on the left. I just finished off the BattleStats site yesterday and I think it looks pretty good, my best work as of yet.
If he _really_ wanted the money, why would he wait more than 6 months, AND use the page to promote his work? Doesn't that seem like to much trouble for domain parking?
Then again, perhaps it's a practical joke.
With great numbers come great responsibility!
This was on metafilter a few days ago.. The reason Mike Rowe is being sued by M$ is that there "might" be some confusion between the websites because of the design of Mike Rowe's website.
There's also a quote on canada.com" where Mike Rowe says it would be "cool" to have the same phonetic name as the "famous company Microsoft". He had a website (or two) before this, according to the links on his web page.
The Canada.com article does say Copyright, not Trademark, and mentions his mistake of asking for money from Microsoft's lawyers, who are conveniently called "Smart & Biggar". This is just after saying he didn't set up the website to make money (it's $25 a page for his services btw.)
I doubt M$ will be able to win solely on his "sole intention to extract a large settlement", especially when there are only so many ways to organise a 3 section web page in english, i.e. with a top bar, a left bar and a content column. He did step in a big pile of dog poo with his comments though.
BBMicrosoft is, as per usual, in the moral "wrong" but has the foundation for a solid legal case. He really should have consulted a lawyer the second he got the first letter.
I can't really fault Microsoft any more than usual for taking advantage of a bad move on the kid's part - they're a ruthless corporation and it is expected.
Publicizing it was a good move, though.
GoDaddy is currently charging $7.95 for a .com domain, therefore $10 would be right; the domain is litterally worth $10(or really, $7.95).
Mike Hunt?
I'm not so sure MS is doing this because of domain squatting, it could just be that it's going to cost them a lot less than $10K to take him to court. Mike should have checked on this first, for $5K the MS response might have been quite different.
At any rate, he is clearly infringing on the Microsoft trademark. Imagine if someone could call themselves "Gee Em" and start selling cars, or if a company adopted the name "Eye Bee Em" and started selling computers and consulting services.
Eric Sarjeant
eric[@]sarjeant.com
Now if they only had another partner named Thanyu, they could win their cases by just saying "We're Smart & Biggar, Thanyu, so pay up"
(rimshot)
Sorry... couldn't resist
Wow, how stupid.
I can't believe these companies continue to try to squeeze water from rocks.
Next up: scientists discover how to make fine wine in 30 days!
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Wellwell, seems we did the job for M$. The site is slashdotted.
Now one thing reamin to be seen, is this true?
As TheRegister article states. They havent seen any proof. Time will tell. Be cautious and rigtheous.
10 Canadian Dollars?!
Where can _I_ find domains for US$0.50?
I don't see how it could automatically be considered that he registered the domain out of bad faith. If MS offered the kid $10, and he says "no way, I just spent a sh*tload of time building this up - pay me $10,000 because its a pain in the ass to redo everything." It doesn't seem like bad faith to me... it seems more like the attitude of "Fine, I will give up the domain because you people are bloody annoying, but I'm not giving it up unless you pay me for my wasted time." This is probably what a lot of people would do. He probably had no intention of puting MS-related content on his page and drawing parallels between him and MS, he just happens to have a catchy name. I hope MS gets a lot of bad press about this so they can smarten up... they are acting like a bunch of little kids.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
Trademark law is there to protect against someone using a similar name to confuse customers or to defame a company.
Only retards would confuse the spelling "mikerowe" with "micro".
But then I guess what Microsoft is doing now is just caring about their primary target audience.
Here is a list of people who have the name of William Gates in the state of New York. 120 results. Someone tell the Microsoft lawyers! Hi, i'm Bill Gates.
There are lots of *soft companies out there; ie Peoplesoft, Terrasoft, etc. Furthermore, his name is spelled in such a way that it is not even possible to get it as a Google listing if you search for Microsoft.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
...his business will definitely cost a lot more than M$ offered.
Even if Microsoft does win this case, this guy's business won't lose a cent, vice versa -- it will profit greatly from it.
May Peace Prevail On Earth
Isn't "Rowe" pronounced "row" as in, "having an argument with someone" rather than, "rowing boat"?
... but we are smarter and bigger. How long until somebody will turn this nice SQL injection into some world-class defacement?
...citing copyright infringement on his site, then yeah, I can see that they might have been a bit confused...
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
They offered him ten Canadian dollars. What's that, like, $2 over here?
Isn't it a bit early to judge this thing? The Register didn't even hear Microsoft's response yet.
From the Register's article:
"Can Microsoft really be attempting to take a phonetic-sounding domain name? Well, Mike is reassuringly candid and although we have not seen Microsoft's letter and the company has yet to confirm or deny its threats are real, it seems to hang together. Unless Mike is a first-rate hoaxer, it would appear that Microsoft really has lost the plot and is trying to extend the already flawed domain dispute rules into hitherto unexplored territory". [emphasis mine]
True; it sounds real enough but it could also be a smart hoax.
Hmmm...
:-)
Is this more evidence that Microsoft has so much profit, that they don't know what to do with it?
Nope sorry about $7.70 US maybe more as the greenback continues to tank.
Mike should not have try to negotiate with MS. Try to negotiate with the master at it's own game! Let it be a lesson to us all. Whenever you get M$ hounds after you. Don't try to pull a fast one.
- these are not the droids you are looking for -
Apparently they pulled this rather common scam of offering him a rediculously low amount ($10) for the domain. Then when the target flips out and says it's worth at least $xxx, they sue their asses for trying to profit off of a domain name.
I would think that the target of such a scam could defend the high value of the counteroffer in terms of the cost of rebranding (not profit). The cost of a domain name is much more than the out-of-pocket money for the registrar. Other "costs" for given up a domain name include:
1. Labor: It takes labor to change a domain name and all the materials associated with it. This include tasks such as: time spent findng a new domain name, redoing all the HTML in the site to change to a new domain; contacting all one's friends and business associates to inform them of the change; and reprinting business cards, letterhead, and marketing brochures.
2. Lost Revenues: In changing domain names (and possibly company names), some crucial business contacts become lost. When an old client tries to contact the person at their old e-mail addy, they get a bounce and figure the person is no longer available.
Although I don't know how much Mike Rowe used his domain in business, It would seem that $10k is on the low side for a true costs of a concerted rebranding effort.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but three lefts do.
What's more expensive:
/.'ing
Bandwith bill after a
or
Legal bill for fighting Micro$oft?
No...they don't. But since when has going to court ever been about having a "case"? Do you think a 17 year old is going to stand a chance against lawyers that get more money than his entire family has made in their entire lives? More than likely he'll have to just give it to them for 10 bucks like they asked...
Wow that's an ugly site.
Is it just me or is it also impossible for others to read the blue links that are between the bright yellow text?
Letter from lawyers != getting sued
(at least not yet)
maicrowsopht.com haughtmeil.com emessen.com mykreusauft.com IE defaults to MSN, and there's a direct link to the most important area on MS's site RIGHT on the freakin' start button. Do they really think that someone's going to get confused about reaching microsoft?
I go to an engineering school where the majority of students are CS majors. The director of residental life is named Eunice Ro. I'll warn her not to name her kid Mic or Mike if she plans on sending him to the school.
They possibly got "copyright" from the authors page.
I received an email from Smart & Biggar, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, informing me that I have been committing copyright infringement against Microsoft. They told me that I must transfer my domain name over to Microsoft as soon as possible. I was baffled by this email, yet thought it was funny at the same time. Microsoft was going after a 17 year olds part time business that he put a lot of time into just because it has the same phonetic sound as their company.
I responded to this email saying that I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the Internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business. A few days later I received an email back from them telling me that they would give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses for the domain name, which came to be $10USD. I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over to Microsoft. In response to this recent email, I sent one back to them describing how much work I have put into my business and that the domain was worth at least $10000. They refused to give me anything more than $10USD so I proceeded to ignore their most recent email. I didn't hear anything from them after their last email.
Yesterday, January 14, I received a package from the lawyers' office FedEx Priority Overnight. Inside I found a book over an inch thick with a 25 page letter explaining to me that I had all along had the intention to sell my domain name to Microsoft for a large cash settlement. This is not the case, I never thought my name would cause Microsoft to take this course of action against me. I just thought it was a good name for my small part-time business. In this letter it explains that Microsoft's customers could get confused between my page and theirs, which doesn't make any sense since Microsoft doesn't design websites. They do, however, sell a program called Microsoft FrontPage, which they say can cause some confusion between me making websites for my customers and them selling a program to make websites to their customers. I think it is just another example of a huge corporation just trying to intimidate a small business person (and only a 17 year old student at that) to get anything they want by using lawyers and threats. It reminds me of the Starbucks thing against the little coffee shop in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
The first and most important rule in ANY case where somebody is threatening legal action:
SHUT UP AND GET A LAWYER!
The second most important rule:
UNTIL YOU HAVE A LAYWER, STAY SHUT UP.
Suppose somebody contacts you and says:
"You are in violation of our copyright [sic] on our site - give us the domain or we'll sue!"
The proper response is something like:
"Very interesting - OK, please give me the contact information for your law firm, and I'll have my attourney contact your attourney. I prefer to have all furthur contact through my attourney, so please route everything through your legal group."
If they persist in contacting you directly, inform them firmly that all furthur contact should go through their attourney to yours, and any direct contact is harrassment.
In a case like this one, where you ARE being contacted by the other side's legal department, then you should GET AN ATTOURNEY LICENSED TO PRACTICE IN YOUR AREA. First thing. Then route all contact through him.
Otherwise, shut up - say nothing to the other side. While it may be a civil matter rather than a criminal matter, remind yourself that "Everything I say will be used against me in court."
www.eFax.com are spammers
But the typing is entirely different!
Arf!
Send the Register link to all your friends. This guy's only chance is turning this whole situation into a PR nightmare for m$. "Big bad corporation suing bright eyed teenager". I'd love a little report on the Daily Show on Comedy Central about this for starters.
Being "not amused", he should have asked someone (lawyer, community, etc) what to do next. I feel sure the instant he counter-offered, the lawyer on the other end started salivating heavily.
Hook, line, and sinker.
When a company with as dubious a past as Microsoft attempts to take legal action against you, you should IMMEDIATELY consult with a lawyer before even gracing them with a response. It's similiar to being arrested (not that you can ever prove I have been). "Anything you say and do can be used against you." Or whatever the Canadian equivalent might be.
Caveat: IANAL
Yep, the fact that the domain name contains his own name should be a significant defence against bad faith (it's the same defence used by family businesses called McDonalds, for example). In fact, as long as he does not attempt to pass himself off as having any association to M$ on his site, he should be free to continue as is. Offering to sell the domain could be used as a reasonable defence to discourage Microsoft's approach - effectively telling the company the domain is not for sale by putting a silly price on it.
I think he'd have a fair chance of victory if he pushed this up to an international level (WIPO domain dispute resolution) for resolution.
It's not you: I'm just this horrifically socially awkward with everybody.
I fail to see how anyone could connotate "geeem.com" with "gm.com" and "eyebeeem.com" with "ibm.com" just as much as I doubt one would confuse "mikerowesoft.com" with "microsoft.com". I suppose it might be possible for non-native English speakers using Babelfish for translation, but I doubt that US and Canadian trademark law is enforceable for every concievable worldwide possibility.
--K.
Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
being sued by Microsoft for copyright infringment of their name...
...priceless.
Microsoft must be taking public relations lessons from the RIAA
He can't enter into a contract, and I think you'd have to do that to accept 10K for a domain name. IANAL, but I doubt that offer means anything. I'm not sure, even if he were not a minor, how offering to sell the domain name to them would make their case that it was a bad-faith registration. Lending to the fact that it wasn't a bad-faith registration is that it's based quite directly on his real name, I'm assuming (I didn't read the article). -- Nate
"... his domain would confuse Microsoft customers."
