Slashdot Mirror
Web Sites Shut Down
Over 600 readers submitted that the popular comic strip
User Friendly has
been shut down indefinitely following the injunction against
the site from an, as yet not publicly named person. This
adds Illiad's site to Segfault
and Bedope, each of
which also has gone down following complaints regarding
content.
Really, without my morning UF humor, I'm emotionally distraught, if this turns out
to be a joke, I'm filing a lawsuit for the
pain and suffering they've cause.
Maybe we can make it a classaction lawsuit!!
Dave's Video Game Classics, an emulation site that has always followed the straight and narrow of legality, has also been slapped with litigation and is being suspended by its host. And before calling me an April Fool, this happened on Wednesday, sometime before 10AM EST. Haven't seen mention of this on
MS DeWitt = Miss the wit
if indeed this is a joke, I don't think many
will be laughing. The whole April 1 thing is that
it _has_ to happen on April 1st. Otherwise,
the are just mean, nasty and underhanded.
If you saw some of the comments on segfault last
week, you would see people were helping w/ legal advise, money and positive comments. Many people
take legal issues very seriously. By making such a realistic joke of this, you bring _all_ website calls for help into question.
It's a GAS! Can't say I've ever come across better than this one. I'm still rolling.
Regards
Sid.
sorry but i won't trust anyone bringing bad news or good today...no fool here
...and the bowling pins just keep falling. www.hackernews.com now has a wacky looking cracked front page.
I think I'll go back to bed and wait for tomorrow
Then it's a dangerous one. Anyone heard of "crying wolf"?
(not a coward, just can't remember my login)
Rachie
I got suckered. Full blown id-10-t user.
-- Andy Wergedal
I don't understand why that would be libel. No mistruth was stated, either real or imagined, so how could they claim it as libel?
You say it was closed at March 31'st?
;)
Well.. have you noticed that we have something called "timezone" and "dateline"?
Even though it is March 31'st where you live doesn't mean that it is March 31'st all over the world.
About the complaints from you know who...
You may remember, if you have read the comments on UF, that Illiad said that he had talked with his legal advicers, and they say "the company wich name shall be secret" doesn't have a case...
So, my easily fooled friends..
April Fools...
As for the "too much" note.. A "mv" of the entire old tree effectively takes care of that...
It's also interesting to note the weird attempt at legalese on userfriendly.org. This Michael Scott DeWitt is supposedly Illiad's legal councel, and first state that User Friendly has been discontinued in accordance with an injunction secured against the site. Since the cease and desist letter was sent such a short time ago, it seems unlikely that whoever supposedly sent it would have even had time to file a complaint against him, and even less likely that a judge would already have heard the case.
And even if a judge had heard the case for a preliminary injunction, it is quite unlikely he'd award one as long as Illiad had in that case been given so extremely short time to comply with the cease and desist letter voluntarily.
Then the note on userfriendly.org goes on to say that "Illiad has agreed to cease all operation of the site as advised by legal councel". Hello?!? Didn't the first line of the same paragraph say that the site was shut down in accordance with an injunction? If an injunction was indeed granted, it was because Illiad did not agree to comply with the cease and desist letter.
So if it isn't a joke, I'd get new legal councel if I were Illiad...
Hey if this isn't a joke. Who's up for forming a posse and hunting down the people who are claiming legal action?
And if it isnt a joke. Who wants to start up a posse and go after who started this thing?
And afterwords we can go destroy Redmond.
All in favor say
NARF!!!!
If it's an April Fool's Joke, Illiad and co. should be added to your list of things that may suck.
I'll see your embarassment over being one of the 600 and raise you having emailed the National Cartoonist Society on behalf of Illiad!
If this is a prank, I'm gonna email them and take back everything nice I said about Iliad.
I believe that court documents in cases pending are not public; I've read about cases much like this where the defendant couldn't even mention who was suing them until it was completely over.
The Scientologists do that a lot...
What next? Slashdot will be shut down? What will we do in the April 1st day? I mean, my favorite sites are down, there's a revolution going on in Redmond, Compaq announces a new revolutionary technology, that's ok. But why can't I see today's User Friendly? And why the hell is Slashdot setting cookies such as "sexual_orientation" and "high_school_gpa"?
