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Company Takes Over Well-Known OSS Developer's Name Because the Domain Was Free

Posted by msmash on from the messy-situations dept.

New submitter Fatalis writes: Substack is a venture capital funded startup for subscription-based newsletters, and it admittedly chose its name following the advice from a Paul Graham (co-founder of Y Combinator) article to prefer names not registered in the .com zone. The same name has also been the user handle for a prolific open-source developer who now finds themselves competing for recognition in the tech space with a capital backed company. The lesson seems to be for developers to protect their personal brand by registering a domain name with the .com extension due to it being perceived as the default.

99 comments

  1. Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Better yet, use your real name.

    (Not following my own advice here. Posting as AC simply because I don't want a Slashdot account.)

    1. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Tablizer · · Score: 2

      My real name is Micro Soft. (Getting dates with that name is not easy.)

      --
      Table-ized A.I.
    2. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Horrible advice. Using your real name would only make it easier for you to be cyberstalked/doxed etc. If you care about your privacy you never use your real name online. Secondly you cannot trademark your name so using your real name wouldn't prevent that company from using your online persona which is the issue here.

    3. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by houghi · · Score: 1

      I will not. And if I do not want to pay for houghi.com that is my problem. I should then not later feel sorry

      The name was available. They took it. This is not like Madonna who took away somebodies domain name.

      --
      Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
    4. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If youre first name is Mike and your last name is Rowe and you made software you can make your company name Mike Rowe Soft and ms can't do anything about it except bribe you with xbox games to change it because it is your real name.

    5. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Horrible advice. Using your real name would only make it easier for you to be cyberstalked/doxed etc. If you care about your privacy you never use your real name online..

      If you care about your privacy, you won't be running a website, or a blog, or publicly viewable instagram account

    6. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... Which would mean that if you went bankrupt, your real name might be sold off as an asset...

    7. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I care about my privacy when it matters.

      Having my coding projects attached to my real name is a very good career decision

    8. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      But he's already using his name. It says "James Halliday" right on his Github page. The headline says "well-known OSS developer". He's not interested in anonymity, in fact quite the opposite, it sounds like he wants credit for his work, like a lot of people. There's not much reason to use a handle at all. Especially if he's trying to protect his work. If I put "copyright amicusNYCL" on something, I really doubt that would hold up in court.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    9. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by nitehawk214 · · Score: 4, Informative

      Except they can and did.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    10. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by nitehawk214 · · Score: -1

      ignore that, i suck cocks

      I had never heard about the end of the story until actually reading the article. The AC is correct.

      --
      I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
    11. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by OrangeTide · · Score: 2

      What you call my "real name" is the handle my parents selected for me. It happens to be based on anglicized Hebrew, as is typical of names of European Christians. Except I'm not Christian, my most ancient ancestors were not Christian, and I was not born in medieval Europe.

      In contrast, the handle I've selected for myself does have significance to me and is related to my own personal events.

      --
      “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
    12. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Copyright and trade mark work differently. In this case, it is about trade mark because it is not about the content but rather the name only.

    13. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      we know that it's not your name! it's the state of your wang... small and you can't get it hard!

    14. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by ArmoredDragon · · Score: 1

      It seems that in TFS, more than one name is needed, given it referrs to the developer in the plural.

    15. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by negRo_slim · · Score: 1

      When did internet users become such pearl clutchers? Oh no a dox!!l Not public information, heaven forbid!

      --
      On the Oregon Cost born and raised, On the beach is where I spent most of my days
    16. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      TIL 'Fuckchops' is based on anglicized Hebrew. I feel bad for your parents.

    17. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      You make it sound like sucking cocks is a bad thing. Homophobia much?

    18. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Gasp.

      OK. I, er, love the delicious taste of cocks?

      Am I still a nazi?

    19. Re: Use your real name, not a handle by Cederic · · Score: 1

      If you're a heterosexual man and/or dislike sucking cocks then sucking them is indeed a bad thing. So no, no homophobia at all.

      Anyway, he was referencing an all time bash.org favourite.
      http://bash.org/?5775

    20. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Cederic · · Score: 1

      Why not? It's your pseudonym, so it's still you.

