Publisher Renames 'Katie.com'

twigstamc420 writes "In an update to stories posted the previous two days on Slashdot, Penguin Putnam publishing has issued a press release stating that they have re-named the title of Katie.com to 'A Girl's Life Online'. Press release (pdf) found on their press page."

Comments

At last

[Anonymous Coward]

Justice prevailed. For once.

'till next time.

Covered their bases on this one...

[Coffee Warlord]

Certainly snapped this one up.

Domain Name: AGIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM
Registrar: REGISTER.COM, INC.
Whois Server: whois.register.com
Referral URL: http://www.register.com
Name Server: DNS19.REGISTER.COM
Name Server: DNS20.REGISTER.COM
Status: ACTIVE
Updated Date: 05-aug-2004
Creation Date: 05-aug-2004
Expiration Date: 05-aug-2006

Organization:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox

Her own announement

[miracle]

She posted her own personal announcement on the site she really owns.

Today I am very excited to announce that Katie.com will be re-released and re-named A Girl's Life Online. From the beginning, I hoped that Penguin and Katie Jones would be able to resolve this issue. I never believed that I had any right to the name Katie.com as a website but simply viewed it to be the name of my book. That being said, I never wanted anyone to experience unwanted emails or traffic on the Internet. As someone who has been abused, I would certainly not wish to cause anybody pain. Therefore, I sincerely apologize to Katie Jones for any suffering she may have endured.

That's a little different than the slashing perpetrator Slashdot has cast her. Refreshing to know the good guys do win....sometimes.

Re:Her own announement

[Saeed al-Sahaf]

Well, had you read up on the information available from sources other than Slashdot, you might have been clued in about this from the start. Things are not always as they seem here at Slashdot. It's pretty typical around here to read the first sentence and embellish it into something it's not quite. For example, Tarbox has said that this lawyer who the other Katie implies threatened her, does not represent her. But you know how the sheep here feel about lawyers, one mention and keyboards all over the world get covered with spit.

Re:The Power of Slashdot????

[Sircus]

There was also an article on The Register. I presume there were other articles on other sites - it probably all got too much for Penguin.

Re:The Power of Slashdot????

[garcia]

Nah, it's just that the media has recently jumped on this. Al Roker probably has more people that are psychotic than we do.

Re:New address

[Anonymous Coward]

Here's what KatieT had to say about it

http://www.katiet.com/message1.htm

Not over until the blood sucking lawyer backs off

[Silicon_Knight]

Penguin might have retitled the book, but until those 2 f-ugly bitches stop billing Katie T.'s "online safety, look, I was stupid and this could happen to you too" crap as "Katie.com", this mess isn't over yet.

It appears that Tarbox did indeed get a clue and register her own domain:

Organization:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox
745 Carter Street
New Canaan, CT 06840
US
Phone: 203-966-1828
Email: ktarbox261@aol.com

Registrar Name....: Register.com
Registrar Whois...: whois.register.com
Registrar Homepage: http://www.register.com

Domain Name: AGIRLSLIFEONLINE.COM

Created on..............: Thu, Aug 05, 2004
Expires on..............: Sat, Aug 05, 2006
Record last updated on..: Thu, Aug 05, 2004

Administrative Contact:
Katie Tarbox, Inc.
Katie Tarbox
745 Carter Street
New Canaan, CT 06840
US
Phone: 203-966-1828
Email: ktarbox261@aol.com

In the meantime, if someone wants to convince the lawyer that she should back down:

Aftab, Parry
(PA286)
parry.aftab@COUNSEL.COM
E. 80 Rt. 4, The Atrium, Suite 410
Paramus, NJ 07652
US
Phone: (201) 845-0100
Fax: 999 999 9999

The lawyer's cell # is: 201-463-8663. It appears to be a Bell Atlantic Nylex Mobile, registered in New Jersey. Anyone care to post her SMS email address and send her a few messages to convince her to drop the campaign? :-)

And, yeah, never understimate the power of geeks in large numbers. Esp bored geeks with nothing to do on Friday nights :-)

-=- SiKnight

Katie Jones Responds

[geekychic]

Katie Jones, owner of the katie.com domain, has posted a response on her website.

Penguin FINALLY do the right thing!

According to a press release on their site today, Penguin Puttnam have finally decided to do the right thing and rename the book. I cannot tell you how pleased I am!. Of course they should have done this 4 years ago and saved us all a load of grief, but I am thrilled that they've finally realised the consequences of their actions and admitted fault by retitling the book.