Well, from the people I talked to, Segfault went down at midnight GMT and UF went down at midnight EST. So technically, they both went down on 4/01.
ShadoWolf
It was a joke set up in advance. If a corporation files an injunction against you, that information is in the public domain, yet userfriendly never explicitly named which company did it stating it was for legal reasons but there was no legal reason they couldn't state the corporation. It was a well planned april fools day joke.
It's not just UF...it's BeDope and Segfault too
Have they been poking fun at LA also?
That's what I'm thinking. When I first saw that Segfault had gotten papers too, I looked around, and found an article mentioning the lawsuit containing links to segfault's "iToast" thing, and UF's "Mighty Morphing Power Macs" sunday strip. Of course, UF's first couple of notes on the whole deal very heavily hinted at MicroSoft being the culprit. I'd say it's got to be one of the two.
I have trouble believing this is a joke, but if it is, then Illiad's probably lost himself a couple hundred readers.
I'm casting my vote for "joke" (hey--there's a great idea for a poll!)
Of the three, bedope mentioned a real-live pending lawsuit. Such things are matters of public record. If a lawsuit HAS been filed, it's got to be filed somewhere. Logical, no?
So where's the proof?
The "fair and speedy trial" concept bids fair to be the most violated provision in the US Constitution. Consider the criminal trials, famous and not, where the accused spends months in jail awaiting hearings, only to be proved innocent. Doesn't sound fair or speedy to me.
Pretending that our justice system isn't influenced by $ is plain unrealistic. He who has the most money and time to keep slogging through the system can win, not because he's right, but because the opposition can't afford to keep fighting. Assuming this is not a prank, I hope UF can appeal/countersue long enough to win, but since the site can't make money while it's down, I'm not hopeful.
(Not really AC, just haven't got my password yet.)
Segfault went offline before 10pm EST yesterday actually....
-Aaron
aaron@technologist.com
OK, here's my CDN$.03:
... =)
It's a coordinated effort, set up a week in advance to enhance the effect and the plausibility.
My main reason? Court documents are public. No large corporation could institute an effective gag order on a case like this: they couldn't possibly give a judge reason to conceal their identity, when presumably the corporate image is what's at stake. And MS? Do this *now*? I doubt it, with the DOJ case presumably about to be decided against them: they don't want a harsher judgment.
The supposed litigants are people think about $$$, apparently exclusively: and imagine, even if they did get the sites shut down, that would eventually get out, and turn public opinion even further against them, hurting profits.
Think about it: IF the various websites had said "it's MS" straight out, then when the story got out, they could very well be sued for libel, and the "it's an April-fool's joke" might not wash in court. So there's a very good reason for the anonymity.
So there you are.
Had me going for the last week, just figure d it out
No, the unnamed client is unnamed, and this is exactly why. I was wondering why they wouldn't name the client before, as there's no real precedent for not doing so, but it makes sense now. This has all been a gag, and if they'd named someone they could REALLY get sued for libel.
> I was wondering why they wouldn't name the client before, as there's no real precedent for not doing so
I disagree. I have seen plenty of lawsuits (many involving the good ol' Church of Scientology) that had this happen.
The shutdown of userfriendly.org become apparent
over the last 2-3 weeks, UFies will know.
There were repeating informations about legal
problems.
I hope itll be an aprils joke, and Im being taken but I cant believe it. I dont know about segfault or bedope.
I only wish that this could be an April Fools Joke. Then I would get a good laugh and congradulate everyone involved for fooling so many people on the web (including myself).
But if this is real, (and I think we all know who the angry company most likely is), then everyone has to take part in fighting it. People don't get sued for political cartoons that are much more direct and sometimes slanderous. These sites reflect the opinions of many people who often have a good reason to parody many companies, including companies they respect. (I don't see RedHat taking offence to any jokes made about them on Segfault).
So, lets hope that this is a big joke that we can all laugh about in a few days, but if it turns out to be more we can't sit by and watch it happen.
Meept's comments are shrewd, his grammar
and spelling correct. I wish I could say
the same of many of the posters here.