    21. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Cederic · · Score: 1

      the handle I've selected for myself does have significance to me and is related to my own personal events

      Oooh, can we guess?

      I'm going with "You were the captain of a freighter full of Irn-Bru that got caught on rocks near the Isles of Scilly and caused an ecological disaster."

    22. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      OK, but if the purpose is anonymity, like the person I replied to said "you never use your real name online", then how am I going to both stay anonymous and also protect my work? If I'm going to sue someone for infringement, don't I have to prove that I have the right to do so? How do I do that while staying anonymous?

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    23. Re:Use your real name, not a handle by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://situsjudi.id/game-poker/

  2. There's another way to protect a brand by omnichad · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The lesson seems to be for developers to protect their personal brand by registering a domain name with the .com extension due to it being perceived as the default.

    If your handle is really a brand and important to preserve, then register it with the US Patent & Trademark Office. You can register the .com, but you don't need to in order to protect yourself. If it's not important enough for all that, then maybe your "personal brand" is not that important at all.

    1. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by Going_Digital · · Score: 2

      Except registering a trademark protects you for a single category of goods or services. If you registered a trademark for software someone else could register the same word for financial services as they are sufficiently different to not be considered as causing confusion.

    2. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by omnichad · · Score: 1

      And buying the domain without registering a trademark just makes you a squatter if you can't afford fancy lawyers.

    3. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Not entirely true for made-up words, in that case you actually have much broader protection. Go try and name your beverage company Xerox and see how it works out for you.

    4. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by Hadlock · · Score: 1

      That seems pretty reasonable, if you wanted to start substack financial news, I would either assume that it is a different company. Nobody is going to confuse Columbia House with Columbia School Source as one is music, the other is school furniture. In this case they opened a new company that happens to have the handle of a guy who is well known in a specific community. What happens when a new airline company starts up that has the same name as the handle of an aviation webforum administrator "FlyBob"? How slippery slope do you want to get?

      --
      moox. for a new generation.
    5. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      It costs hardly anything to set up a company, just set up a company with your name and do your work under that.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    6. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by omnichad · · Score: 1

      That doesn't protect your name.

    7. Re:There's another way to protect a brand by amicusNYCL · · Score: 1

      You're saying that if he registered and did business under a company called Substack, Inc., then he wouldn't be protected against someone else starting a company called Substack? That's great news. As a developer of software for microcomputers, I'm going to start a company called Micro-Soft. Sounds pretty catchy.

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
  3. Sucks if you have a popular name. by jellomizer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Or in my case a name of a sports star. However the persons name has always been tricky in the domain world.
    Just if Microsoft tried to sue MikeRowe.com Because the actor MikeRowe phonically is similar.

    --
    If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    1. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Dammit someone else got anonymouscoward.com!!!!!

    2. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by gnick · · Score: 2

      Just if Microsoft tried to sue MikeRowe.com Because the actor MikeRowe phonically is similar.

      They did sue Mike Rowe, but not the celebrity and not MikeRowe.com. It was a student who registered MikeRoweSoft.com.

      --
      He's getting rather old, but he's a good mouse.
    3. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by barc0001 · · Score: 1

      That's not what this case is about though. The "name" the developer had taken was a handle - substack. I don't in this case think this is much to get worked up about.

    4. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      anonymoosecoward.com is available.

    5. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Fun history:

      Nissan vs. Nissan
      Some dude with the last name of Nissan owned a web site and used it to promote his software contracting business. His name is also the name of an automotive company. The man offset costs of operating the web site by displaying advertisements. The advertisements were handled by a third-party advertising network, but had no filtering in terms of what was advertised. As such his site would sometimes display advertisements for cars, which were not always Nissan cars. Nissan automotive got that web site.

      Delta vs. Delta
      Plumbing fixtures or airlines, which one has more popularity? Both have a trademark on "Delta" and both are well-recognized companies, but there is only one delta.com. Lots of lawyers and some global corporation money tossed around until Delta airlines walked away with it. How can two companies have the same trademark? Well, it is a sort of "mark" recognized within a "trade" and so most people could distinguish between the two based upon the topic. Just think about Apple Records (source of music from The Beatles) and Apple Computers (people who make iPhone). All was good between them until iTunes came along.