Sounds about right. Microsoft customers (by definition) are not the brightest cookies out there. Case in point, Clippy.
I think MS will win this one, and they'll be justified. OF COURSE the kid knows that his name is phonetically the same as Microsoft. It's very clear that it is a play on words to use the name of Microsoft as an advertising tool.
If "soft" was actually a word which meant something about software, then maybe he could argue that yes, it's just his name, with just as much merit as "MikeRoweSoftware", but "soft" is not really a word in this context.
The only chance I think he has is if the judge thinks that 'soft' is a common enough suffix on a name to indicate a software company that it really is so unavoidable that the confusion is simply because the kid's name is Mike Rowe (Although if his legal name is "Michael", it may get even harder for him).
Just think about it, why isn't the domain name "RoweSoft" or "MichaelRoweSoft"... it's an obvious play directly on Microsoft's Trademark.
Actually, no. It's by no means brilliant, but it's certainly explainable.
You're a big company. YOu're huge. You are very, very controversial. When intelligent, well-informed people think about you and your business tactics, they combine images of alien zombies with all-encroaching slime-mold and a coven of satanists whose approach to product design and quality control issues is limited to ferrying suitcases of cash to Washington.
It has been proven in courts of law that you steal code and suppress competition. It is well-known that you are cavalier towards other people's patents and copyrights and fiercely protective of your own. In short, you are scum.
So What is your optimal startegy? In order to keep the great ordinary from hearing that you are scum so often that it clicks one day (I'm paying WHAT?!! HOW?!!), you have to control as much opinion as you can and a websight on a domain that is easily associated with your name is very dangerous to you at; least psychologically and at worst, materially.
It's got to work on your nerves. It has to make things run through your head.
A site on a domain like that might be used to report every time your blithe unconcern for security costs your customers billions; it might be used to post wonderfully funny pieces about how your founder is a, vulgar, fast-food munching, nerd with documented B.O.--a loser who couldn't have gotten a pity-screw from a nymphomaniac saint until his net worth was in the *billions* and even then, as the world's richest man, his choices were limited to an employee who looks the worse for wear--who looks more and more like a frump with a case of nerves in each royal portrait.
When you've little to offer but a lot to lose, you have to control what people say about you. You have to find the channels and close them: it's a trend that shows your internet savvy which is why 'Georgebushsucks.com' used to take you to a site and ask you for a contribution to his campaign.
Sorry to hear they didn't just pay the damned kid. One thing about being scum is the psychological inability to realize that writing the kid a check--even one for ten times what he asked for--with a handshake and hinting at an internship one day would beat all hell out of reaching for your lawyers and generating news coverage that proves that even your worst critics are dead right about you.
Of course, if their mindset embraced ideas like this, they would have leaned harder on their quality than on their lobbyists and the would have had nothing to worry about in the first place.
You've got to love it....
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
This infuriates me. I can't wait to see that company rot in hell, if such a thing existed
Berto
No, it's like rowing a boat.
Back in the early 1990s I lived in Victoria, BC (where this kid lives now) and there was a little computer shop called 'Mike Rowe Computers'.
Looks like it has gone out of business now, but I wonder if it's somehow related... ?
If a guy takes his own name and adds 'soft' in the end, there's a fair chance that it is really just an innocent coincidence.
Question: People tend to use their own name when marketing professional, creative services. Does Mike Rowe has more moral rights to use his own name than Microsoft has rights to dictate the use of common word 'soft'?
Yeah, it's the law, I know, but the world where I thought I was living there were things like 'corporate image'. But it seems that we are reaching a phase where some players don't have to care anymore. Enormous amount of bad publicity over a small matter which does not mean ANYTHING and does not pose any harm to MS as a company. Scary.
Can _anyone_ present even one remote possibility on how the domain mentioned could possibly cause any problems to Microsoft? I guess the pronounciation is more of a problem to Mike himself - if he tells eg. via phone some potential client to send mail to mike@mikerowesoft.com, it might end up into mike@microsoft.com.. and if you tell someone to go to microsoft.com, nobody figures that in their heads as 'mikerowesoft.com' - maybe more of the opposite. And that's still Mike's problem.
But what MS should very well know is that a case like this, based on some damn pronounciation, would gather attention. Negative attention. This is *so* weird. I mean really, really, weird PR from Microsoft.. even a bit unprofessional.. starting all the way from that $10 trick :P
-el
I think if he does get enough support, he probably should fight back. But it brings another case of the Nissan.com domain to me in which the domain name can't be used commercially.
What I thought was very interesting about the case was mentioned in the FAQ to the Nissan.com case. It said
In the www.MikeRoweSoft.com case the interpretion is weaker as the similarity is "phonetic" which is really quite fuzzy, compared to the actual presence of the word "nissan" in the domain name. Despite this the original owner of the Nissan.com domain could not prevail.
If you go to the website Nissan.com you see the following Notice: In compliance with a ruling issued by the United States District Court in Los Angeles on November 14, 2002, in the lawsuit of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. v. Nissan Computer Corporation, this web site has been converted to non-commercial use.
The story from the Domain Name Handbook was
So, I guess, I could see something like this happen. Mike Rowe may be ordered to post a prominent disclaimer of any connection to Microsoft Corp and refrain from displaying any computer-related information. IANAL.
To see a world in a grain of sand, and then to step back and see the beach where the sand lies
Their point is that he could just register a new domain name, change the URLs, and keep all the work he put into the content.
They don't want the content, he can take that with him.
It's like parking next to a fire hydrant, they are saying move along, take your car.
And all you flamers who don't read very carefully, note that I make no mention of whether M$ is doing the smart thing, the right thing, the correct thing, or anything.
Infuriate left and right
Oh, man - I was wondering why this copy of MikeRoweSoft Windows was so cheap!
I would have tried to check this story out on CNN, but for some reason my genuine Magnetbox TV isn't working.
No, they're not evil because they dominate the desktop.
They are evil because they use that monopoly unfairly, to illegally (attempt to) dominate other areas. They are evil because of their unethical and illegal business practices: buying out or crushing all competition, secret agreements with vendors, spreading lies, putting profits over user experience and security, doing their utmost to prevent interoperability with other software and systems, continually breaking the spirit and the letter of anti-trust agreements, and much more.
Microsoft are evil, not because they dominate the desktop, but because, thanks to them, most people (think they) have no alternative.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Strange, I'd say that's an example of poor reasoning on the part of the lawyers.
Just because someone is willing to sell a domain now, doesn't mean that they weren't legitimately planning on using it when they registered.
Oh wait, that's not strange at all. It's just what we expect from lawyers. bleh
Post Hoc
Guess microsith is next.
I bet those guys at http://www.expee.com are really wetting their pants !
Actually I would have modded you funny but a different reason. The article said:
Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November laying out its complaint, he was "amazed and appalled". He replied saying he didn't want to hand over the domain and didn't feel there was any risk it would damage Microsoft's name. (Emphasis added)
Your post said:
Viagra sales have surged over 3000% due to fears in the male population that a failure at the wrong moment could spark a fatal combination of adjectives for describing the male genitalia in relation to its size and smoothness.
Smart & Biggar, huh? Sounds like Viagra spammers...
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
"...stating he had intended all along to sell the domain for profit and that his domain would confuse Microsoft customers."
This means that Microsoft's customers are easily confused. Perhaps Microsoft's lawyers could use that as an angle for their case.
"Your honor, we have customers who paid real money for Windows upgrades, and they actually thought they were getting something in return for their hard earned dollars other than a superficial interface upgrade! Look at all those people who bought XP. If they were dumb enough to do that, they will almost certainly mistake some kid's website for ours! We're going to lose billions in revenue from that! Hang the boy!"
"Backups are for wimps. Real men upload their data to an FTP site and have everyone else mirror it." -- Linus Torvalds
The parent is incorrect--minors most certainly *can* own property. What made you think minors can't own anything?
Moreover, they also can enter contracts.
However, minors do have the ability to avoid their obligations under any contract they enter with an adult, except for certain exceptions. So most people are understandably reluctant to contract with minors, clearly--but that doesn't mean that minors *can't* contract.
I wonder who is going to win this battle. On one had you have Microsoft the multi-billion dollar software goliath. On the other hand you have a 17 year old kid that is a multi-hundred dollar one person development company. I personally think he should hold out for around 50,000 dollars since it means so much to Microsoft to have this domain name.
I have always wondered if these lawyers of Microsoft's are just free ranging lawyers that find causes and go out and fight them with the Microsoft pocket book. Or if there is some guy in Microsoft thinking up all these things to sue about.
He could have had more fun ;)
;)
:)
hehhehe
What if you use other trademarks in a negative way
Though only an american could really confuse his website for MSs real website. One for Lenos Headliners eh!
I might register mikealljaxoff.com
or SOWEKNEE.com or crapasonic.com or yehaa.com or sumefuku.com
-biaaatch
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
...the holders of domains MyCrow.com, MyCrew.com, WhenDoes.com, WinDozens.com, MikeRose.com, and MikeRosoff.com have all hired lawyers.
Mr. Mike Rosoff of Kennebunk, Maine is especially worried, because he has received a cease-and-desist letter from Microsoft lawyers claiming that his social security card, driver's license, passport, and all items using his birth name are infringing on copyrights.
More on the story as it develops...
--Mark
__:-b
"It is nice to know that the computer understands the problem. But I would like to understand it too." --Eugene Wigner
someone could call themselves "Gee Em" and start selling cars, or if a company adopted the name "Eye Bee Em"
I think the difference is that Mike Rowe is his given name, rather than one he chose to use.
(Mike=Michael for all intents and purposes. Many people with names like this (Tim/Timothy, Ron/Ronald, etc.) are only called by the longer version when they are in trouble with Mom, and the fist day of school.)
This might just be word play, but i read it that the kid thought he was selling the whole buisness for $10k. Wouldn't that get him out of the fire to an extent?
There are things we know we don't know and things we don't know we don't know. - Donald Rumsfeld
Smart and Biggar? Are they affilliated with Dewey, Screwem and Howe?
I know of two people with the last name of Rowe. Both are pronounced with an OW (as in "OW, that hurt"). I was just thinking it would be hilarious if Microsoft took this kid to court, and as the police dude is reading "the case of Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe", Mike's lawyer could stand up, say "correction your honor, it's pronounced rOWe"... judge: "dismissed"
My Sig Beat up your Honor Roll Sig
That would be a really, really cool idea. Except, if memory serves, the bit on the register includes quotes from, Mike Rowe, the kid in question, and it was he who realized that his total costs were $10 Canadian and not the case that Microsoft had offered it to him.
Were the reverse true, your idea would be truly brilliant.
To mail me, remove the 'mailno' from my email addy.
"Yeah. It smells, too..."
I may be a little offtopic here, but I see since Microsoft has yet to win against Lindows for trademark infringement they decided to set precedence by picking an easier target? Microsoft claims that their customers would get confused by the name. Well, at my work computer, right on the front bigger than life it says "Designed for Microsoft Windows XP". Do a google search for Microsoft, the only place where mikerowesoft.com shows up is in the news portion. I do not see how they can claim brand confusion there. I think the teen's only problem is going to be that since he is a minor, he cannot register a business yet.
"You say my way of thinking cannot be tolerated? What of it?"
Your friend Microsoft is lost in the maze of IP infringement.
Please help him to find out all the names used by evil hackers who want to steel mighty things from your friend.
Because there are so many bad boys in the world that speak strange languages,
help your little friend Microsoft to get every occurence of name spelling that can sound like his very own name.
Of course in english, our friend Law Yer has just come with the evil name : Mike Rowe Soft, so this one can not be proposed.
When you have finished this game, hand out the answer to your dad or your mom and go on to the next game.
