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Microsoft Agrees Settlement Over MikeRoweSoft.com
GillBates0 writes "CNN's reporting that Microsoft Corp has settled with Mike Rowe, persuading the teenager to give up his domain name in exchange for costs of changing the existing domain to a new Web site, Microsoft certification training, an Xbox, an invitation to a technology festival at Redmond and some other gifts. Includes a choice quote from Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler: 'We wanted to do this in a way that's going to foster his interest in technology'. Mike had received a 25-page letter from Microsoft informing him he was committing copyright infringement, and threatening legal action, as reported earlier on Slashdot."
I hope he takes the free publicity & does something good with it. If he can handle this gracefully and turn it into something positive, he can end up being seen doing so by the right people, and turn it into a good opportunity for himself.
Or, he can stay in his room and play with the new Xbox, that's OK too I suppose.
Sounds like Microsoft realized they were getting bad press, so bought him out with.. you guessed it, Microsoft freebie products. Now bad press turns into Microsoft product marketing. Those guys are brilliant in Redmond. Grrr...
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This is a good way out for both parties, really. While I don't dig Microsoft going after anyone for a domain name, it's a known tactic to squat on "near miss" domains. Usually the speculators aren't bright eyed 17 year old kids, and that tactic would be suitable for the usual bottom feeders. In this case though, where they clearly want to quash that domain, but not cripple some poor teenager, I like this.
Luck favors the prepared, darling.
He's only 17.
Let him have his XBox fun, and some college life to go with it. If he should focus on being all business now at that age, he might grow to regret it later in his life.
But I agree: it's a chance to build some positive ties that he can use to network his way into a job after college.
-Cyc
/.'s 10 Millionth
Microsoft has always been adept with the distribution of carrots...how else do you think they've been able to steer their firm through the treacherous waters of antitrust lawsuits.
Here, Mr. Judge, is a big diamond studded gold carrot. Here, Mr. Senator, can I help you with your campaign funds...
Shouldn't that be foster his interest in Microsoft?
I mean come on, an X-box? An MCSE course? And I bet the migration to another webserver has to be to IIS and all.
Who cares what the developers think? The Xbox is definitely not the favorite console of the people playing games. And to mangle a quick quote from Maddox, saying the Xbox has the best graphics and therefore is the best console is like saying that since I painted this picture with the best paints, I must be the best artist.
Support the First Amendment. Read at -1
"how else do you think they've been able to steer their firm through the treacherous waters of antitrust lawsuits."
...
Yeah, remember how they got the Justice Department to drop their lawsuit before it got to court. Oh, wait
What I don't understand is why Microsoft didn't do this from the beginning. They send a legal threat and find out they're dealing with some kid. Instead of turning around to sue the hell out of the kid if they had just offered this from the beginning there would never have been any story and this would be a complete non-issue.
Gamespot.com also always claims
Dude, I don't know where to start to point out what's wrong with your post and your brain...
When you enter "biased" and "I feel lucky" at google chances are high that it will take you straight to gamespot.com and their latest XBox homage.
You certainly never spend time in front of all these consoles but you try desperately to us that the XBox (you know it's just a inferior PC that hardly runs Linux) is superior and rules the world (except Japan, Europe, and pretty much the rest outside the US).
Get gamespot.com out of your head and _try_ to form your own opinion.
It really comes down to games. However most developers are increasingly writing their games using cross-platform toolkits so that they can penetrate all three markets. And according to the people I know, Xbox performs the best. Gamespot.com corraborates this.
So unless the few games that are console-exclusive are really what matters to you, or some tangible things like form factors, then the only difference is graphics/gameplay quality and smoothness. And XBox wins here for most cross-platform games.
Using your paint analogy, if an artist draws the exact same picture multiple times using different paints, then the superior picture will be the one that uses the superior paints.
Hmmm, perhaps satiric speech is protected speech?
So how far would they be allowed to go if his full name was Mike Rowesoft? What limit do we put on the price of preventing so-called consumer confusion?
Seriously they are the best at settlements. Remember how they offered all that software to the States... Microsoft s/w! We give it away for free so we I can lock you in the future!
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Yeah.
"Ha! He took the bait! He said his site was worth $10000 to him! Now his ass is ours! Let's eat his soul!"
"Oh wait! The public is actually sympathizing with this monster? Let's give him an xbox! Make sure to get some nice press photos of us and our new best friend."
Hey asshole, I have friends and family who write console games for a living.
Can you spell "irrelevant"?
I myself being a highly trained at Microsoft products was what made me realixe just how plain stupid they are sometimes. Having knowledge in linux before i started training Windows 2000 server made me understand that linux does many things easier for an admin. Account management is a breeze in linux as opposed to the nightmare of managing domains, AD and security principles (barf!).
The more he reads about MS stuff the more the kid is going to understand that there are much better and faster ways of doing things.
Pople who tend to stay at the MS camp is often people who dont quite understand what happens behind the bells and whistles.
Typing this away at my 25th reboot installing a frigging client machine Running W2k after having installed a fully fledged Linux Terminal Server with 1 (one) reboot.
Aww, these moments make me appriciate the awkwardness of VI.
HTTP/1.1 400
But be honest! if this had been Gentoo, SUSE or any other Linux oriented company, giving this kid crap lying around in the marketing department would have been applauded.
What the hell did you expect MS to give him?
Redhat certified engineering courses? A free G5 Powermac with Steve Jobs' Autograph?Get real! Finally MS is doing the right thing (TM) and you STILLwhine!
