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CyanogenMod Domain Hijacked

Posted by Soulskill on from the greed-is-the-silent-enemy dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The team behind CyanogenMod, one of the most popular community-driven, Android-based operating systems for phones and tablets, has announced that they're moving to Cyanogenmod.org after their .com domain was held ransom by a community member. He had been in control of the .com domain name for some time, but the team found out he was impersonating Cyanogen to make deals with community sites. When they removed his access to other parts of the CM infrastructure, he demanded $10,000 to relinquish control of the domain and threatened to change the DNS entries. When they refused to pay, he went through with it. The team is now disputing control of the domain with ICANN. They said, 'We will continue to be open about the what, when, how, but unfortunately, we may never know the "why" – though greed comes to mind. The team itself has not made a profit off of CM and that is not our goal. But to have one of our own betray the community like this is beyond our comprehension.'"

13 of 143 comments (clear)

  1. Nice guy! by Threni · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sounds like a real asshole. Enjoy the domain why you can - it'll be taken from you, or it'll be rendered worthless when the responsible adults get their own domain. Either way it's worthless.

    1. Re:Nice guy! by KiloByte · · Score: 5, Funny

      this is why I use apple - you never know who hijacked a domain and is now serving malicous software packages.

      Judging from stories here on /. and elsewhere, indeed apple.com is serving malicious software packages through its app store.

      --
      The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
    2. Re:Nice guy! by Charliemopps · · Score: 5, Informative

      He's just trying to reenforce the stereotype that all apple users are uninformed, arrogant douche bags that will take any opportunity to pop the brand name "Apple" into a conversation.

    3. Re:Nice guy! by screwdriver · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Cyanogenmod is not an official Android release. You can't get it from the google store, it has to be installed on a device that you've rooted. If you jailbreak your iPod, expect similar results if you download unofficial unsigned apps.

  2. This would seem to be the guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    This is the first whois data from that domain 3 years ago:

    Administrative Contact:
    Deveci, Ahmet webmaster@metserve.com
    Third Floor
    152-156 Lower Clapton Road
    Clapton, London E5 0QJ
    GB
    +442081232629

    1. Re:This would seem to be the guy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      His Twitter, with relevant comments:

      https://twitter.com/MrADeveci

  3. Name and shame again and again. by couchslug · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Whenever the subject is brought up, it would be appropriate to NAME the perp and note his background info.

    No libel, no slander, just sufficient identification that anyone considering teaming with this fellow can make a fully informed decision.

    It's not revenge, just self-defense.

    --
    "This post is an artistic work of fiction and falsehood. Only a fool would take anything posted here as fact."
    1. Re:Name and shame again and again. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      The name is Ahmet Deveci. https://plus.google.com/u/0/103583939320326217147/posts/A8mtUUpdEH8

    2. Re:Name and shame again and again. by darkmeridian · · Score: 5, Informative

      He claims that he has transferred it back to CM:

      "Ahmet Deveci8:22 PM - Public
      For the record, regarding: cyanogenmod.com

      Following the saga from : http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org it would appear that I have been labelled a 'thief' an 'extortionist' a 'liar' and a bunch of other somewhat degrading comments.

      The domain name has since been transferred to the CM Team, but I wanted to make a few things clear.

      I purchased the CyanogenMod.com domain name 3 years ago and have been responsible for the renewal fees ever since. This means I (my company) legally owned the domain name. It was fully registered in the United Kingdom. I hear people saying about âtrademarkâ(TM). Yes, CyanogenMod is now a registered trademark in the US. But the domain was registered in the UK well before that trademark. I donâ(TM)t want to get into any legal battles here, but US trademarkâ(TM)s are not valid in the UK unless they are registered here with the IPO.

      The term 'hi-jacked' is just wrong, the domain name was always in my control. I didn't hijack anything. I initiated a transfer out process with my registrar today who restored the DNS entries to their own. This in turn deleted all MX entries and other records. The term 'hi-jacked' has just derived from tech blogs creating stories for link bait.

      The term 'extortion' is also wrong. If I was out for the money, why an earth would I have transferred the domain to the CM Team for free?"

      https://plus.google.com/116028512018932696380/posts

      --
      A NYC lawyer blogs. http://www.chuangblog.com/
    3. Re:Name and shame again and again. by Kwyj1b0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Did you not read the summary or did you recently get a lobotomy? The summary clearly lays out the dick moves he pulled. Nothing in his lame excuse drivel clears any of that shit up other than saying other people are wrong.

      And who submitted the entry? An AC. And with the high editorial standards at slashdot, I'm sure they did a thorough investigation and fact-checking before posting.

      As to the fact that his excuses were lame - that is exactly what the previous poster said. So congratulations on missing the whole point (while implying he/she is an idiot).

  4. Wait. Oh my god. by p0p0 · · Score: 5, Funny

    I only just now realized that the rom is called cyanogenmod and not cryogenmod. Christ, I've been calling it cryogenmod for over a year!

    1. Re:Wait. Oh my god. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      That's OK, I was calling those little cups of coffee "Expresso" for something like 3 years, until I realised what an idiot I was...

  5. This all looks to now be resolved by kaptink · · Score: 5, Informative

    This all looks to now be resolved - http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved

    From the cyanogenmod blog -

    (ciwrl wrote this, I’m just posting on his behalf so this is resolved)

    So earlier today we put up a post on what prompted us to transition to our new CyanogenMod.org domain. We refrained from identifying the ex-member out of respect for his privacy and career outside of CM. Suffice it to say you guys aren’t slouches, and figured it out on your own.

    With that said, the ex-member in question contacted us and has agreed to hand over control of the CyanogenMod.com domain. This was done as amicably as these things can be, and CM did not pay the fee he requested.

    We will still be using CyanogenMod.org as our primary domain, and the .com address will simply redirect to this new domain. Ironically enough, ‘.org’ is better than ‘.com’ as we are not a commercial entity, and is far more in line with how CyanogenMod is structured.

    We received a common question, that we’d like to take a moment to answer. Some of you contacted us mentioning that you had previously donated to a different address. When the forum began, up until about 3 months ago, the forum utilized this other address as the mechanism for forum donations and establishment of the ‘Donator’ badge. Donations made to this address prior to three months ago were used for the CyanogenMod forum IPB licence and forum related costs and were not misappropriated.

    On a side note, we have also gone through internal restructuring to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Nobody has control over everything, and there is no longer such a large single-point of failure. Our lessons have been learned.

    We ask that you please not perform any vigilante actions, we do not condone any such thing; just let this fade.

    We want to move on, get you the builds you expect from us, and not mess around with distractions.

    --
    Those who can, do. Those who cannot, sue.