For instance, in French
[mi | my] [c | k | que] [r] [o | au] [ss] [o | au] [ft | pht]
The world belongs to those who get up early. - I'm far from being the king of Earth then
I'd be laughing even harder. The whole thing would have made a pretty nice parody, if somebody had thought of it first. Hard & Bigger suing Mike Rowe Soft... I'd have even thought it a bit contrieved.
sig is my sith nature.
>They sound identical
BS. I hope you never think of becoming an actor, or engage in any form of public speaking. I imagine it'd be a lot like the Simpsons episode in which they make a film of Radioactive Man.
Mike Rowe is two words with a distinct pause between them.
Micro is one word with no pause.
Just activated the MSDN Universal!
Maybe I'll go pull down GCC4.0 as a chaser!
-1 Utterly Whack
Strictly speaking it is Visual BASIC- BASIC is an acronym, and as such can be capitalized- see your own example above- SCO.
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
Crazy situations, but wouldn't you be looking for the Candid Camera when you get a call from Smart & Biggar that say that they represent Microsoft?
Bill Gates and company probably don't care, but they lawyers are probably personally sick of last name puns and have gone postal!
So, this all sounded pretty stupid, until I realized that well, Microsoft is pretty much just covering their ass. IANAL, but, it seems that this would fall under Trademark infringement. And if i remember correctly, a company risks loosing their trademark if they don't stop people from using it incorrectly. So, basically, I think Microsoft would just rather not have this happen, as loosing the rights to their name might have bad consequences. Hell, we could start making Microsoft Linux, and could you imagine, Microsoft OpenOffice. So yeah. The whole thing sounds a little weird at first, asking this guy to hand over the domain, but if you were Microsoft's Lawyers, what would you do?
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
I was ready to chalk this up as a hoax (I still have an odd feeling about this), but there's actually a "Smart & Biggar" law firm (thought it was some stupid joke about microsoft being bigger and... uh, smarter, I guess).
/.
Also, I could have sworn I saw some joke about a "Mike Rowe" a while ago on
Many posters have mentioned that he screwed up by offering to sell the domain to MS for $10,000. (Why these posts have all been modded up when all they've done is re-state what the Register article says is beyond me. I guess moderators don't RTFA either.)
What he *should* have done when they offered to reimburse his out-of-pocket expenses (the $10) is ask for $10,000 to cover his costs not only for the domain, but also for the original marketing research he used to choose an effective domain name, the logo development, marketing expenses related to generating traffic to his website, his legal expenses, etc.
---------------------------------------------
SERENITY NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That would be a trademark violation, not a copyright violation. The two are completely different legally. Among other things, microsoft is legally obligated to defend its trademark or face losing it.
However, if Mike Rowe's use is non-commercial, Microsoft's action is unnecessary and the shouldn't prevail (but it's probably too costly to fight them).
Mike Rowe shouldn't have much to worry about, despite his 'bad faith' offer. Trademark law only kicks in when it appears that someone is either attempting to profit from the original trademark, or if there is a possibility of confusion between the company owning the trademark and the work in question.
Neither case appears to apply to Mike Rowe's website since we don't type phonetically. Rather, any lawyer could easily make a case that this is a parody of Microsoft's site and thus 'fair use' of the trademark.
Advice to Mike Rowe: include subpages or main pages which parody Microsoft's website.
(IANAL but I took several law classes in college)
MikeHunt.com - Being sued by Moe Szyslak, owner of Moe's Tavern for prank call infringement.
HenWeigh.com - Being sued by Jenny Craig, settlement offered of $15 in McDonalds Gift Certificates
ShoBullshit.org - Next on the list for SCO for misleading location of mystery source code backed up on mothership hiding behind Venus.
MyLittleBoy.net - Sued by Michael Jackson for misleading name. Settlement reached at 100 little Sailor outfits with various sizes.
MajorWoody.us - Major Horace Woody has apparently given Woody Woodpecker a bad name. The Pecker and Woody are working out a deal out of court however.
FamilyLove.net - Pending legislation by the State of Arkansas's Singles site, FamilyLovers.net.
SlashingDot.org - In close contact with Cowboy Neal as geeks to not want to be confused with a "News for Serial Killers" site.
gaggle.com - Upsetting google.com, but google is unwilling to start gang warfare as drive by DoSes sometimes comprimise innocent networks.
DeathRow.us - Death row inmates suing for misrepresentation of convicted criminals actually on Death Row.
Garbage.com - Also being sued by Microsoft for copyright infringement of copyright. Alleges that this name is a common slang for their products in knowledgable circles.
-1 Overrated (Too many big words for me to comprehend)
Hmm. No.
Microsoft is my-crow-soft
MikeRoweSoft is mike-row-soft
the difference is the imperceptible pause - for MS it's between i and c, for mike rowe it's between k and r
~ced
A Google News search for mikerowesoft.com returned:
Did you mean: microsoft.com?
Will that help or hurt Mike's case?
You want a sig? I can get you a sig... Hell, I can get you a sig by 3 o'clock this afternoon... with nail polish.
I can't blame them for wanting to protect their trademark, but this goes too far. Didn't Victoria's Secret lose their case against Victor's Little Secret? If I remember right the court's opionion (INAL) was there was no proof Victor's Little Secret diminished the trademark value of Victoria's Secret. M$ will have an uphill battle on this one, that MikeRoweSoft confuses people into thinking less of Microsoft (as if that were possible).
Yeah, shut up and get a lawyer, kid. I'm guessing there might even be someone willing to go to bat for a 17 year old pro bono. You can't buy advertising like this.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
I 'm wondering if MS would have a case at all if mike had registered his domain as mikerowesoft.ca And isn't ity just great how when you search for a domain name directly from IE and it is not found then boom, microsoft is the first to know about it
http://msdn.microsoft.com/vbasic/
Yeah, I was in Germany, the butt of the joke becuase my ear couldn't differentiate between kirche (church) and kirsche (cherry).
They, in turn, were beat down trying to tell symbol and thimble apart (not to mention cymbal).
Or maybe it was the sight of an American recognizing the existence of a language besides English that was so amusing.
I love my country, and the ideals embodied in her Constitution. The fact that the bulk of the population is worthy of ignoring, I think, has to do with the fact that people just don't scale.
Note to geekland:
Microsoft is to the market
as the US is to the world.
Keep that in the back of your mind when asking 'Why do they hate US?' questions.
and create... MikeRoweSoft Lindows
Right. No one is that friggin stupid that they would type the wrong name in by accident or would be confused by the different spellings.
Let the kid have his fun. Damn, this litigation shit is out of control. I see absolutly NO HARM at all in what the kid is doing.
He's not "diluting" their trademark or name or anything else. I can't stand M$ but I have to give the kid an A+ for being clever and M$ an F- for not beating him to the punch. Now they will just beat him. Mercilessly..
Type mikerowsoft on Google News and you'll be asked Did you mean: microsoft?& ie=UTF-8&oe= UTF-8&q=mikerowesoft&sa=N&tab=wn
http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=
so he cannot be held responsible for anything he says
However, now I'm thinking about names to register because a $10 cheque from Microsoft would be worth framing.
Oh? You mean like a trophy? And if Bill spat on you, what would you do with that?
MikeRoweSoft.com is running Apache on FreeBSD.
;)
Lawsuits are just one way to lower the number of Apache servers.
I wonder if Microsoft would pay him to change his name to Lee Knicks and register another domain.
Comedy imitates life. What are the chances of someone being named Mike Rowe, and then deciding to start a business with software or something in mind. And then to put that all together and register a domain name that sounds amazingly like micro$oft. Sounds like the plot of a very funny Seinfeld episode.
www.samuraidreams.com - My Blog
www.samuraifiles.com - Get Some Videos Here
It seems Google is supporting Microsoft on the Mikerowesoft.com case. Just type mikerowesoft on Google News, hit enter and you'll be asked Did you mean: microsoft? More info on http://news.google.com/news?hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe= UTF-8&q=mikerowesoft&sa=N&tab=wn
n0dez
Don't forget Bill/William or Steve/Steven(Stephen for those who spell it that way)
nt
GoDaddy is .. what .. $7.95 for the 1st year?
1. Register a domain name seethingly like Microsoft.com
2. Beg ignorance when they contact you and sell for the $10.
3. ???
4. Profit!!!
Microsoft sued because if you enter:
"mikerowesoft.com/index.htm"
into Google to try find the CACHED version after the slashdot affect hit it, you get back:
Did you mean: "microsoft.com/index.htm"
from the fine Google servers...
Hence, the problem with a phonetic fix...
--- Relax, that mass muderer is just trying to reduce our carbon footprint, one fetus at a time...
MikeRoweSoft does sound like Microsoft, and the owner of the website knew this when he registered it. I honestly don't see this as a bad lawsuit by Microsoft.
No, the Santa Cruise Operation was a real police operation here in London a few years back, when the Met. were attempting to trap the notorious "gay santa" who had been hanging round the gents' conveniences on Clapham Common, scaring small boys.
At the height of the tabloid hysteria, several BBC radio stations were forced to remove songs such as "Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" from their playlists becuase of all the tasteless double-entendres that could be read into the lyrics if you were thinking about the "gay santa".
I don't think they ever caught him - I haven't got time to look it up, but searching news.bbc.co.uk would probably turn something up.
evil math within Nature's Cubic Creation!
back in about 94 when I was working for MS UK, they started legal action against a double glazing firm called - wait for it - 'Microsoft Windows'
It does, but they do not allow admission to corporate entities. They only have individual seating, so MS is out of luck in purchasing a suite there.
We may experience some slight turbulence and then...explode. -Capt. Mal Reynolds
Saw this story on Headline News this AM...
-- I speak only for myself
IANAL, but if somebody makes you an offer on something, are you not allowed to make a counter offer? I don't see how he can get nailed for trying to profit off a domain name when all he's trying to do is recoup costs. They offer him 10 bucks, he says no, and counter offers with 10,000$. I just thought that was called "negotiating"...
BASIC is an backronym, i.e. the language was called Basic because it was so simple and later someone found some matching words.
Care to explain how he's "clearly infringing" anything? The phonetic similarities are incidental. In my accent, I first pronounced his domain as 'mike.rowe.soft.dot.com' whereas I pronounce Microsoft's as 'microsoft.dot.com'. The phonetic similarities wouldn't even be close enough to confuse mediocre speech recognition unless you're a mushmouth, although the tool likely wouldn't recognize the spelling for Mike's site anyway.
As for similarities in the way they're spelled, the only thing the two domains share is 'soft' and '.com'. If somebody is so abysmally stupid that they could misspell microsoft as mikerowesoft, they probably aren't smart enough to by typing on their own anyway.
This is no different than the Nissan car company abusing Uzi Nissan because of his name. Corporate abuse of power, plain and simple. Am I jumping to conclusions? You betcha. But, maybe before somebody flames me for it, they ought to stop and consider why I'd automatically assume that a big corporate would be abusing it's power in this situation. I don't suppose I've come to expect that from these companies based on their past actions, right? Noooooo.... they're just good little capitalists struggling to earn a living like the rest of us. They would NEVER play the courts or stomp helpless individuals over make-believe issues like this. Uh uh. Obviously, Mr. Rowe is a bad, horrible, stinking, dirty, godless commie and Microsoft is doing its Patriotic Duty (TM) in stomping the shit out of him.
OK... that sarcasm seemed to cross into something else entirely...