    6. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I remember when Nissan sold Datsuns. Wonder if they'd get mad at someone using that website to sell cars?

    7. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by DesertNomad · · Score: 1

      And, fortunately, anonimouscoward.com, anonymuscoward.com, and anonymousecoward.com are all available.

      However, sad to say that plugh.com and xyzzy.com are long gone.

    8. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No Nissan didn't. What the hell, at least check your facts a bit before making shit up.

    9. Re:Sucks if you have a popular name. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You seem poorly informed...

      It's weird that Nissan would post such anti-Nissan information on the website they "got".

      Apple records sued Apple Computer back in the 80s as well. They settled in 1981, They sued again or settled in 1989 and 1991.

  4. And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I don't expect to own my username unless I copyright it, nor should you. Open source developers, no matter how prolific, just have handles like the rest of us open source developers and -- *shock* -- gamers.

    Linked in the summary, his own public (and therefore open source) GitHub history doesn't backup being a prolific open source developer anymore and hasn't been for the past ~1.5 years. Plus I have no idea who the heck he is and I cannot tell if his real name is James Halliday, or if he took that name as a joke after Ready Player One.

    Well known to you is not necessarily well known to the world. He seems like he's probably popular in the JS community, but how that makes this a remotely serious issue is still unknown to me. Copyright your name if you want to own and probably buy the .com domain while you're at it. Otherwise you clearly didn't care enough about your name to actually own it.

    1. Re:And? by omnichad · · Score: 2

      I don't expect to own my username unless I copyright it, nor should you.

      That would be a trademark you'd want. There's not much content there to copyright.

    2. Re:And? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      As the AC, you're right. I flipped them in my head. The rest still stands. :)

    3. Re:And? by Shatrat · · Score: 1

      The 200 IQ play is to patent the concept of even having a name in the first place.

      --
      09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0
    4. Re:And? by thegarbz · · Score: 1

      I don't expect to own my username unless I copyright it

      Copyrighting (you mean trademarking) does not automatically provide you ownership of a name in many scenarios. If this is a case of simply being pissed off about the domain then he should have bought the domain. No need to copyright anything. Nissan with all the lawyers and trademarks in the world couldn't get ownership of www.nissan.com for this very reason.

  5. this is too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Now you have to make sure your new company name or product doesn't collide with a fucking internet user handle? Nope. If your handle is important enough to you, trademark it or stfu.

    http://tmsearch.uspto.gov/bin/showfield?f=doc&state=4801:qvpw13.2.1

    1. Re:this is too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Everything's taken. You have to make something up.

      The next big thing: "SLURRRRRGH".

      What does it do? Who cares.

    2. Re:this is too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      But can you trademark a name like John Smith? My domain and name are also a very common dictionary word, so I don't think I can trademark it. I do find it funny that you think this is new ... I grabbed my name back in the 90's, and after a decade or two, I get regular offers to buy it for a lot less than it's worth to me (but a lot for a domain, I think.) I tell them to get a different TLD but I know that's not what they want. Buy me a Ferrari and a maintenance budget and we'll talk! haha

    3. Re:this is too much. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think a trade name of just "John Smith" should be too generic to pass as a protected trade name.

    4. Re:this is too much. by toddestan · · Score: 1

      Even that may not be good enough, as multiple people can own the same trademark. For example, famously there is more than one company with the "Apple" trademark. This is okay because they are in different industries and don't compete with each other (well... sort of). The problem, of course, is there is only one apple.com.

      So basically if you go that route, you'll want to make up a word for you're handle. That way you'll have a much stronger trademark. That'll also preclude you from using your actual name because chances are your name is not unique.

  6. So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    More slashdot anti-capitalist bias on display here. Who the fuck cares if this loser lost his web page? If he refused to pay for it or didn't keep up, then he got what he deserved. End of story.

    1. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Ah yes. Social darwinism is so much more evolved and civilized.

      Capitalists are simply barbaric prehistoric savages who refuse to evolve.

    2. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      He never had the web page, so he didn't lose it. He used to be the one and only "substack" (or possibly not even that), and now a company peddling newsletter subscriptions is using the same name.