--ac
A quick search of the Vancouver, B.C. Yellow Pages gives no De Witt's listed under lawyers. However there is at least one M. De Witt in the Vancouver White Pages... I'm sure he'd appreciate it if I posted his number for everyone to call and check :)
-dox
I was going to look up DeWitt, but the Martindale-Hubbell Lawyer Locator database (http://www.abanet.org/martindale.html) isn't responding. Wonder why ...
Lets find out who scagged userfriendly and pee in his cheerios.
The shutdown notice could have come from Microsofts^H^H^H^H^H^H the litigants'
office.. or be a legal formula..?
If thery are still down tomorrow : then I'm gonna worry..
Well, UF is Canadian (They're using a mindlink connection out of Vancouver, BC) so the 1st doesn't hold true. However, there is nothing legally wrong wtih what UF was/is doing. Those kinds of jokes are prefectly legal.
Doesn't anyone read The Register (http://www.the register.co.uk)? Yesterday there was a cryptic atricle about NOT revealing a significant April Fool's joke from the sites under litigious attack. Strangely, the artical is no longer on The Register (oh, I'm *shocked*).
So it might not be microsoft causing the damage.
It would depend on where the litigation was coming from. Odds are, if this is true, that the company pursuing the litigation is from the US. And UF would be wise to hire an attorney in the US to defend it there. In addition, no attorneys with the surname DeWitt can be found on the Canadian Lawyer Index (http://www.canlaw.com) at all.
What's the deal with all these wacked-out cookies
/. is sending?
For example:
Slashdot.org cookie: sexual_orientation=3370861.83018982 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)
Slashdot.org cookie: soc_sec_num=3548943.52145493 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)
Slashdot.org cookie: visa_num=3767834.43149179 Allow? (Y/N/Always/neVer)
Heard someone (I think at an IEEE conference) connected two DecStations together using a tight piece of string. (string telephone)
Apparently it worked, albeit really slowly, only a bit or two per second
>crying wolf
An old tail is told of a shepard boy who was watching his flock and cried wolf just to see the reaction of the villagers (or there about.) He did so one too many times and they refused to come to his aid when an actual wolf did attach his flock.
I'll admit to having been suckered by AF jokes in the past, but if this is, I don't find it funny. A joke which hurts people (plays on their emotions) is no joke at all.
Yup... today is the 15th anniversary of the "kremvax" joke - a bogus announcement of the USSR joining the net, such as it was back then. Any halfway clued search engine should turn it up on a query for "kremvax" and "840401"...
As for Avian carriers, throwing zip disks around probably gets less packet loss and more throughput than some evil wireless networks around here.
And if people do blame Microsquish, or anyone else in particular, whose fault is that?
If this is part of the joke then it is a very throughout setup of a joke considering the first messages appeared around the 25th, just at the time theos.com fiasco happened. This is mainly the reason I got suckered, because if it is a joke it is very well done indeed. However I will be angry at someone no matter how things turnout. :>>--
uf.internet.com is still up with full archives.
Yet another reason to think this is a prank.
Yes but I belive Segfault is based or at least authored in the UK, and April 1 gets to them at around 9pm E.S.T.
probably instead of just replacing the index.html, illiad simply had apache send http requests to a different directory.
From reading user friendly, i kind of got this feeling that Illiad would be the sort of person who knows how to use apache, so i think he could do that.
If it is a April Fools day joke, then I'd have to admit, I was taken until I realized what day it was. But, I've seen way too many comments saying negative things about UF, Segfault, bedope, for playing an trick on them. Look, it's only a joke, and that's what these sites are...humor sites. Please don't take things so seriously. If you were taken by it, laugh about it and continue on. If UF and co announce it was a hoax, it won't change my high opinon of their sites.
/. effect on the "Evil Empire". If it is not a hoax, then whatever "Evil Empire" is doing this has got a lot to lose, consider the amount of support these sites have.
/. Microsoft for the dang hell of it! :)
However, if it is not a hoax, and indeed real (dispite the timing of events), then I'm all for a massive
Of course, if it is a hoax, why not
-- What does purge *.*.* do?