Alito: A vote for Alito is a punch in the eye to put that bitch back in her place!
it seems pretty obvious that, since he was actually doing something with the site, was actually using it, that his intent was not merely to turn around and sell the name, he was not just "squatting." every domain squatter i've ever seen buys domain names en masse and puts up a generic page saying, "this domain is for sale;" that's clearly not the case here.
he agrees that he thought the phonetic similarity to "Microsoft," a bit of wordplay, was amusing, but that's a separate issue.
his site didn't look like a Microsoft page, didn't offer the same services or products as a Microsoft page, in short, had nothing in common with Microsoft's website. there's no way that anybody with enough intelligence to recognize that the little plastic mouse moves the cursor on the screen could possibly confuse the two.
summary: he was not squatting, did not act in "bad faith," and is no threat to Microsoft in any way.
shame on you, Microsoft.
if i'm a grammar nazi, you're an illiteracy nazi.
that it is a site selling web design services i.e. technically a commercial site.
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
B.Hilga thesis:"a perverted bastard in the world"
Yeah, right.
As Mikes' site is already slashdotted
here goes google cache link for this.
-- echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln256%Pln256/snlbx]sb3135071790101768
And listened to his interview on the CBC the other morning. And yeah, until he started talking, I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt, but after hearing what he had to say, I'm with you 100%.
why hasnt this site been pulled?
Give him a break, this is why 17 year olds can't vote and can't legally buy guns. Don't paint him as stupid, either, he's 17.
As far as the money goes, you can hardly call this cybersquatting - it is the guy's name. Maybe Billy's henchmen should go after Mike's parents, since he was named after Microsoft first used the name, and they must have steered him to his interest in computers and software.
And, hey, good handle.
Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a critical component of spiritual devotion. Jon Krakauer
Microsoft lawyers (and those of just about any other large corporation) seem very eager to shutdown/lay waste to anyone who dares tread near them. If my rudimentary understanding of economics is correct then if the number of "intruders" where to exceed some treshold it would no longer make sense for the corporate giant to continue "swatting flies."
With that being said, one wonders about the the effect of countless numbers of Mike Rowe Soft sound-alike/look-alike domains. What would happen if Mike Rowe released the content of his site to the public domain and communities (/. for example) began to pick up the gauntlet and champion the cause of the little guy? One can envision the domains that might spring up to tell Mike Rowe's story: MyCrowSoft.com, MiCroweSoft.net, My-Cro-Sawft.org, etc. Sites might post the content of Mike's site as well as the absurd behavior exhibited by corporations and their lawyers.
Finally, one imagines what the cost would be for the big corporate giant to swat these thousands of flies. Knowing the billing rate of lawyers to thier corporations one imagines this would be a hefty price for even a giant.
Legal disclaimer: This post is simply an excercise. The poster in no way encourages the infringement of the rights of any party.
Strictly speaking it is Visual BASIC- BASIC is an acronym, and as such can be capitalized- see your own example above- SCO.
Not necessarily. While that is true here in North America, in the UK and I presume the rest of the English-speaking world, turning acronyms into "words" is perfectly accepatble. I read acronyms such as Aids, Nato etc in British newspapers when I was in the UK....
I make a reasonable middle-class wage by going to work and not spamming blogs with scams.
omfG, is that really the name of their law firm??
Well, I guess I can see how they got Biggar: by racking up the billable hours presenting 25-page cases against 17-year-old students.
I guess they're pretty Smart if they can get Microsoft to pay them for it.
Maybe SCO should talk to these guys, it looks lately like their law firm, Small & Dummar, isn't getting the job done...
This Like That - fun with words!
misspelling 'accepatble' is unacceptable. D'oh...no coffee and no glasses make me a bad typist.
I make a reasonable middle-class wage by going to work and not spamming blogs with scams.
.. of Death!
I wonder if I should register dicksoft.com? It is available. I can see how a consumer might confuse Microsoft with Dicksoft after reading this story.
I think it's hillariously ironic that a gigantic company named "Microsoft" is doing so little on the leading edge of the current standard of micro technology and yet is battleing so ruthlesslessy against a 17 year old kid over a phonetic similarity. I mean, the current top-of-the-line IBM mainframes fit in a box smaller than the Altair 8800 where Micro-Soft started, and Windows is so bloated it has no hope of being involved in any of the nanotech going on now.
Jeez, I would've though those folks over at The Register would know the difference by now: this (and all other cybersquatting cases) is not a copyright issue: it is a trademark issue.
/.ers will go nuts when someone calls XML or HTML a programming language, somebody here needs to keep the legal lingo in check here too. :-)
Yes, I know, this doesn't change the facts of the case, but since
Well, yes and no.
Certainly there wouldn't be a problem if Mike Rowe set up the domains mikerowesoftware.com or rowesoft, or any other thing like that...
It should be patently obvious to anyone that he chose the name "MikeRoweSoft" to sound like microsoft. Anyone with even a passing familiarity with the computer industry, like he does, would immediately think of Microsoft when they heard MikeRoweSoft - if he tried to say otherwise, it would be pretty obviously a lie.
So, in other words, he chose a company name and a domain specifically because it sounded like the name of another company, and in that case you enter a completely different situation. I'm not saying it's wrong, or that Microsoft has a slam dunk, but he did, quite obviously, try to capitalize on the name of another company, for whatever that is worth.
- ------- There are ten kinds of people in the world. Those who understand binary, and those who... Huh?
This one's tough to call. Yeah, a person should be able to register their own name regardless of commercial trademark similarities.
But adding "soft" seems pretty deliberate. If he were in the software business, why didn't he call his business "Mike Rowe Software"? It's obvious the pun was intentional. The real question here will be whether or not this falls under the category of "parody", which could protect him. I can't see the site right now, but from what other people have posted, it sounds like he's doing business under that name.
He should take whatever cash is being offered (if any). The courts won't support him IMO.
After viewing the google-cache version of the site, it seems that this kid was running a web design company. Is this not a substantially different field that software/hardware design? Also, check out his work, this kid is NOT BAD!
Learn about Photography Basics.
I'm sure your years of experience from Harvard Law and the state Bar will again prove to be useful to us
Yee, but this is Microsoft we're talking about here. Remember that Simpsons episode?
"Buy him out, boys."
www.lucernesys.comHorizon: Calendar-based personal finance
i knew a kid growing up, his name was mike rowe also... we called him Mike Rowe Penis.
To assert their trademark, they must demonstrate there is the reasonable possibility that Master Rowe's website design webpage might be confused as a product of Microsoft. Since the spelling is obviously different and Rowe isn't selling software, that's gonna be damn tricky to prove.
If this ever went to court (and it won't), Rowe would win. And the horrid PR of attacking a minor over something like this -- if I'm Microsoft, I'm sending him a $10,000 check now just to make it all go away.
This is my post. There are many others like it. If you don't like what you read here, go try one of the others.
A story broke about two weeks ago about http://www.mikerosoft.ca. Mike's site (a different Mike, eh) had a web presence since 1997 and delivered small bits of code, drivers and other technical tidbits. A check of his site today shows that he's redirecting traffic to a new url pending the outcome of his discussions. He does NOT want to sell out to Micro$fot according to his site.
M$NBC just had a story about this, and the anchors were having a good laugh about how "creative" the kid was. hmmm...how ironic is that
"Hi, my name is Sally and I can't tell my friends I'm dating a guy named Micro, er Mike Rowe".
Mike Rowe could have registered MikeRowe.com, or MikeRowe.ca, or MikeRowe.ch, or Mike.Rowe.name or any of the other variants that could be registered.
Adding the otherwise superfluous "soft" suffix can be reasonably construed as an attempt to sponge off of Microsoft's famous mark. Without the goodwill built by Microsoft into their famous trademark, MikeRoweSoft.com is just another clumsy-sounding name, like IniTech or Flooz.
Edith Keeler Must Die
The attempt to profit from a domain name is a statutory element of bad faith under the Anti-Cybersquatting laws. Whether or not a person did try to profit, under the law, is something for a judge/jury to determine. It doesn't look good if you get an offer (which companies make all the time to avoid the legal costs) then make a huge, unfounded counteroffer.
Besides, if you are truly violating a trademark, it isn't like you are entitled to get your costs back. If your costs are large, a company will probably go to the WIPO for an arbitration and just take the name. That process is much cheaper than $10,000, anyway.
Boom Shanka
In response to Microsoft's offer, Mike Rowe should have offered to buy Microsoft's domain name for $10.
Creator of the popular web game Proximity
I'm naming my daughter Diz Ni. It's Swedish!
"He requested a monetary settlement and Microsoft countered with an offer for $10 (about 6), which was his domain registration costs."
*shrug*
The problem with homonyms is that you can't just say that word B sounds like word A. By definition, that also means that word A sounds like word B. It's called symmetric property, Mr. Gates, and you learned about that in pre-algebra class!
If the tables were turned and Mike Row had the money and the lawyers and Microsoft didn't, Mike would have the same (questionable) legal grounds for suing Microsoft. And if he was as stupid as Microsoft about these things, he might try suing other companies with 'micro' in their names. Watch our, MicroCenter!
Sound stupid? Of course it does. So does what Microsoft is trying to do.
Punctanym: alternate spelling of words using punctuation or numerals in place of some or all of its letters; see 'leet'
But some of M$'s less intelligent customers may get confused.
The guy should have got some legal advice before he replied back at all.
I think that's some bullshit that Microsoft sued him for that. I thought that under the current laws, anyone could register any domain name that wasn't already in use? It was pretty stupid for the kid to demand $10,000 though.
"Instant gratification takes too long." - Carrie Fisher
He was not amused
I on the other hand, find the whole issue funny as hell.
man i hope MS' case gets thrown out of the courts
Someone pointed out that the only reason MS is pursuing this is because they aren't aware that it's a 17 year old kid behind the domain name, and that this is going to cause a lot of bad publicity for them. The thing is, in light of the above, I think that they're fully aware that it's a 17 year old kid, and that's specifically the reason why they're pursuing this in the way they are. They think that simply filing a lawsuit is going to scare the kid (and his parents) into giving up the domain name. No trial, no expensive lawyers, and M$ gets the domain name for less than $10,000. This is the only possible business rationale for the decision to file a lawsuit. They think Joe Schmoe, living in some middle-class suburb, isn't going to want to take on Microsoft and all its legal resources.
Yet another example of how, in America, justice is for sale to the highest bidder.
He's a cheeky 17 year old. He probably thought it was just funny.
Depending on the "eponymous name" protections in his locale, he may be able to get away with "Mike Lowe Software" and thus "mikelowesoftware.com"
Read, L
But this is Slashdot, where one of the editors, michael, has cybersquatted the Censorware domain for years with no explanation. And the the "to-strange-to-be-real dept." (sic) brings us an article that makes sure to mention they're SUING A 17-YEAR OLD! MICROSOFT!
MS jokes aside, if it takes you 100 hours to set up a computer (including the buying part), you should be sued for being stoopid.
-Looking for a job as a materials chemist or multivariat
Software giant threatens mikerowesoftZDNet.co.uk,UK-8 minutes agoMicrosoft has set its lawyers onto a 17-year-old software writer from Vancouver, called Mike Rowe, because he has registered MikeRoweSoft.com, which the
Microsoft not pleased about mikerowesoft websiteAnanova,UK-3 hours agoA Canadian teenager called Mike Rowe who added the word soft to his name for his website title, has been ordered by Microsoft to hand over the domain.
Microsoft won't go soft on Mike RoweLondon Free Press,Canada-4 hours agoVANCOUVER -- Like any good fledgling businessperson, Mike Rowe knew
Microsoft lawyers threaten Mike Rowe (17)The Register,UK-5 hours agoIn what could easily be mistaken for an Onion story, Microsoft has unleashed the full fury of its lawyers on 17-year-old Canadian high-school student, Mike Rowe
Mike may be Rowe, but 'soft' is troubleSeattle Times,WA-7 hours agoBy The Associated Press. VANCOUVER, BC - Mike Rowe knew he needed a catchy name for his Web-site design company. But the folks
Big bully Gates targets teenTimes of India,India-8 hours agoVANCOUVER: No matter what Shakespeare said on the theme of nomenclature, Microsoft has thought it fit to sue a teenager whose domain name is a lot like the
Microsoft vs MikeRoweSoftIndependent Online,South Africa-10 hours agoVancouver, British Columbia - Mike Rowe thinks it's funny that his catchy name for a website design company sounds a lot like Microsoft.