      This does not appear to be a problem.

    3. Re:So? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Because it was deliberate and a dick move. But I guess that's why you approve of it - as long as it's not you who are the receiving end anyway. Fans of various evil dictatorships use to be like that.

  7. Happened to me...in 1995 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Slow news day, /. ?

  8. In Other News . . . by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

    The Internet is a Big Place, and just because you think you are important in your little niche, you really aren't.

    "Well-known OSS developer"? Yeah, right. That and $8 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.

    1. Re:In Other News . . . by xxxJonBoyxxx · · Score: 1

      >> That and $8 will get you a coffee at Starbucks.

      Unless writing "substack" on a paper cup gets you branded as a bigot.

    2. Re:In Other News . . . by iggymanz · · Score: 1

      whoa, I've been saying that as $5 at Starbucks for years...is coffee at Starbucks that expensive now??

      I drink tea so out of touch.

  9. "themselves" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    "who now finds themselves competing"
    "themselves"

    Amazing how far this SJW stuff is going.

  10. No. Delusional loser has tantrum. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If he was well known or even remotely intelligent, he would have set up a company and protected this name in advance. Only fucking entitled millenials would feel sympathy for this choder.

  11. Can we please call TLDs just that? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    Not "extensions", thanks, because that's so very much not what they are. What are you, a 8.3-only drone?

  12. JS developer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We are talking about a JS developer. That should be end of story for /....

  13. This makes all domains pointless by xack · · Score: 1

    What's the point of specialist domains like .pizza and .ninja if people only use.com Is there a case of two notable websites sharing the same name but with different domains?

    1. Re:This makes all domains pointless by The+Fat+Bastard · · Score: 0

      Speciality domains allow vendors to sell "Protect Your Brand Name with 25+ Domains!" packages (i.e., .com, .net, .biz, .info, ..., and .whatever).

    2. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Chris, my team has just updated me with your new contact info. It is nice to hear from you again and to see that you have managed to get a new Slashdot account.

      *** Chris, contact me ASAP please. I have AI click bots that don't get detected by youtube algorythm! :) -2 subscribers and 10 views a day for you is sad.. -love granny XX ***

      Dear Team Creimer,

      I just noticed that the Humpty-Dumpty video has 435+ millions views, that should make you salivate!

      I have plenty of ideas to make the views on your own youtube channel skyrocket but you didn't contact me yet. Is it because I am a lady? Ethell says that you are sexist but I hope it isn't true.

      Anyway, I will give you a free hint anyway: Dress-up as Humpty in your videos, you shouldn't need that much makeup making this a money saving situation in your own case.

      My YouTube channel has 222K subscribers and many videos with hundreds of thousands of views:

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

      Now, with some slight adjustments, I think that together, we could make the view count skyrocket on your very own Team Creimer youtube channel :)

      Please feel confident to contact me if you want me to coach you, we aren't living so far away from each other so we could even easily meet.

      Love XX,

      --
      -Granny

    3. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's a creimer???

    4. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Hahaha, you guys are really funny! Let creimer get all enthusiast about his stupid ventures and then strike.

      It reminds me of when somebody ran a click-bot on creimer youtube channel. Creimer got all excited and came here to brag about how successful his youtube channel was! CROFLOL!

      Then, youtube barred most of creimer's views and he is now down to 4 views a day total for 50+ trash videos so, not even a 0.1 view a day average by video.

      CROFLOL!

    5. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A legendary Slashdotter who left Slashdot for YouTube months ago. These butthurt trolls are looking for someone to troll. They have previously accused datavirtue, Joe Dragon, APK and God of being creimer. Just ignore them.

    6. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      IMHO. creimer is dumb enough to have run the clickbot himself and come here to brag about his fake success. That's his bullshit style and as he said, he is a python script expert.

      Read what Chris Reimer (cdreimer) wrote here:
      https://groups.google.com/foru...

    7. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Motors_vs._Nissan_Computer

    8. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Here is some pictures of a creimer:

      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      https://ibb.co/cc7Ddw

    9. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

      Chris' case is getting worse, he spends all day replying to himself as AC on /. and now, on YouTube in order to grab attention!