Well a quick search of the online Martindale- Hubbell Law Directory (http://www.lawyers.com) returns only one Michael DeWitt, Michael Morgan DeWitt of Albequerque to be exact. I believe this is a play on words:
Michael's got da wit.
Hm I find it very strange how all 3 sites shut down on roughly the same day, which is renowned for playing pranks. Also, the 'site closed' page on all the sites bear a striking resemblance to each other.
Check this one out... It was made a few days ago. Support UF
I don't want to sound like a humourless middle-manager, but really, enough is enough.
:)
I mean, these people aren't fooling anyone, it's annoying, and the really could be more inventive.
Last year on slashdot was good, with the huge screen width.
I guess they're the ones losing ad revenue...
First off, this can't possibly be a joke. They have been to coordinated (three sites willing to go down all with the same story, etc), too professional (i.e. certified letters, lawyers, etc), and it has lasted too long. Didn't it start almost if not more than a month ago?
The real question seems to be who is the anonymous threat? As we all saw from the theos.com debacle, lawyers aren't happy when you post there names, letters, etc. without there permission. Therefore it doesn't seem so unlikely that UserFriendly and Segfault have not posted a name.
Of course, from just the material posted on those sites, one can come to a few conclusions as to who would be peeved.
The weird thing is, the courts have ruled that use of trademarks and copyrights for parody is legal. This is part of that whole pain-in-the-MSFT-gluteus-maximus constitutional right to free speech.
"What about free speech?"
"Well that's not the point, your giving this place a bad name"
-- Chumbawumba
Well this changes the situation somewhat....they really went wholehog on this thing then....really long setup, and planning. :>>--
UF is based out of Vancouver, BC. In Vancouver and Canada in general, we have a tradition of satirising various commercial products. It is perfectly legal to do so, and as such, there is no grounds for the suposed lawsuit to occur. This is a joke taking advantage of the threat he received a week or two ago, pure and simple.
Ufies.userfriendly.org and the UF support site are both claimed it was a prank now, so it seems that everything's okay.
I must say, it was the most elaborate one I've seen in a while.
Read the source. There is a comment at the end. Something along the lines of "Happy April Fools' Day from HNN", I believe.
...
do the obvious if you want to email me
Only problem I can see with your analysis is that Bloom County had far wider distribution than User Friendly. UF is only really known by people who already don't like MS, so it's not like UF is doing much to influence public opinion.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
The 'as-yet-unnamed' complainant is Microsoft's legal department.
And your evidence for this is...? As far as I know, the unnamed entity is remained unnamed all along.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
then somebody notify the media ASAP.
...phil
...phil
"For a list of the ways which technology has failed to improve our quality of life, press 3."
Posted by WildOne:
I started the Support page a week ago, opened it 4 days ago. IF this is a joke as people are hoping, I promise I will personally kick Illiad's rear.
As it is, there are too many problems to be able to get a picture of what is going on. I am trying to get more information so I can let people know what is going on. A press release is being prepared for release, we are going on the presumption that this IS REAL. This is not a laughing matter in anyway. I prank like this would kill these sites, not help them.
I have had 20 emails already asking about the archive. Yes, I have 99% of the comics from start to 3/31/99. If the site is still down after midnight PST I will set them up online for people. I'll post it here.
Posted by Lord Kano-The Gangster Of Love:
How many among us cheered when the Nuremberg Files website was shut down? If we will stand by when they shut down sites that are on the "fringe" that advocate an "extremist agenda" we open the door for the rich, powerful and influential to paint us as "kooks", and "extremists" in order to shut us down.
We must remember that the right to freedom of expression is absolute. Let them take it from one of us, and they'll take it from all of us.
LK
Posted by s3fidpsd:
I could easily see that the injuction would start at the beginning of the month.. Insurance usually doesn't just start on Mar 23 and neither do things like this.
We will see in 72 hours however.
Well, yes M$ has the money, but the US has this provision for a fair an speedy trial. If UF talks to the judge they can force the trial to comence within a few weeks. Given the his buisness is shut down (UF does have ads, don't know if it makes money) ANy lengthy delay in the trial would have to be approved by both parties.