Microsoft takes on teenNEWS.com.au,Australia-10 hours agoMIKE Rowe thinks it is funny that his catchy name for a Web site design company sounds a lot like Microsoft. "Since my name is Mike
Langford student battles tech giant over use of his domain name: Canada.com,Canada-Jan 17, 2004Mike Rowe, a Langford high school student who does Web site design part-time, is locked in a legal battle with one of the world's biggest companies.
Microsoft vs. Mike Rowe SoftWIS,SC-47 minutes ago(Vancouver, British Columbia-AP) Jan. 19, 2004 - It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft. Mike Rowe, 17, wanted a catchy name for his Web site design company.
Support CD Babyp2pnet.net,Canada-1 hour agoBecause Mike, who lives in Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada (and a short drive from p2pnet.net's thriving central base : ) makes a
Microsoft Talk Legal to 17 Year-Old Owner of MikeRoweSoft DomainShortNews.com-2 hours agoMike Rowe, 17, from British Columbia, Canada decided to start up a small web business and called his domain MikeRoweSoft. Smart
Microsoft Corporation vs MikeRoweSoftOfficialSpin-3 hours agoVictoria, British Columbia -- (OfficialSpin) -- 19/01/04 -- A 17 year-old high school student, Mike Rowe, who just so happens to earn a few extra bucks...
Microsoft demands teen to give up domain nameSalem Statesman Journal,OR-7 hours agoVANCOUVER, British Columbia - Mike Rowe knew that he needed
Microsoft should not stop here...
They should demand that
1) Mr. Mike Row should change his name.
2) Mr. Mike Row should be banned to any education and uccupation related to "soft" activities.
3) Microsoft should get a UN resolution passed, that no human should in the future be named, which might resemble to the name of the greatest corporation of the entire universe.
Or Jill Yates might just simply go fuck h**self.
and this paniciky old woman comes up to the desk practically in tears.
This "old woman" can disavow with words her secret desires, but her fingers knows what she really wants. On one level she wanted to check her email but deep down she really wants an emale . . . ; )
Perhaps Microsoft will sue someone who registers
mickeymousecompany.com
or
tinpotdictators.com
Damn, Disney already have mickeymousecompany.com
Gee, this sounds a lot like when Lawsuits-R-Us, I mean Toys-R-Us, threatened to sue me. Hmmm... Paperlicps and giraffes - both forms of pencil-necked geeks?
Maybe he should let them sue. It works for Guns-R-Us. If only he can get the same judge. Whoops. Wrong coast!
(http://www.rru.com/ -> click on "no giraffes")
I've got the domain www.uglysoft.com. I think they have more reason to sue me, I think. Heh.
Actually, it probably IS copyright that Mike Rowe
is being sued under, and here's why. Under
Canadian trademark law, a person is allowed to
use his or her own name. Smart & Biggar
are, I am sure, aware of this. That is probably
why they are trying to sue for copyright infringement.
The fact that they are making such a stretch
just shows how weak they feel their case would be
in an action for trademark infringement. So
it could be Mike Rowe stands a good chance after all.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Ok, I do think sueing children is dumb, but in the US if you don't defend your trademarks, you lose them. Its not MS fault they are suing them, they are acting how they have to in law, we need to change the law, so that trademarks don't need to defended by litigation. That way MS wouldn't have to soil there "good" name by sueing children.
-James
Despite all of this talk of name dilution and trademarks, I would think that whitehouse.com would have changed hands long before this kid Mike Rowe got sued. Microsoft whines "But this kid's site sorta sounds like our company name". The white house replies "The .com version of our .gov site is a porn site. Deal with it!" Maybe if Mike Rowe set up a porn site at mikerowesoft, no one would bother him because they didn't want to draw attention to it.
>>It would seem Microsoft has no choice but to back down as, legally, it doesn't have a hope in hell of winning and there are plenty of lawyers out there who would love to get a win against Microsoft under their belt.
If msft can beat up on Lindows, and force them to stop using the name in - what was it - Holland? Then why not beat up on 17 year old Mike Rowe.
Msft, is a bully, and a coward, by nature.
I do not use Linux but is it interoperable with everything? I cannot imagine putting MILLIONS of dollars into development then having other companies software packaged with my hard work. It is so easy to jump on the Microsfot is evil bandwagon but they are just like every other company out there, they just do it better. I am sure this is flamebait since it is pro-microsoft.
Life is everything but nothing.
From the article: "By offering to sell the domain for profit (even if sparked by the offer of payment by the other party), according to the bent logic of domain dispute arbitrators, it shows the owner had no legitimate interest in the domain"
Really? Does that mean since MicroSoft didn't invest the money to buy the domain name prior to Mike Rowe's ownership that they have no legitimate interest in the domain either?
Don't get me wrong, I think MicroSoft has a semi-legitimate interest in the domain name but Mike Rowe has even a larger interest. It's not like the name came out of a hat; this is his given name!
If Microsoft was so concerned they should have considered this and bought the name first... But like the rest of Mr. Gates' products he waits for someone else to brainstorm them and than buys (or sues) them out of their product. Pity.
Dedicated Cthulhu Cultist since 4523 BC.
While I'm not even going to start to try and defend Microsoft as not evil, I still think they get railed pretty unfairly. "Putting Profits over user experience and security". They're a public company, they have to defend their bottom line to their shareholders. We live in a capitalist society, there's nothing inherently evil about making profits your most important priority. While I don't agree that their propoganda is ethical, I see nothing that makes them legal from trying to convince the consumer that their product is the best. Every other company does it, it's how the game is played (doesn't mean you have to like the game but it doesn't make them anymore evil than any other corporation - and no, corporations are not inherently evil just because they happen to have a few people who make loads of $$ from managing them and often don't care about their product). The solution to the Microsoft "monopoly" is, like the solution to many things, education. While you might not like the fact that they have managed to brainwash the masses into thinking they have no alternative, it's an incredibly talented feat, one that most companies in any sector (be it corporations or small businesses or whatever company you work for) would LOVE to be able to accomplish. While I agree with your other points (breaking the law and anti-trust agreements = evil), I am somewhat bothered by the fact that you consider them evil for simply accomplishing what every company tries to do. While one can argue that capitalism in itself is evil, find a better alternative and then we'll talk.
... that you refer to those things in your house that allow you to see outside as "optically clear wall units", or you could get sued as well.
"We shall party like the Greeks of old! You know the ones I mean." - HedonismBot
Yes there is a difference. Say it fast and it starts to disappear.
Just a Tuna in the Sea of Life
Read the article, it says they offered him $10 USD - not canadian
Specifically http://validator.w3.org/
So what happens when the telemarketer calls you with the script; "Hello, Gee Em Eh See would like to offer you a low percentage-rate alternative car financing because of your excellent credit rating."
Absolutely not. You can't have company names that sound so familiar in the same area that the customer is unable to determine if this is the same company they have done business with before.
Honestly, if Mike Rowe called you and said "Hello, this is Mike calling from MikeRoweSoft and I would like to offer you web development services for your Microsoft Windows 2000 platform." -- would *you* be able to tell the difference?
Eric Sarjeant
eric[@]sarjeant.com
That's pretty funny. This is probably the end of the line for Mr. Rowe, due to the corrupt American legal system (wouldn't work as well in a civilized country).
First off, you can't copyright names, that's trademark infringement.
Unless MikeRoweSoft dates from the 1970s (implausible) there can be little doubt that Mike chose that name because of the echo of "Microsoft". On the one hand the Judge will rule that no one seeing the names in print could confuse the two. However, hearing the names over the telephone would certainly be confusing, and that combination: intentional echo and obviously confusing will be a slam dunk for Microsoft. However, real contracts being in writing he could argue he is sufficiently distinguished.
In any case, this is not a frivolous lawsuit and he'll be responsible for his legal fees, and Microsoft can easily drive those through the roof (it is very easy with delays, discovery requests and multiple, shifting charges to force a defendent who wishes competent representation to spend hundreds of thousands or millions).
You are lost in pages of Slashdot comments, all alike.
How many programmers does it take to say
- Microsoft sucks for doing this
- They probably won't win
- It's the kids fault
My other Slashdot ID is much lower.
I do not use Linux but is it interoperable with everything?
I'm not just thinking of Linux here (I don't even use it myself), but of their general principles. Open Source software, by its nature, makes file formats and protocols available; and in most cases, those interfaces tend to be fairly stable, designed not to favour particular implementations, and . Most open source projects do NOT attempt to make their interfaces as hard to figure out as possible; they don't change them frequently for no good reason; they don't slap patents on them. Microsoft does all of those things, and more, to prevent interoperability.
they are just like every other company out there
Take one simple example: Microsoft builds a protocol called CIFS to let Windows machines share files &c. They change it needlessly; they obfuscate it; they threaten legal action; they do everything they can to prevent Samba from using the protocol. Apple builds a protocol called ZeroConf (aka Rendezvous) to let machines share files &c. They make the protocol open, providing documentation and an open-sourced reference implementation, not just allowing but doing all they can to encourage interoperability.
So no, not all companies behave as maliciously as Microsoft. That sort of behaviour is neither desirable nor necessary for success.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
Companies have been known to sue even when even just one portion of the name is similar. There was another case recently that was similar in that it involved a big American company going after a tiny Canadian outfit. In this case, Starbucks (no doubt the provider of cafeine to many /.-ers) sued Haidabucks Cafe, a small cafe owned by Haida Indians in Masset, British Columbia. The names are obviously quite different, both in writing and in speech.
Fortunately, they stood their ground and obtained
the services of a top notch law firm and a web site designer, with the result that Starbucks backed down. That's a good thing, and not just for them: boycotting Starbucks is tough!
Bill Gates: Buy 'em out, boys! ... Oh, I didn't get rich by writing a lot of cheques!
>Microsoft are evil, not because they dominate the desktop, but because, thanks to them, most people (think they) have no alternative.
Its pretty funny you really look at this argument. Most people define "Evil" as in the serious, cue-the-dramatic-music "EVIL". But here we are defining it as "monopoly over one part of a technology and becuase they act in an unethical corporate manner."
How about spending a few minutes here and seeing what true evil is. Comparitively, who cares about controlling a computer desktop or computer interoperability?
The surprise isn't how often we make bad choices; the surprise is how seldom they defeat us.
Isn't this done constantly by so many companies?
Aren't there companies that do this for millions?
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Obviously they should offer him 10 or 20 times what Rowe asked for it. When you spell it in languages that don't use the Roman alphabet, which is most of emdollar.com's growth market, it *looks and sounds* EXACTLY like "Microsoft".
"In this letter it explains that Microsoft's customers could get confused between my page and theirs, which doesn't make any sense since Microsoft doesn't design websites." Of course it will be confusing to windows users.... most things are. Next they should sue, auto-mo-biles, pay-phones, mi-cro-waves, and perhaps com-pew-tors in geneal, as those devices can be confusing to windows users.
I think it DOES sound like "Microsoft" and the owner admits he knew this when registering the domain.
What is this country coming to! A company should have every right to defend its trademark against confusion. This website has serious potential to confuse the highly illiterate market segment that Microsoft aims for!
...
You are saying that Google Corporate explicitly supports Microsoft? Don't be putting words in Google Corporate's mouth. Who knows if the related search terms function is determined by algorithm, or whatever... you just don't know.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Yes; they also have to obey the law. They've been found guilty of illegal activity on many occasions. Or should 'shareholder value' trump that, too?
I am somewhat bothered by the fact that you consider them evil for simply accomplishing what every company tries to do.
I don't - that was my main point! I consider them evil for the means they use to get to that position and to stay there.