      The tests we ran on Chris have shown that Chris has the intelligence of an ameba:
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

      So, technically, he is able to conceive some kind of agenda but it will be silly or impossible to follow on a human scale.

      For example, Chris had an agenda to post anything he felt like on Slashdot which did not work well because it was based on his false beliefs that he had an infinite number of karma points as he wrote here several times.

      Several people here explained to Chris that karma maxed out at some level like 50 or so but Chris kept on insisting that his python script had confirmed that he had millions of karma points!

      Oh well, as I wrote before: "It isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody."

      For the valuable /. users that might already have read the following, please note that there is an important update.

      IMPORTANT UPDATE:
      Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education has invested money to buy Chris a new chair:
      http://www.keynamics.com/image...

      Information about Christopher Dale Reimer and autistic people:

      Autistic people have obsessions about things normal people don't care. For example, one of our autistic patient went haywire when he realized that there was a penny missing in his pocket change.

      To calm him down, one of our educator pretended to have found it on the floor and gave a penny to him.

      The autistic patient condition went even worse because he realized it wasn't the same penny!

      Chris has an obsession with budgeting every penny. He doesn't understand that most people do not budget to the penny and have a flexible amount they allow for miscellaneous items.

      I am Nancy Guerrero and I am Director of Special Education for the Santa Clara County Office of Education. We use Chris' (a.k.a. creimer,cdreimer) picture in our document because he is the hardest case we have ever had to handle:
      http://www.sccoe.org/depts/stu...

      Our artists were inspired by the low carb diet that Christopher follows scrupulously for the small lunch box and by the picture linked below for the rest. I am sure that you will notice the similarities such as the bump on the side of his chest and more:
      https://ibb.co/gVad65

      Please be easy on Christopher although, I am aware that some of our staff handling Chris post joke comments here and obvoiusly, the Santa Clara County Office of Education disapprove that behavior vehemently:
      http://ibb.co/mRVSaG

      But it isn't Chris' fault if he is the way he is. We do the best we can do with him and he is partially integrated into society. We try to cure his abnormal need for attention but he is kind of stubborn and won't listen to anybody.

      Thank You dear users,
      ---
      Nancy Guerrero
      Director
      Special Education
      Santa Clara County Office of Education

    10. Re: This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Pretty sure half these so called anti Creimer posts are posted by Creimer himself.

      Also, anyone who calls that fat tard legendary is badly mispelling annoying.

    11. Re: This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I'm pretty sure all the anti-creimer posts were pastebin'd by one person. Creimer, the legendary Slashdotter, left Slashdot for YouTube months ago.

    12. Re:This makes all domains pointless by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I recognize that! I think it learned sign language in the 1990s, right? The first things it asked for were a Starbucks skinny vanilla latte and a Cliff bar!

  14. Who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Never heard of this person. From the looks of his GitHub activity he's a web guy.

    Maybe he's well-known in his field(s), but certainly no Linux Torvalds. Point is, at what point does someone achieve enough of a celebrity status for his handle to merit special attention?

  15. I had a company's name for an Apple ID once by caseih · · Score: 1

    Years ago, and before the iPhone and the app store, I used a handle for a variety of online accounts that happened to be the same as the name as a particular company which was unrelated to anything computers, software, or the internet. I used this handle to create an account with the Apple web site, which years later Apple later turned into a more general ID scheme that granted access to the developer tools and the ability to publish apps. Suddenly during the app boom I started getting emails about lost password changing for that account. I'm assuming the company suddenly really wanted that handle so they could make and publish iPhone and iPad apps related to their business. I would have been happy to hand it over to them if I knew how to do that, or how to even contact them. I wanted to just close the account so they could open it afresh. Try as I might, I could find no way to close my Apple account. I had friends working at Apple and they couldn't tell me how to do it. I don't think it ever occurred to Apple that anyone would ever want to do that.

    I haven't used that handle in many years now, have long stopped getting the password reset request emails, and I have no idea if the company was ever successful at obtaining it.

    1. Re:I had a company's name for an Apple ID once by DRJlaw · · Score: 1

      I'm assuming the company suddenly really wanted that handle so they could make and publish iPhone and iPad apps related to their business.