Don't overlook UF's ability to counter sue. UF has basicly no money, so they have nothing major to lose. Since this trial is not cut and dried for anyone against them (satire is generally considered protected), UF can sue for disruption of buisness, with a greater chance to win.
I wonder if I can sue. After all I've lose a part of my day, and that is causing pain and suffering.
Of all the jokes, this is the only one I'm worried about. Sure, the layout on the three pages looks suspiciously similar, but that doesn't necessarily mean anything.
metalabs mirroring download.com is an obvious farce, (that is just offensive) and since they make reference to Linus moving as a reason, and link back to slashdot, that looks like a friendly conspiracy.
This one, however, was definitely prepared in advance, if it indeed is a joke. If it was, then I admit, you really got me. But otherwise, I'm going to be without my Userfriendly.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
YOU GUYS SUCK!
Last April Fools Day was obvious, but this one was just... mean, man.
pb Reply or e-mail; don't vaguely moderate.
I'd like to believe it's a joke but how is this a good strategy for getting people to go to your site? Why am I going to look for User Friendly tomorrow if it has been closed down? Suppose yesterday I was telling someone to go check out one of these sites and they go there and find it gone? What is going to make them try again?
As a joke it is ill considered. The last thing people want in a website is for it to be down.
First hint: the demand for portrayal in "a more positive light." Large corporations hire expensive law firms that can afford lawyers that wouldn't toss something this silly in with a defamation claim.
Second hint: shutting down under advise of councel. The alleged claim is silly; the chances of advice this bad coming from all three lawyers is slim.
Third Hint: the injunction itself. In the U.S., there is no prior restraint, saving only dire security issues, such as shipping schedules during a declared war. Lesser security matters and defamation are left to the courts after the fact. While there was a rogue court order a year or two ago blocking a publication, it was overturned immediately.
Fourth hint: the secret plaintiff. You're not going to get an ex parte temporary restraining order in a sealed case. Won't happen.
OTOH, when I think of some of the lawyers nand a few of the judges from my practice . . .
Deep down, I'm pretty sure this is a 4/1 hoax.
However, here's another bit of evidence that
it might be the case:
Last year, several major comic strip artists
got together and did a switcheroo of their strip,
with the classic example of Scott Adams drawing
Family Circus, and Bill Keane drawing Dilbert.
This year, several on-line strips are repeating
the same thing (The main page for this can
be found here: http://grove.ufl.edu/~normal/switch.html
If you look at the bottom of the page, apparently
Illad and UF was supposed to participate (swapping
with 'The Deep End', which incidently is still
up with no noted problems). Did this 'gag' by
UF, segfault and bedope have more priority for
Illad than this comic switch, or did UF really
get C&D'ed?
(Also, I do find it ironic that all 3 sites have
completely shut down, instead of just removing
the offending material, which is generally what
is done in the C&D type cases...)
"Pinky, you've left the lens cap of your mind on again." - P&TB
"I can see my house from here!" - ST:
...that this should happen today -- same day as /. starts having cookies with 'sexual orientation', 'religion', 'high school gpa' and 'mothers maiden name'.
What surprises me the most is how they got my high school GPA, since there is no translation from Danish to US grading systems.
I'd better stop before I make a fool of myself. After all, we wouldn't want to start a new month that way, would we?
-Lars thinks it's overdone
I want details, but until they are available, it seems only safe to assume that this is another example of "We can afford expensive lawyers. You can't, so the legality of your actions are irrelevant as we will prevail in any legal action".
I'm no lawyer, but I was led to believe that US law had been shown to protect satirists.
I can easily find bandwidth in the UK for any of those sites taken down if necessary.
Matthew.
All we need is the company name and the email address of those responsible at the company, and I'm sure we'll see a slashdot effect like no other.
I thought the 1st amendment covered satirical works like those on User Friendly and Segfault. I'm losing more and more faith in the US than ever...
After the border crossing to the US side from Victoria, BC, I can state that the US considers it a forign counrty! It must be the deadhead sticker.
Maybe it was the Canadain Goverment halting him because he didn't mirror his page French.