Now lets talk about XML patents!
Nothing in the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity.
Mike Roe Soft is indeed a soundalike to mic-ro-soft, on this point you can not debate. It took me a second after reading it to make the sound connection, what the hell does Mike Roe have to do with Microsoft, who is this Mike Roe person, what the hell does Micro.. oh yea....
Hotmale.com is a much closer soundalike, and a hell of alot more likely to be a miss then mikeroesoft.com. Haven't you been in an office and had people yell "I was just checking my mail and I'm getting gay porn popups from hell".
Why doesn't Microsoft go after sites that offer gay porn rather then products for the microcomputer? After all... some people might be offended by gay porn popups from hell, and might learn to associate Microsoft's mail service with gay nakid men.
There is no sanctuary. There is no sanctuary. SHUT UP! There is no shut up. There is no shut up.
Linux may be given away freely, but you sure have a better chance of it remaining free in the future. With MS, the first hits free, then your MS's b*tch.
No, because then that would be a Trademark case.
MS wasn't charging him with that because they knew that they don't have a case there, they'd lose hands down. They played the prove-he's-a-domain-squatter card on him.
Big difference.
However, now that Mike Rowe has caved to MS, should he try to continue a company under the same name, MS will have HUGE ammunition in a trademark case because Mike Rowe has essentially admitted to attempting to profit off of a name similar to Microsoft...
Man, that little turd's done all kinds of damage by caving to them.
No Comment.
I think he would of gotten his $10K if he held out. But he probably got a few thousand worth of Microsoft goodies + a visit to Redmond isn't 1/2 bad.
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Micro$oft never changes their mind, never yields to public outcry, no matter how outrageously far they might have overstepped any particular line. In fact, as a company they've always sort of delighted in the fact that they didn't have to make decisions based on practicality and expediency: they've always wanted to world (read, competitors) to understand that they will do what they want, when they want and to whom they wish to do it.
So, I think it's a pretty big thing when the Redmonster backs down, even over something this silly (and arguably, that they had no claim to in the first place). No, this is not like them apologizing to Apple for stealing-and-ruining their OS (or, to be fair, like Apple doing the same to Xerox-PARC) or changing their mind on just how hard it actually would be to de-couple the browser from the OS, but I think it's an indication of a subtle cultural shift. Maybe it was Ballmer's off-day?
In addition, I commend young Mr. Rowe for taking as much out of them as they'd give, even if their motives were PR-driven rather than a sincere wish to right a wrong. Besides, the more experience he gains with ASP/.NET, the more he'll realize he was smart to be heading in the direction of PHP to begin with. *snicker*
"Don't matter how New Age you get, old age is gonna kick your ass." - Utah Phillips
You know, you can buy an adapter to allow you to use more controller ports for games that support it on the PS2. Just like how you can buy a remote to watch DVDs on an X-Box.
Yes, but I have pet theories that by requiring users to buy an extra piece of middleware, roughly the cost of a controller but with no other tangible benefit, far fewer game companies put 4 player modes into their games then would if it was 4 ports in the basic hardware.
SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
They said foster his interest in technology...
Xbox is definitely the piece of equipment to have. Linux, MythTV, emulators, media players... screw games.
LilMikey.com... I'll stop doing it when you sto
The CNN article doesn't say that Microsoft wooed him over with this set of cash and prizes. and judging by what the prizes are, I'd wager that Mike set these terms, and Microsoft said "okay".
A win-win situation for both parties involved.
How is this no different than Lindows? Very similiar names, and they probably chose the name because of the closeness to a popular product of M$. Sure, you can argue that point, but can M$ patent/copywrite words that sound similar to their name or products?
Darn. I was hoping the kid would counter sue. Although, I can't blame him. I would probably sell out too -- but since I already have an XBox -- I would hold out for the $1M instead.
SPAM solution made easy: 1 spammer, 5 cords of rope, 5 hourses, and fireworks. Be creative.
Schmuck: Some kid named their group "Mike Rowe Soft."
Schmuck's Manager: He's riding the coattails of our trademark. Legally, we have to get him to stop.
Legal: Please stop using this or we will be forced to puruse this legally.
Mike Rowe: $10? This is worth $10k.
Legal: You're setting a price? We owe it to our shareholders to pursue this.
Mike Rowe: Oh, crap! I didn't realize trademark law existed! Could we settle?
Legal: Sure. Here's some cool stuff if you change your domain name like we requested in the beginning.
Mike Rowe: Cool, thanks!
Slashdot: M$ IS RAKING A 17-YEAR OLD OVER THE COALS!!!11
See, it is only funny to those with asthma. Everyone else assumes that it is offensive. What a world we live in.
Even though it's good business policy to protect your trademark, that does not give your business some exclusive right to other words that are pronounced in the same way.
Yes, it does. Mike Rowe calling it "Mike Rowe Soft" was an obvious and intended play on Microsoft.
Actually, he said it was an intentional play on it. Hence, there went a large portion of his defense.
The kid may be getting some technology training from MS, but the real lesson here is to keep your mouth shut and let a lawyer do the talking.
the only reason they gave him an xbox at all is because it cost them less to give it away than to sell it, after the tax write off.
~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
Has anybody thought of how funny it is that Microsoft is suing a guy named mike, considering that in their commercials they talk about how they encourage "Michael and all his potential". Could a satirical counter commercial like moveon.org did of bush be far behind?