      I'm assuming that they wanted the handle and were trying to determine if some employee or marketdroid had unofficially obtained it on their behalf (looking for reset emails being delivered into an employee email account) rather than trying to hack their way into it. I've had occasions where a UID was registered and I honestly thought that I personally might have been the one to do it, and tried a blind password reset to see if the email went to one of my accounts.

  16. It is a good, unused domain name by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I wish I had registered it. Though, truth be told, I also see a lot of good names listed at malwaredomains.com.

    The funny thing is... I get my forum handles there, too!
    Signed,
    mefhgpxmncz

  17. NBD by sootman · · Score: 1

    So they took the .com. So what? It DOES NOT MATTER that someone uses that handle elsewhere. Trademark might not have even helped -- one guy writes JS stuff, the other company does email newsletters. Yes, they are both "on computers", but what isn't these days? If 'substack' (the guy) wanted the name, he could have had it years ago for a few bucks. The fact that he didn't register it is a good indication that HE DOESN'T FUCKING CARE, ergo, no big deal.

    Unless I'm missing something, HE didn't even complain -- just a few people whining in the forum that they were confused about the name. "Ooh, he wrote a package used by millions of people" -- WHO GIVES A SHIT? There are literally THOUSANDS of devs who can make that claim. And NOBODY knows their github handle or anything else about them.

    --
    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  18. ..who? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    âoeprolificâ

  19. This would be illegal in Germany ... by Qbertino · · Score: 1

    ... especially so if it is blatantly obvious that the company registered the domain in order to cash in on his name and both work in the same field. This is obvious quasi fraudulent malintent. This domain ownership would be cancelled in 5 minutes in any German court.

    --
    We suffer more in our imagination than in reality. - Seneca
    1. Re:This would be illegal in Germany ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The linked post notes that the company picked the name because they liked it -- and only supposedly noticed the "prominent" user afterward.

    2. Re:This would be illegal in Germany ... by squiggleslash · · Score: 2

      This is true, companies out there are always thinking "We'd be so much more popular if only we had names like miguel (all lowercase), LennartPoettering, Linus, or TheoDeRaadt." That's surely what happened here, a company just threw its morals to the wind, thinking "This substack guy is known to everyone, he's a household name, all open source developers are! We must take advantage of his world wide popularity and give our company the same name."

      In the mean time, I'm off to the supermarket to buy some of those new BrandonEich frozen meals and some Stallman Cookies. They're probably not legal in Germany, but...

      --
      You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
    3. Re:This would be illegal in Germany ... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      There isn't a month that goes by I'm thankful I don't live in Germany. Their views on the ownership of information are bizarre.

  20. Advice from Paul Graham? Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    He made all his money selling a bunch of CGI scripts to the idiots at Yahoo. 90% of Y-Combinator startups fail. Why would anyone take advice from this guy? I can understand if you take money from him, then you have no choice, but if you don't have to, why would you?

    1. Re: Advice from Paul Graham? Why? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's hardly groundbreaking advice either.

  21. MODDOWN! ; creimer sock puppet post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Exactly, protect your copyright or risk losing it...

    MODDOWN! ; creimer sock puppet post again!

    creimer's child bride retired military buddy suggested to him to "hide in plain site" so creimer picked up "The Fat Bastard" as his new sock puppet user name!

  22. Tears in your gluten-free cornflakes by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Yup, it's all a big SJW conspiracy with the goal to make cis white males sad.

  23. You need to read this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    https://www.kalzumeus.com/2010/06/17/falsehoods-programmers-believe-about-names/

  24. Re:MODDOWN! ; creimer sock puppet post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Dave's not here man.

  25. Re:MODDOWN! ; creimer sock puppet post! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1

    But a 30 year old lady from New-York is so, same thing you tube of lard.

    creimer has always dreamed of going to New-York with his tree wife Ethell...

    Here is the story of creimy the mountain and his royalties!

    This story was inspired by cdreimer, the parent poster. The story was written by a visionary on cdreimer birth date.

    The story of creimy the mountain explained:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    Creimy is a typical mountain who poses for postcards, living with his wife Ethel, a tree, between the cities of Rosamund and Gorman, California. The main features on his mountainous face are two large caves, resembling eyes, and a cliff for a jaw, which moves up and down when he talks, puffing up dust and boulders.
    click above link to read more, he even destroyed Edwards Air Force Base just by passing by...