MS gets slagged off a lot here, and a lot of it is ill-thought-out, unjustified, knee-jerk response. I want people to think about the situation, to form an opinion and know why they hold the attitudes they do. As you say, it's not necessarily wrong to hold a dominant market position; other companies have done so such a way that their customers, shareholder, and even competitors all benefit. But I think there are good reasons to think ill of MS, and I want people to hold informed opinions.
Ceterum censeo subscriptionem esse delendam.
So they found someone who found a clever name for their site. Any smart company aware of such things as goodwill and public image would then offer say to take over the domain name and offer a nice settlement so the site can be rebranded. Perhaps if you are american you try to figure out if it is a domain-squatter or if there is a legit site there. Maybe Microsoft doesn't have any way to visit websites. I advice them to install mozilla.
What you do not due is sent the lawyers after some kid. Rule 1 of running a shop. Do not kick the kids of your customers. It is basic lesson but that american companies just can't seem to learn.
To those who going to quote law you are so wrong. Even a million dollar settlement would be peanuts compared to the bad publicity. If this gets picked up then MS will have spend many times more in advertising.
Something similar happened here where a little girl in holland owned a fansite dedicated to harry potter. When the first movie was about to come out she got a letter from the studio claiming she was infringing and she had to hand the site over. Que it being reported on the news and the studio having to backpeddle so fast it wasn't even funny anymore.
Oh well. Americans eh.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I mean, Mike Rowe is his name, is that a trademark violation? Can he register any domain name that contains his legal name without having Microsoft come after him? "MikeRoweSoftware.com", "MikeRoweSucks.com", etc.... Wasn't there a case similar to this a few years back about a kid named Kevin Mart who registered a domain name with his first initial and last name in it, and K-Mart tried to sue him for Trademark Infringement, but lost?
I think I read a Calvin and Hobbes comic strip about "verbing" words (such as strange the adjective to strange the verb). The conclusion was (paraphrasing) that verbing stranges language.
True story.
... mikerowsoft.com?
Rowe vs. Gates, it has a certain ring ; )
No, you are missing the objectionable tactics. For example they have been caught intentionally putting bugs into the operating system so that their customer's computers would CRASH when they tried to run Lotus spreadsheet.
At the time Lotus's spreadsheet software was way better than Microsoft's Excel, but given a choice between a better spreadsheet that CRASHED on the new OS or a crappy spreadsheet that didn't crash, obviously people switched to Microsoft's crappy Excel.
THAT is the sort of tactic that makes Microsoft evil. They abuse their OS monopoly power and INTENTIONALLY HARM THEIR OWN CUSTOMERS whenever it suits their purpose.
There are countless examples of Microsoft behaving like that.
While one can argue that capitalism in itself is evil
I wouldn't say capitalism is evil, and I doubt that's what the parent poster was saying either. In normal free market conditions companies are driven to produce whatever product customers want. They fight to introduce features that benefit the customer to grab marketshare, and they CANNOT introduce "features" that harm their customers because that would drive away customers. The problem is that in a monopoly situation those forces break down. A monopoly can introduce and impose pretty much any features they want - for the company's benefit - even when they harm the customer.
For example Microsoft abused it's monopoly power to force pretty much every single soundcard manufacture to cripple their products. You probably have such a sound card in your machine right now. The new "feature" is called SAP - Secure Audio Path. What does it do? It disables the digital output ports on the soundcard when it is activated. Why the hell would any customer ever want a soundcard to disable/lock-out it's own output ports?
Microsoft's monopoly power is so great that they forced the entire soundcard industry to simply do whatever Microsoft said. Microsoft simply announced that any soundcard that did not implememnt SAP would flunk Windows Compatability Certification. You simply CANNOT sell PC hardware that is not Windows Compatible. If some manufacturer decided not to implement SAP then computer buyers useing that brand soundcard would start running into files that they can't play - and when these people called in for Tech Support Microsoft would simply tell them that they have a hardware problem, that their sound card is not compatible with windows, that they need to go buy a new soundcard. That manufacturer would start getting massive returns and would face a massive drop in sales.
There are just too damn many examples of Micoroft abusing it's monopoly position and imposing self-serving features against the intrests of their customers.
-
- - You can't take something off the Internet! That's like trying to take pee out of a swimming pool.
I just registered mycrasoft.com. I did notice that mycrowsoft.com was taken by some Netherlands company -- back in 1999.
Still available are mikeroesoft.com and numerous entities involving hyphens.
For the record, I have no intention of selling mycrasoft.com. I think I may use it to satire overzealous lawyers and self-important megacorps.
gnet
I own a company called "Bill G Eats". Can I join in?!!?
"...his domain would confuse Microsoft customers."
So microsoft is implying that their customers are so stupid as to confuse microsoft.com with MikeRowesoft.com? I sheepishly admit that i'm a microsoft customer and seeing that i've admitted it here, my browser admits it at every page and my undisclosed e-mail program admits the fact - microsoft has implied that I, like millions of other microsoft customers are morons.
With these facts brought to light I hereby bring forward a class action lawsuit against microsoft for slander and defamation of charachter.
Seriously, how can i e-mail my resume to a potential employer without their reading my mail header and instantly assuming stupidity due to the use of microsoft products? how many times will my resume, created by an undisclosed microsoft product, be passed over when a potential employer reads the html source code and notices that i'm a microsoft idiot?
I'm appalled offended and I won't stand for this horseshit.
http://www.google.com/search?q=cache:FSp2EjIGGqwJ: www.mikerowesoft.com/+site:mikerowesoft.com+-jkjdf &hl=en&ie=UTF-8
The site has been long hammered into oblivion.
I hang up on them, same as I do for all telemarketers. Makes no diffence to me whether they're the real GMAC or not.
Ok, here's what you do when someone (like MS) says "here's $10, fork over the domain!"
Ready? It's really easy.
Tell them to "go fuck themself." Don't quote figures, don't say anything other than "go fuck yourself". Then they have to prove you're a squatter, bad-faith, etc. Which they really can't because A) the site (now slashdotted tot he ninth level of Hell) has content expected to exist on such a site; and B) his given birth name is the name he chose for the domain--something even MS can't deny.
Problems...you betcha! Just read the sad tale of Uzi Nissan. So your given name is not the protected thing you may think...it's all about deep pockets. But with luck you can win.
Personally, I would never have gone with the "-soft" on the end of the domain. But that's me.
Come on, be reasonable. Even slashdotters can spell better than this.
these are availablei ghcrowsoft.com is available.
my-crow-soft.com
my-crows-soft.com
m
I hate my sig.
According to Netcraft, www.mikerowesoft.com is running Apache/1.3.27 (Unix) mod_python/2.7.8 Python/2.2.2 mod_perl/1.27 mod_throttle/3.1.2 PHP/4.3.2 FrontPage/5.0.2.2510 mod_ssl/2.8.14 OpenSSL/0.9.7c on FreeBSD. Way to go Mike !
- Do the two companies sell similar goods/services and are the names used for those similar goods/services?
- Are the names similar?
- Are the goods/services marketed in the same or similar channels of trade?
- Was there an intentional infringement of the trademark (i.e. to benefit from the credibility or visibility of the established trademark)?
In addition, some other criteria might include:- Is there proof of customers being confused by the names?
- How widely known the names are (federal trademark protection is typically extended to those who engage in interstate commerce).
- Would a reasonable person confuse the two companies?
Where things become dicey for Mike Rowe is if the following is true (from the article):"He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills."
This intention would likely violate the tenet of trying to benefit from the established name's reputation, economic value, marketing, etc (and regardless of your feelings about Microsoft, there's no disputing that the name Microsoft is well recognized with considerable economic value and economic goodwill). If Mike Rowe just had a software company called "Mike Rowe Software", he'd likely be ok (since usually, it's very hard for a company to strip one of their legal name) since most people know how Microsoft is spelled (a consequence of the widely known name)...and new customers would likely be quickly debunked of any confusion...not to mention I think there are any number of spellings tha people would try before getting to MikeRowe. Maybe MikeRow, MikeRoe, MicRow, etc...but Rowe is not really a common spelling of a common word...but more often a last name.
The counter offer is not unreasonable (names are sold all the time if there's no infringing trademark but similar sounding names - yes, that's very possible and happens all the time).
His minor status might give him some leverage PR wise - but it might also invalidate his registration depending on Candian contract laws (since the registration of a domain name is a contract and typically, contracts entered into with minors without a parental/guardian signature are usually unenforceable). On a PR basis, Microsoft can probably absorb this (especially since he's a 17 year old with a business...typically shows sophistication that most people will use to overlook the PR issue).
Anyways, some thoughts...I hope he get's to keep it if he wants it - and if not, at least get reimbursed for the cost of registering a new domain name and alerting all his customers (and perhaps fixing all his marketing). Contrary to popular opinion, reimbursement for the hosting, time to create the website, etc are not likely reimbursable (the only infringement is the name - and there's not evidence the site's design is tied into the name).
When you received an e-mail that seems absolutely outrageous to you, its going to be hard to go spend hundreds of dollars on a lawyer. Very easy to say that you should have got a lawyer in retrospect.
(Syntax error or access violation)
[Microsoft][ODBC Microsoft Access Driver] Syntax error (missing operator) in query expression 'Pub_Status = 1 AND Pub_Date #1/19/2004 13:01:39# AND ID = 6''66'.
The error occurred while processing an element with a general identifier of (CFQUERY), occupying document position (21:3) to (21:111).
Lawyers are just looking for a check.
paintball
...and see how long it takes Steve Ballmer to come after your domain name.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
At the age of 17, can Mike Rowe legally negotiate the sell of the domain name without the authorization of his parents? He should try to back out of his trapped position stating an his age as a factor. Can microsoft legally negotiate with a 17 year old or is this in its self illegle?
Minor detail. He's i Canada and US laws don't apply outside of USA. (Unless Dubbya invades on a shady excuse)
While M$ does have a "trademark" right to any name sounding like their brand, this does not justify a lawsuit to take someone else's perfectly legit domain, trademark, or name. An individual has a right to open a company and name it after their first, last, or whole name at will. If Mr. Old McDonald wants to open a Resturant (or book store for that matter) naming it after himself, the food chain McDonalds has no right to shut him down.
I would say that in the case of someone changing his/her name just to undercut a corporation would be outside of their right. Think also about back in 1986... Microsoft didn't get anyone excited, and how do you think Mike's parents felt about him?
"And we have seen and do testify that the Father sent the Son to be the Savior of the World"
1 John 4:14
...and not nuts in a good way either. MS is out to prove they're a corporate juggernaut, flattening all in their wake. In the process, they may have turned the kid from a well-meaning, code-adept HTML artist into a premier hacker, and we won't know till it's all over. Yet another reason to spur decent software development for Linux. MS doesn't need our cash when they're raping 17-year olds over theirnameSOFT.com.
One of the 187.
Opening a restaurant called MickDonalds wouldn't be acceptable nor would a WaltMart.
Actually, on I-20 between Terrell and Canton, Texas, there's a barbeque joint named "McDonald's", or possibly "Mac Donald's", that has nothing to do with any golden arches. It's a fair assumption that they serve hamburgers and fries as well.
The signs for the joint are rather small, and make no reference to any other hamburger joint. And I haven't been able to locate the place online -- the closest I've come is a place called the Interstate Cafe that looks like it's in the right location (Superpages link).
It's entirely possible that the joint has been contacted by the "other" McD and entered into some sort of agreement. But they probably got their lawyers involved from the get-go, a suggestion noted by many in this discussion.
I didn't hire a lawyer when I got my own Cease and Desist letter. I did the same thing as this poor guy... sent my own non-vetted letter back, and contacted the media. My situation worked out fine -- I never heard back from the lawyers -- but I'll be more careful if it ever happens again.