-- I have a private email server in my basement.
Standard legal practice in any litigation is to say nothing until your counsel has met with opposing counsel (i.e. take no action that might jeapordize "good faith negotiating"). Once counsel for both parties have met and determined what the _real_ demands are, then all bets are off on what to do... could be keep quiet, could be announce the case to the world.
But for now, everything is running according to "the way it's done."
"Flame away, I wear asbestos underwear"
There has to be a way to see if the name Michael Scott DeWitt is registered as a lawyer somewhere. Where is Userfriendly located, it might be likely if this were real that he would hire a lawyer in his area, and a quick search of a local phone book might back up his story. If this isn't a joke (which I believe it is, as are most things that will be on /. today), then I would say that verifying the existance of Michael Scott DeWitt may be the key to uncovering the legitmacy of this shutdown.
I would like to think it's an april fools joke as well. But I have seen cases where the person being sued is threatend with even more legal actions if they mention who is sueing them. If this turns out to be a gag I will be very pleased.
Even if the UF server was moved Illiad would still be in Canada. If this is serious he'd still be in legal jeopardy.
NO! NO! Illiad must be allowed to create UserFriendly!! it's the best comic out there!
That, and how come slashdot knows the last time I brushed my teeth, and my social security number?
da w00t. mtfnpy?
y'know, if segfault were up today, they'd be reporting REAL news! :^) that'd be humorous...
Something tells me you won't have to wait more than 24...
Since Illiad isn't a deep-pockets corporation, he's much more vulnerable to legal action.
What are the legal distinctions between US law and Canadian law regarding libel, parody, and freedom of speech? The US is pretty liberal about these issues, what about Canada?
We call it art because we have names for the things we understand.
Oh, I don't know. If the Federal government can require milk cartons on Vancouver Island to be labeled in French, I suspect they can require UserFriendly to put up a mirror a la Francaise.
JOKING, people (it IS April Fools day, after all), but I do remember a John Candy movie where Dan Aykroyd (playing some sort of police officer) pulled Candy's truck over, commented on the anti-Canadian graffiti scrawled all over it, and wouldn't let him proceed until he sprayed on French versions of all the slogans. (Which, of course, was a ripoff of the graffiti scene from Life of Brian -- but still funny.)
-- Boris
They're back... Grrr... Personally, I don't find the "joke" funny at all...
Let's assume that it isn't a joke. What we need to know is who the company really is that issuing the lawyers letters.
Once we get this far then publicity is the answer.Small, humorous sites being suppressed by a large company is a story too good for the press to miss.
We must fight this, if we don't then we can expect all of our favourite sites, including Slashdot to disappear.
Slashdot doesn't slander Microsoft. Slashdot is a news service. Very rarely Slashdot has its own pieces, and usually they don't even come close to mentioning Microsoft. And all the posts are (in case you've missed the small type): "Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-99 Rob Malda." So Rob doesn't have any worries.
Log
A post that is intelligent and pertinent from the Inglorious MEEPT!!? I'd have said it impossible until after seeing this post from you.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
For those who need a little catching up here, back in the 80's there was a comic strip by Berke Breathed called Bloom County. You know, Bill the Cat, Opus the Penguin, Milo, Oliver, Steve Dallas, etc. One of the funniest comic strips I ever enjoyed. The strip was obviously the model for User Friendly as the characters and drawing style of Iliad is all too similar; the style of drawing humans and the "newspaper clipping" pictures hanging on the wall are most of it. Not that I'm throwing any stones at Iliad for this, I actually quite enjoy that style and I'm glad that it is being used for a strip that I like.
Around 1989 or 1990, Donald Trump was in the peak of his popularity. On the cover of every magazine and newspaper out there as one of the richest men in America, he was quite a target, much like Bill Gates and Microsoft is today. Mr. Breathed, like any good satirist, took this opportunity to make a lot of people laugh at (of course) Mr. Trump's expense. Many public figures in the past have been subject to such ridicule, but Donald Trump aparently didn't have much of a sense of security or humor. Mr. Trump, in an effort to end this "public humiliation" (like it really was hurting his business) decided to buy out the syndicate which controlled Bloom County (United Feature Syndicate? can't quite remember) and told Mr. Breathed that he had two weeks to shut down the strip.