    Listen to the audio version here:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    "Creimy The Mountain"

    includes quotes from Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1 in D major (Edward Elgar), Johnny's Theme (Paul Anka), Off We Go Into The Wild Blue Yonder (Crawford), O Mein Papa (Paul Burkhard), Over The Rainbow (Harburg/Arlen), Star-Spangled Banner (Smith/Key), Suite: Judy Blue Eyes (Stephen Stills)

    One, two, three

    CREIMY the Mountain
    CREIMY the Mountain
    A regular picturesque
    Postcardy mountain
    Residing between lovely
    Rosamond and Gorman
    With his stunning wife ETHELL, A tree! A tree!

    CREIMY was a mountain ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder

    CREIMY was a mountain
    (CREIMY was a mountain!)
    ETHELL was a tree Growing off of his shoulder
    (ETHELL was a tree growing off of his shoulder)
    (hey, hey hey!)

    Creimy had two big
    Caves for eyes,
    With a cliff for a jaw
    That would go up 'n down,
    And whenever it did,
    He'd puff out some dust,
    And hack up a boulder (HACK!) Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK!)
    Hack up a boulder (HACK! HACK! HACK!) Up a boulder

    Now, one day, now I believe it was on a Tuesday, a man in a checkered double-knit suit drove up in a large El Dorado Cadillac, leased from BOB SPREEN

    ("Where the freeways meet in Downey!")

    And he laid a HUGE, BULGING ENVELOPE right at the corner of CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, that was right where his 'foot' was supposed to be.

    Now, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN, he couldn't believe it! All those postcards he'd posed for, for ALL OF THOSE YEARS, and finally, now, AT LAST, his Royalties!

    Royalties! Royalties Royalties! Royalty check is in, honey!

    Yes, CREIMY THE MOUNTAIN was RICH! Yes, and his eyeball-caves, they widened in amazement, and his jaw (which was a cliff), well it dropped thirty feet!

    A bunch of dust puffed out! Rocks and boulders hacked up, (hack! hack!) crushing 'The LINCOLN'!

    I gave him the money He acted real funny He hocked up a rock and It TOTALLED my car!

    Oh, do you Know any trucks Might be bound for THE VALLEY?
    I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (Dear Lord)

    I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar (No shit!)

    I don't wanna stand here All night in this bar!

    By two o'clock, when the bars are already closed down, CREIMY had broken 'THE BIG NEWS' to ETHELL. And with dust and boulders everywhere, CREIMY, choked with excitement, announced

    "ETHELL, we're going on a VACATION!"

    Yes, and they WERE going on a vacation! (Oh, and ETHELL, ETHELL, ETHELL, like every little woman, she of course was very excited! She creaked a little bit, and some old birds flew off of her.) CREIMY told ETHELL they were going to Yes! They were going to NEW YORK!

    "ETHELL, we're going to New York!"

    But first they were gonna stop in LAS VEGAS

    It's off to LAS VEGAS to check out the lounges Pull a few handles,
    And drink a few beers, (Oh, ETHELL!)

    ETHELL, my darling, you know that I love you!
    I'm glad

  26. Fake News for Nerds by bill_mcgonigle · · Score: 1

    The attempt at manufactured controversy is transparent. If this developer ever valued that domain name at more than $10 he would have registered it. If he had the company would have a different domain.

    --
    My God, it's Full of Source!
    OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
  27. I bet what it will happen by renegadesx · · Score: 1

    The venture capital backed person will try and go after the original company for trademark infringement.

    --
    Make SELinux enforcing again!
  28. Only in the U.S.A. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    In Canada, ".ca" is very common and might reasonably considered a default, because of the extensive marketing by CIRA

  29. Non Story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Imaginative contributor, terrible editors... a couple of armchair warriors shooting off in a forum is hardly news. Nothing to see here.

  30. Non Story by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Not a lot to see here for sure. Submitter has one hell of an imagination.
    I did like the part with the armchair warriors spouting off in a post. I gather this is the "article".