Stressed? Me? Of course not. Stress is what a rubber band feels before it breaks, silly.
2) We all link to the site/post stories about this on all our web sites.
How's that for karma, Bill?
Did you happen to notice that 'the guy' is 17? I don't personally expect a lot of internet legal savvy from teenagers.
Obviously you didn't RTFA. It was $10USD, not Canadian funny money. The Register article didn't specify which currency he was referring to, but on his webpage (google cache) he says it was US Dollars.
If you can read this then I forgot to check "Post Anonymously"
And that, sir, is exactly the point behind my post.
The temptation, when faced with an outrageous claim like this is to blow it off and give some flip response.
DON'T!
That is where almost ALL of these sort of cases go south - the defendant gives some flip response and the plaintif's lawyers use that against him.
Hence why I made a point of Rule #1, and why I make that point again:
When faced with ANY threat or possiblility of legal action, SHUT UP AND GET A LAWYER.
If the claim truly is bogus, you will spend an hour of an attourney's time to be re-assured that there is no problem, and will be able to move on.
If there is a problem, then you are prepared to deal with it correctly.
(And, by the way, this is why most attourneys don't want to give out off-the-cuff advice. They want there to be a formal relationship so that privilege attaches.)
www.eFax.com are spammers
Why am I reminded of the Harrodsville fiasco(Otorohonga, New Zealand)?
Why the hell would Microsoft even care about this name? Would any reasonable person really think this was their official site? Maybe if they were functionally illiterate, in which case they wouldn't have much use for Microsoft products. All this is doing is generating some bad press for Microsoft and some media exposure for the kid. I'm betting this gets dropped soon, as there is no way they could win in court.
This is obviously a hoax by this guy. No one has even seen the letter and their is no comment from Microsoft.
Cmon people, its the REGISTER.
Ok here are some facts against this cocky 17 years old.
Canada is one of the leading nations in Cybersquatting.
He doesn't seem to have a trademark for his "company".
The nature of his business is somehow related to Microsoft's or any of its many sister companies.
Since the moment he asked for $10.000 for the domain, MS lawyers can assume intention for cybersquatting, guy first think then act, negotiation classes could help this guy.
This guy should remember he is living in Canada and justice is handled WAYYYYYYYYY different than the US's, no small fish is a legal threat in Canada, for this there are TONS of proofs.
Living in BC where there is a lot of MS supporters like Electronic Arts I don't think nobody will come forward for support.
Poor Canadians thinking they are smarter and better than the Americans, tsk tsk tsk.
You don't own the copyright to your face, but you can argue that including you in a game without your permission falsely implies you are endorsing it.
I think it is, or should be, about intent.
I have a domain name, and have no intention of selling. However, I think everybody recognizes the fact that the right offer and pretty much everything is for sale.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
My boss registered JavaArchitects.com a few years ago, and shortly afterwards he received a letter from Sun Microsystems warning him that while he is permitted to use "Java" in his domain name, he had better not be thinking of naming his company "Java Architects".
Kind of insane, in a way. People resort to stupid names like JBuilder or BlueJ or IntelliJ for their software because they aren't allowed to use the actual name of the language in their product name.
Dr Superlove 300ml. I use my powers for awesome
MS should just pay him 2-5k and shut the case.
I agree this would be cheaper as a one-off, but if MS pay out they will encourage people with genuine or less than genuine motives to blackmail them. That's why government don't (well, they deny it) pay ransoms for hostages. They will end up paying vast sums.
However in this case Mike Rowe doesn't seem to be the typical domain hijacker, so it is more likely a case of MS sticking to their general guidelines a little too stubbornly.
There goes my software company which specializes in crows .. My Crow Soft.
Back in the day... a company commerialized some software (in the '70s). The company was called the "Itty Bitty Machine" company.
No big deal...
Ratboy
Just another "Cubible(sic) Joe" 2 17 3061
However, now I'm thinking about names to register because a $10 cheque from Microsoft would be worth framing.
:)
I got a $10 check from Microsoft from a mail-in rebate for an optical mouse. I don't think it was worth framing...
They are evil because they use that monopoly unfairly, to illegally (attempt to) dominate other areas. They are evil because of their unethical and illegal business practices: buying out or crushing all competition, secret agreements with vendors, spreading lies, putting profits over user experience and security, doing their utmost to prevent interoperability with other software and systems, continually breaking the spirit and the letter of anti-trust agreements, and much more.
And all of this time I thought they did those things because they loved me!
Whilst the kid has been dumb, he's got an excuse for it - he's young and he doesn't know the law.
He seems to have infringed their trademark by providing services similar to Microsofts whilst simultaneously acknowledging that he used the domain because it was similar sounding to theirs. I think he would lose any suit M$ cared to take against him (IANAL)
But M$ have been considerably dumber. If IBM had set up a mikrowsoft.com and sold web services through it I could see the necessity of hiring lawyers and Fed Ex'ing them threatening stuff, but this is a 17 yr old kid and they've just publicly made themselves look like a big bullying monopolist (foot, aim, fire!)
If M$ have got a clue they'll give the kid $10,000, publicly apologise for picking on him and cream off some badly needed good publicity, publicity that would be worth well in excess of 10k.
The Machine stops.
Why on tech related sites do I see so many people using the word 'loosing' instead of 'losing'.
They may LOSE their trademark, not LOOSE their trademark. There may be some idea that they are loosing their trademark into the wild for everyone to utilize. But that would make me think they're doing it on purpose. Losing their trademark is rather unambiguous, and they had lost their right to the trademark.
The exact quote is "verbing weirds language".
I'd rather be lucky than good.
isn't this a joke? I mean literally, has anyone really verified this, or is it a retarded hoax? Anyone?
Nope. Especially the soft 'w', which is a pretty unique sound to english.
German, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish and many others simply pronounce it as 'v'.
Whereas, in German and Dutch, a 'v' is sometimes prounounced as 'f'.
In other words, it's not Linux's fault it's not as widely used. It's the fault of Microsoft's "illegal" monopoly--even though monopolies aren't illegal.
Microsoft are evil, not because they dominate the desktop, but because, thanks to them, most people (think they) have no alternative.
Get back to me when people are writing commercial apps for Linux instead of Windows, and I can get ACPI under Linux to work on my laptop without crashing on startup, no matter the distro I try.
Poor Sam.
No, they're not.
From the article:
He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills.
He started a company that is riding on the coattails of a popular brand name. Contrary to the moron parent post that suggested it was a "common scam," Microsoft owes it to their shareholders to protect themselves from infringement. The guy can choose another name that isn't riding off Microsoft's name, which he is clearly doing.
I love the hypocrisy shown in the comments over this. Some people want Microsoft to be evil even if it means being against them when they're in the right.
It doesn't matter that the guys name is Mike Rowe...according to the text I saw, he thought it'd be funny to pur -soft- on the end. If it were www.mikerowe.com or www.mikerowesoftware.com or something, it may not be as mad.
But someone going www.mikerowesoft.com is an idiot...MS HAD to persue the person owning the domain name. It's all about trademark protection - it doesn't matter to them who it is - if they fail to press, they can get reamed later.
We all know you can register a domain name for less than $10 nowadays for a year...Had the guy come back and offered "pay me $100" MS would have written him a check then and there...instead, he was stupid and put his foot in his mouth...
Also, in some states/countries, 17 is legal age for a lot of things...and IMO, all registrars should make people verify that they are 18 since in a way, they are entering into contracts...
Mike Rowe is a fvckwit.
Come on, man, Google does that anyway.
This sig no verb.
Someone pointed out that google supposedly supports microsoft on this one. I contest that. If I search for Microsoft on google I do not get "did you mean MikeRoweSoft" so I don't see how this is "support".
I have a hard time believing that anyone who has enough intelligence to go looking for Mike Rowe's site will be confused.
In fact, I would say that searching for MikeRoweSoft and google asking me if I was looking for microsoft proves that M$ has absolutely NO chance of proving damages,infringement or confusion.
...I would have bought MikeRoweSoftSocks.com
I would change my name to Bill Gates Stinks....
Just as a short form of US Copyright Law Sucks.
Less is more !
This is odd. Remember, Mr. Rowe didn't register his domain name so he would have to deal with Microsoft, he did it because it's the name of his web designing business. I'm sure if he had know M$ would pull a stunt like this he would of tried something different domain name wise. The only reason he's decided not to change it now is because it's the name of his company and doesn't want to get pushed around by a large corporation, and I don't blame him. How can a consumer mistakenly type that in, and even if they do, how can they get confused. Besides, it's a great name. ;)
Lol, I remember that episode. And Homer asks why they are wrecking his office instead of paying him off, Bill Gates replies "You don't think I got rich by writing checks, do you?"
I can't afford a sig!
But his friends call him Big Dick
Is suing a kid who posed no threat to them more important than trying to regain a trustworthy image? Microsoft keeps piling on one reason after another for their customers to dump them. When will they see that it's not individuals and other companies who are screwing them, but that they're screwing themselves? Product activation, insecure defaults, lock-in tactics, fud campaigns, suing just because they can, all of that makes people not want to deal with them.
The best way to take a website out of existance is to give it to Slashdot! Haha, looks like Microsoft knows a little more than some people think. ;)
-----
Make Love not [Browser] War!
The problem is not the written form it's the pronunciation.
"Hey i got this new software from MikeRoweSoft!"
See? Confusion? I think they have a valid case, especially since the guy said he thought it'd be cool to have a name like that. The intent is there. MS has a case (whether you like it or not, doesn't matter to them).
Trolls dont like to be Flamebait, because they burn so well. Protect our Troll heritage!
According to an article on CNN, Mike Rowe first proposed being compensated:"He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up his name. Microsoft's lawyers offered him $10 in U.S. funds. Then he asked for $10,000."
The register article makes it sound like MS baited Rowe into making the $10,000 offer by offering him $10 without provocation:"Mike told us that when an email from Microsoft's Canadian lawyers Smart & Biggar arrived on 19 November laying out its complaint, he was "amazed and appalled". He replied saying he didn't want to hand over the domain and didn't feel there was any risk it would damage Microsoft's name. He then got another email. "They responded to this email by offering to give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses in return for the domain name. This came out to be $10; the amount I paid for the domain. This made me feel insulted. I had spent a lot of time building up my site and I had only been offered $10 for my work. I responded by asking for $10,000, which I regret doing now, for my work and domain name." As he now knows, Mike had unwittingly slipped into the classic trap set by companies in order to get hold of domain names - the creation of a "bad faith" use of the domain. By offering to sell the domain for profit (even if sparked by the offer of payment by the other party), according to the bent logic of domain dispute arbitrators, it shows the owner had no legitimate interest in the domain and so it should be handed over. "
I think the Register is trying to spin the story to make MS look bad, when in fact, Rowe was the one to first bring up selling the domain to MS. I base this on the presumption that CNN is a more trustworthy news source than The Register.
Vote for Pedro
Everybody, on your site, create a link to MikeRoweSoft.com
:-)
Let's make sure he's #1 in google for relevant terms
McDonald's has tried the same stunt. They sued a Scottish cafe owner by the name of McDonald for trademark infringement.
They lost. They also garnered more bad PR than all the PETA types that have gone up against them could have ever hoped for.
Mike could win big if he hung in there.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
It's trademark infringement, and not copyright infringement. Ducktwat.
My post from a week ago...I was joking! These bozos are serious!
Just because their are others more evil than Microsoft does not make what they do okay. By that logic it's okay to kill a couple people, as long as you are not as evil as a couple of dictators.
"We have got to make Stan understand the importance of voting, because he'll definitely vote for our guy." - South Park
Sorry to hear they didn't just pay the damned kid. One thing about being scum is the psychological inability to realize that writing the kid a check--even one for ten times what he asked for--with a handshake and hinting at an internship one day would beat all hell out of reaching for your lawyers and generating news coverage that proves that even your worst critics are dead right about you.
