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Microsoft Files Dispute Against Current Owner of XboxOne.com
MojoKid writes "Microsoft might have one of the most talked-about products at the moment with the Xbox One, but would you believe it doesn't own the rights to the most obvious domain name to accompany it? Domain squatting is a real issue for companies about to launch a new product. If they register a domain before the official launch, people can find that and subsequently ruin the company's surprise. This particular case is different, however. The domain name wasn't registered just the other day. Instead, a UK resident registered the name XboxOne.com in December of 2011, long before Microsoft itself even likely had a definitive name for its upcoming console. So, what can a company do in this instance? File a dispute with the National Arbitration Forum, an ICANN-approved organization that specializes in dealing with these sorts of matters."
They's better change that ridiculous name instead.
Fork over some money, Micro$oft, if you want it that bad...
Question Reality, Find Your Own Truth...
If the domain owner had actually been using the name (rather than just to show a default launch page) then I might have some sympathy for them. But those people who speculatively register thousands of domains just to extort money from legitimate users deserve to be sued.
Nobody should ever reward the bad practices of those douchebags. They are the equivalent of patent trolls.
I don't agree. Sure, it sucks, but the name is property. People buy up property cheap all the time with the hopes that the area might become developed and the property will go up in price.
Just because MS wants it doesn't mean they should get it. Just because the person hasn't done anything with his website doesn't mean MS should get it. This is mostly just catering to the corporations.
MS should of bought all the Xbox* names they could of back when they released the original xbox. They didn't, tough shit, imo.
And why do you need a new website name for a new console? Why not just have Xbox.com show the new console? It's not like they are going to keep selling and advertising the Xbox 360 after the Xbox One is released.
Be seeing you...
Go ask any of the McDonalds, whose great-great-great-grandpa 200 years ago proudly called himself "Mr. McDonald", how he or she feels about the mcdonalds.com domain
Go ask Uzi Nissan what Nissan Motor Corporation did (is doing) to him over the name that he registered circa 1996. Uzi Nissan, having a computer shop, bought the domain name of his last name. Never mind that he _also_ had a car dealership called Nissan Motors in the 1970s, when Nissan Motor Corporation was still called Datsun.
It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
It's probably worth noting, XboxOne.com is way older than 2011, it's been around since the original xbox was released http://web.archive.org/web/20021115163519/http://www.xboxone.com/
Nissan as a company was NEVER called Datsun. Datsun is a brand name, derived from an early model called Datson. Nissan is short for Nippon Sangyo. Which was the earlier company name. Nissan as an abbreviation was invented for the stock market (like AAPL for Apple)
well, NOW it's parked after Microsoft brought the lawyers out of leashes and sicked them on the domain owner(s)...
looking on archive.org it seems it used to have an active site on it, for example this snapshot:
http://web.archive.org/web/20110207201840/http://xboxone.com/
OR this one, from the YEAR 2003
http://web.archive.org/web/20031225193949/http://xboxone.com/
root@127.0.0.1
Uhhh...duh? For fucks sake there was already a system called the Xbox so guess what folks called the first one when the second one came out?
That is why I'm asking all of the Internet to join me in refusing to call the new Xbox anything other than Xbox S, S for Stupid God damned name that makes no damned sense, Xbox S for short. This bullshit was soooo thought up by the retarded marketing drones at MSFT that have taken over that company, nobody else would be that damned dumb as to name the THIRD system the Xbox...nope, not gonna say it, Xbox S.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
That's not the way it was supposed to work. Way back when the Internet was young and domain names was first thought up, the idea was that Microsoft just puts their site for the XBox on xbox.microsoft.com. If they wanted to simplify it, they could register xbox.com. But that's it; nothing else. Then when they released the XBox 360, they put it on the URL 360.xbox.com. When they release the XBox One, they put it on one.xbox.com. Same thing for e.g. Apple products. iphone.apple.com, 4gs.iphone.apple.com, air.macbook.apple.com, etc.
But because the folks who made domain names decided to make them little endian, the above URLs run counter to how you name things (in English at least). So instead it's become popular to try to register a domain for the product name as you'd write it, which is what makes everything vulnerable to domain squatting.
The folks who made USENET got it right when they made their hierarchy big endian (e.g. rec.arts.sf.starwars.games). You start from the biggest concept and narrow it down with each additional word. If domain names had been big endian, the above URLs would've been com.xbox.360, com.xbox.one, com.apple.iphone.4gs, com.apple.macbook.air, etc. And we probably could've avoided most of this domain squatting mess. Phishing would've been harder too since the non-spoofable part of the domain name would appear first.
Oh well. Hindsight is 20/20.
Don't want to just burn karma, but thanks for bringing Uzi's story to my attention.
Here's the link for anyone who would like to read baout it:
http://www.nissan.com/Digest/The_Story.php
And yes, Uzi Nissan still holds Nissan.com (it cost him a lot of money though.).
BlameBillCosby.com