All that remains is to hope that Katie Tarbox does not continue to promote herself or her services as 'katie.com' as previously threatened and maybe then my life can return to normal :-)

I am sure that this sudden change of heart by the publisher is largely to do with the support this issue has received from the online community and once again I'd like to thank everyone very much indeed.

Yours very happily

Katie Jones

I'm so glad -- I was so ticked off by this that I sent an email to Penguin yesterday threatening to never buy their books again. I wonder how many irate slashdotters flooded their inboxes... =)

Re:Katie Jones Responds

[Anonymous Coward]

I am sure that this sudden change of heart by the publisher is largely to do with the support this issue has received from the online community and once again I'd like to thank everyone very much indeed.

You forgot to mention that 'the support this issue has received from the online community' in Katie's statement is not plain text; it is a link to this slashdot article. She's not thanking some generic online community. She's thanking the slashdot community.

Re:Sting.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Sting, or at least his lawyers, filed a claim on the domain with that international board that hears disputes on name registration. The board felt that the original name registrant had a valid claim to the domain and was not poaching it. Sting ended up buying it from the guy, but I don't know what it sold for.

The real Katie.com thanks slashdot

[Cheeko]

Took a quick look over at katie.com and she makes mention of slashdot, and offers much thanks to the support of the community making a difference. Good to see that she holds no hard feelings over the publicity :) Go good guys.

Re:Typical Face Saving -'Not Our Fault' Retreat

[pyrrhonist]

All we know is that a lawyer, working on a project with Tarbox, suggested to Jones that she sell the domain to Tarbox, and when Jones refused, said that continuing to hold on to the domain would only make things worse.

I don't think threats count as suggestions. In Katie Jones' own words:

She then got quite aggressive and said things would 'only get worse' for me if I didn't give it up.

The other thing she tried to do was emotionally blackmail me, which I felt was extremely inappropriate.

From what I have read, nothing Jones has said implied in any way that any legal threats were being made.

Again, in Katie Jones' own words:

She also told me that I could not sell it to anyone nor use it for any other purpose because she could prosecute as it's now linked forever to the book and it's subject matter. And she said that they were going to Trademark the term 'katie.com'.

Re:I can't believe it.

[rowdent]

Throwing money at causes doesn't make a corporation "good". When their business practices reflect ethical decision-making, then they are "good". Look at some of the companies that are listed in the link:

Lockheed Martin: *kaboom* Great humanitarians there.

Monsanto Fund: "Grow GMOs or wave major grocery chains goodbye." Most abusive multinational food company out there.

Shell Oil: Supported South African Apartheid. See Mother Jones for more information.

Re:Buy the Katie.com book now before it's gone

[otlg]

Please tell me that was just a poor attempt at humo(u)r. Someone in this situation was evil for a longtime. How about printing out the slashdot pages instead as a momento. Buying a momento is just giving money to a bunch of people who only backed done for their own purposes and not for the right reasons. Please DO NOT reward that sort of behaviour.

The annoying lawyer was hired by her, not the pub

[Anonymous Coward]

Lawyers act as agents for their clients. That was her lawyer, not the publisher's lawyer. So the actions of the lawyer were due to actions of the client, unless the lawyer really screwed up.

Re:Probably Amazon, not Slashdot

[sik0fewl]

Yep, that's been noted several times already (see my post history). They haven't been "censored" however, since the reviews weren't about the book, they were about the publisher and author which is why they were removed.

However, I still think the ratings bomb had a big effect on the publishers. They were down to 2 stars or less for a while and all the positive reviews still say "5 out of 287" people found this review helpful.

Interesting difference in international title

[mrklin]

On Katie Tarbox's site, you can see in the lower banner that her book has been translated into multiple languages such as Chinese, Japanese, German, and others.

All of them feature the original title of katie.com except for the Chinese version whose title translates to Dream of the Internet Lover. Maybe the Chinese editors did their homework?

Re:Sting.com

[DragonMagic]

http://arbiter.wipo.int/domains/decisions/html/200 0/d2000-0596.html

Sting got the WIPO to stand in and give him the domain.

Re:Sting.com

[Zordak]

The decision you link to clearly finds for the other guy, and denies the singer's attempt to hijack the domain name. Every once in a while, the guy with the money does lose.