"Buy 'em out boys", a cartoon Bill Gates as a trio of large nerds destroy Homer's Compuglobalhypermeganet office.
Bill Gates then says, "I didn't get wealthy by making large payouts."
Perhaps the strat of a self-fullfilling prophecy?
Cy Coe
It sucks that he's found himself in the cage with the 800-kiloton gorilla, but then again the 'soft' in his domain name has no other purpose than to lean on MS's trademark. If he were developing software or something and it was and abreviation for "software blah blah blah..." then the line might be fuzzier.
He should show his good faith and register an alternate name for his business that is less obviously a play on their trademark. Something like: mikerowesoftworx.com
I'm sure Microsoft wouldn't have any problem with tha... err... nm.
There is a company that makes shipping trailers called Haulmark. I wonder what the card company has to say about that.
Hardware, software, and blinking lights!
I think this Mike Rowe's behaviour sucks.
In fact I'm off now to register mikerowesoftsucks.com and set up a parody website to vent my anger...
But his name isn't Mike Rowe Soft is it? Had he traded under mikerowe.com he'd be fine, but he chose mikerowesoft.com because he thought it would be cool to have a name sounding like Microsoft. It's pretty clear cut.
See? And you thought the RIAA was the only organisation in the world evil enough to pick on kids.
Just please, somebody, PLEASE THINK OF THE CHILDREN!!!
Karma: It's all a bunch of tree-huggin' hippy crap!
Yes, folks it could be worse. What if his name was Mike Hunt?
I wonder what microsoft would do if he became a Lindows reseller.
he didn't. MS came after him and offered $10 so he said if you're serious offer $1000 they said no!
Oh that's freaky you chose those - my given names are William Stephen (but please don't tell anyone else)!
my crow soft is sofa king wee todd did
Michael Hunt is a useful contributor to the Perth Linux User Group lists (WestOz).
A few decades ago, I had a school-bus driver whose surname was Head. We had this annoying little whiner on the bus, one Lisa Green from Lane Cove, who would regularly ask "Mr Head, Mr Head?" until she got a response, then ask "Is your name Richard? Ha-ha-ha-ha..." (his name was John or something like that). After the two-hundredth repetition, the novelty kind of wore off.
Another school in Geraldton housed the unfortunate Wayne Kerr.
Had your laughs now? OK, move along, I'm sure there's a life waiting out there somewhere for you.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
That children's show also features a Seaman Staines. And a few other whoppers - I'm amazed that nobody noticed for many years. Somebody, somewhere must have been a very happy little smartass for a very long time.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
His team appears to have kicked your sorry little backsides all over the court fairly regularly.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
...that someone would want to be confused for them.
Badass Resumes
That would be a valid point if Mike Rowe utilized telemarketing to advertise his services. Perhaps Microsoft should have waited until he did so to enforce their trademark claim. The fact is that Microsoft is attempting to enforce a trademark claim when their trademark is not being violated.
You do have a very good point that should serve as a warning to any e-commerce company: be careful how you name your company if you plan to market it in meat-space.
--K.
Sig: Bad people happen. Try to avoid being one of them.
It's not wasted karma, it's invested karma. If turkeys elect to burn mod points on your post (or this one) it spares another post part of a hammering and sooner or later they'll get seen. Or follow Tridge's rule and browse at -1. (-:
Religious education isn't a problem, but people who see things in black-and-white terms and won't reason things through (the classic example being people who mod down instead of posting a response) are indeed a problem. And the proportion of Atheists in this camp is at least as high as the percentage of fundamentalist Christians.
The takeaway lesson is IBM's old motto: "Think". Or to put it another way: "Prove all things, hold fast that which is good" (-: OK, so I'm going for a wooden-spoon award. :-)
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
So is telling kids you'll spank them if they run out onto a freeway.
BTW, the Bible doesn't say that sinners'll burn permanently, just that sinners will be permanently burned. The illustration it uses is Gehenna, a valley which served as Jerusalem's rubbish dump. There was always a fire at Gehenna, but objects thrown onto that fire weren't always there. And there's no fire there now that there's nothing left to burn.
If you burned sinners constantly, you'd be keeping those sinners (and their sin) in some way alive. That's one of the contradictions (like death as a transition instead of a termination) in the common religious views which spawned theological oddities like the concept of Purgatory (or if you want a really baroque set of hells, several of the Eastern religions have thrown together detailed specs including diagrams :-).
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Maybe that's who the anonymous submitter is...
/. - it'll be gone in two hours."
"Hey Bill, we can't get this site shut down legally."
"Eh... I'll send it to
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
Re: MikeRoweSoft.com
Background located at:
http://www.theregister.com/content/6/34955.h
This is not acceptable, moral behaviour on your part.
I will remember this when I need to make my next software selection/purchase.
Alan
Hello Allan,
Thank you for contacting Microsoft.
We take our trademark seriously, but in this case maybe a little too seriously. Under the law companies are required to take this type of action to protect their trademark against widespread infringement. That said, we appreciate that Mike Rowe is a young entrepreneur who came up with a creative domain name. We are currently in the process of resolving this matter in a way that will be fair to him and satisfy our obligations under trademark law.
Should you have further questions, feel free to write us back.
Sincerely,
Jing
Microsoft.com Customer Support
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
I think Harley-Davidson already tried to trademark a sound (the typical Harley rumble) but was shot down ... but it would be just wrong for Microsoft to have rights to any phonetic spelling of a particular sound.
Would that mean they could sue me if I made a song about killing a crow? "My Crow's Offed" coming to a record store near you.
m.mmm..myyy
www.TimWarner.com
I just went to Microsoft.com and they completely revamped it. I'd say check it out but it seems to be /.'d right now. That's amazing, we /.'d Microsoft.com!!!
Who's Mike Rowe? and What is Mike Rowe's Oft? and for that matter, WTF is an Oft?
For discussions sake, let's say that Mr Rowe has spare change of 1 Trillion US Dollars (yes, I am being hypothetical here)....
Now Mr Rowe registers his company as Mike Rowe Soft. Then he decides that www.microsoft.com is an infringement on his company name. Keep in mind that he has lot of money and can affort 1 trillion dollars of spare change. He makes an offer to Bill Gates/Microsoft to relinquish www.microsoft.com in exchange for 1 Trillion US dollars. Bill Gates looks at the offer and being tempting as it is, agrees to it. Now Mr. Rowe can hire Smart and Bigger lawer firm to sue microsoft and say that the domain name www.microsoft.com was registered in bad faith to eventually make money out of it....
Well.... the timing of registration could be an issue here. I remember there was another case like this www.nissan.com but Nissan Motor Co. couldn't win the case for that domain name !!
The world is so cruel. First he gets sued by a major corporation, and now we've slashdotted the poor kid's server. When will it end?
68.3% of all statistics are made up on the spot.
This guy was the one who bought the domain name *after* MS was established. If there is a starbucks, and you startup starbuks, you are pretty much going to be notified for copyright infringement.
What they offered him was not the question, its because he knew what he was doing in the first place- that this name would infringe on MS's copyright.
It doesn't matter if the company is a 200 billion dollar company or a 20 million dollar one.
Why isn't there such a hue and cry or even an article on slashdot when intel sues intellite?
Just because its MS, its being blown out of proportion.
Sensationalism.
Bush is on fire and its not good for my lungs.
What's worse is that from now on when people say that Bill Gates fucked a 17 year old boy the'll be right. If they win this case you can bet your ass it will be my signature.
War is necrophilia.
I can't believe something as beautiful as garbage could be confused with something as horrid as Microsoft!
Oh the darklings will get that one...
how highly microsoft thinks of its customers; well I guess most of those who can spell m-i-c-r-o-s-o-f-t are l-i-n-u-x users; ;)
nah, no intention of flaming; just leave the kid alone; getting worried abt linux - granted; get worried abt a 17yr old web-designer - PARANOIA
MS can afford a measly $10g; keeo the kid happy, keep the public happy and don't worry about your customers' spelling profeciency
|/________
|\A|ALYS|
Billions Registered
I don't see any punctuation in his domain name - do you? Meanwhile, the kid openly admitted he chose MikeRowSoft because it was so similar to Microsoft. Get it?
So his defence is an imperceptible pause?
He's screwed.
6) Mike Rowe was born in 1984. Microsoft was founded in 1975, nine years before Mike Rowe was born. Clearly this was a blatant attempt on Mike Rowe's parents to infringe on Microsoft's trademark.
Ryosen
One man's "Troll, +1" is another man's "Insightful, +1".
Broadband connection....$50/month /.'d the same day.....Priceless
Web server......................$400
Domain name registration using your name and "soft.com" after it.... $8/year
Being threatened by the 800 pound gorilla from Redmond for trademark infringement and getting
...I mean, given all of the other innuendo the cartoon contained...
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Ta. We'll see how it all pans out.
Got time? Spend some of it coding or testing
Or you could do it with one link
--- root@127.0.0.1
Most British newspapers are only fit for emergency absorption material-their use for grammar instruction is NOT recommended.
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
I couldn't agree more! ROFL!
...and he grinned, like a fox eating shit out of a wire brush.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Hey, if there is such a problem, Mike should just chang his domain to MikeRoweHard and get over it. It is quite funny how Microsoft takes such an event so redundant to them, and try to be all big...common Microsoft, pick on someone your own size!
...they spent as much time fixing code as they do looking for lawsuits maybe we would like Windows...
Any true Geek knows that MICROSOFT stands for "MICROcomputer SOFTware" which is how its name was coined. So, unless that is the Kid's FULL Name, then they shouldn't have a problem with him.
punctuation isn't allowed in domain names, but is assumed to be there, especially if using capitals to emphasise word boundaries. get it?
he said he got it because it sounds similar, which in no way supports the original claim that they sound *identitcal*. get it?
If you don't defend your trademarks and copyrights, they could be lot. When people realise this it will make life easier.
Google does exactly the same thing, it does not like people saying on tv "You could google for it", as they are afraind it will become a common term for search. Hoover learnt this the hard way - and then they lost the trademarks to the brand name.
But then your a bunch of Linux zelots and would not understand that. Everything has to be free for everybody, and if not, you steal it anyway.
Two things are plain to me: * If Microsoft wanted the Mike Rowe domain, for any reason, they only had to register it. They've had plenty of time to do this while Mr Rowe was otherwise occupied growing up * Bill Gates, and his personification Microsoft, are shitheads
And with that, the Slashdot bullshit-ometer goes through the roof and dissappears forever.
Coincidentally, I had posted this on my blog only yesterday. Read comments.
http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/cases/2004/d0000-0 199.html
The phoenetic similarity may not be evident to someone that doesn't speak english natively...
Which means all Americans?
public final transient String president = DUBYA;
My Crow "going" Soft ? Not likely.
They're already the biggest. Hmm, that probably also explains the bullying.
You don't need to see my
Enron, Worldcom, Tycho, Parmalat, Microsoft.
Beta is broken and the link to classic doesn't work. Stop wasting our time or there won't be anybody left here.
The Uzi Nissan v Nissan case is quite different. Uzi had Nissan Computers which is not the same business as Nissan Motor Corp, so when soliciting customers one would generally recognize that these are different Nissan's. Furthermore, the domain name matched his last name exactly; therefore, he was not trying to impersonate Nissan Motors or make fun of them in any way.
The Uzi case was definitely about the corporate monoliths trying to bully the little guy. Another reasonably good example is Unicom but fortunately the company wasn't big enough to win.
I feel sorry for Uzi, he was doing business with his name and big corporate interest bullied him out of his domain. Mike Rowe, on the other hand, was poking fun at a company and doing business in a similiar area -- consumers would be unable to identify the difference between these two names.
Eric Sarjeant
eric[@]sarjeant.com