I say that there is quite a similarity here in situations.
Bloom County was a hard hitting humorous comic strip that poked fun at the richest man in America. Donald Trump was an extremely wealthy and powerful businessman in America that had the ability to push (or buy) people out of business.
User Friendly is a hard hitting humorous comic strip (and strikingly similar resemblence to Bloom County, not that there's anything wrong with that from my perspective) that is poking fun at the richest man in America. Bill Gates (and thus Microsoft) are one of the most powerful entities in the corporate world that has the ability to push (or buy) people out of the business.
Are we seeing something now?
<RANTNRAVE>
My feeling is that this disgusts me. Freedom of speech is one of the things that makes this country great. Capitalism is also another great thing, and I have to give some respect to Microsoft in that light (all personal feelings aside- please, I'm a Linux user myself, and I am not instigating ANYTHING towards pro or con Microsoft here). Other people and companies get similar treatment every day and most people can take a joke. Yes, what is said in the comic strip may be on a different plane than a typical personal attack (since it deals with a corporation), but isn't it the same? A corporation and a person are treated somewhat as similar entities in business law, so how can a corporation get away with this obvious bending of the first amendment?
I guess the answer would be lawyers; they can tie someone up in legal proceedings that, regardless of fault, can cause the victim to lose valuable time and/or money trying to claim their innocence. (see: McDonalds case from London about 3 years ago; innocent protestors in front of a store ended up in a long and way overblown legal battle for something which they were completely in their rights to do, but the lawyers of a huge corporation were able to make it hurt).
</RANTNRAVE>
Well, I guess I'm getting a little more emotional here that necessary, but I think I said what I intended to say. Flame away...
Never hit your grandmother with a shovel, for it leaves a bad impression on her mind...
Damn, my day is ruined!!!! I have to have my dose of UserFriendly every morning ... I can't even look at old ones to satisfy my needs. Ughhh...
If this is a joke I hope they don't get into trouble with MicroSquish because many people are blaming them even though they may not have done anything.
Of all the things I miss
Nahhh... if he were in Quebec, it would be believable for the Office de la Langue Francaise to pull that seeing as they do all the time. But the Canadian government on a federal basis doesn't require mirroring except of its own sites.
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far... -- Le P
UF is *NOT* only on the web anymore. As any UF fanatic knows, it has been being printed in the National Post for around a month now. Granted, the NP doesn't exactly have a wide coverage...
For all you non-Canadians, the National Post is the paper started by good ole' Conrad Black aimed to be a national paper for all of Canada. It has articl... ahem, submissions from writers for all the major newspapers in the country. Plus, they're handing it out for free in the metro in Montreal, so I've finally read some of it. Hey, any Montrealers out there wanna speculate on whether they'll end up using the Gazette's schoolboy labourers to get subscriptions?
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far... -- Le P
Illiad resides in B.C. A quick search on Canada 411 reveals no M DeWitt in the entire province of British Columbia.
Hmmm... the evidence mounts.
Droit devant soi on ne peut pas aller bien loin...
Straight ahead of him, nobody can go very far... -- Le P
The only two entities that get major coverage in UF that I can thing of are Microsoft and LucasArts. Everybody and their brother makes fun of Microsoft, ergo I bet LA is pressing charges for the use of certain Star Wars likenesses.
Of course, this is merely speculation on my part, but they have done similar things in the past, like with MIDI authors, so I wouldn't put it past them.
Scott Banwart
---
Better to stay silent, and let people think
you're an idiot than to open your mouth and
All of a sudden, I feel really stupid. I have got to start checking the date more often... :-)
Scott Banwart
---
Better to stay silent, and let people think
you're an idiot than to open your mouth and
The wheel is turning but the hamster is dead.
The wheel is turning, but the hamster is dead.
Some other people mentioned that the lawyer mentioned on UF was named Michael Scott DeWitt (aka M.S. DeWitt)
Here's another theory:
Guy who runs BeDope: Mike (Michael)
Guy who runs Segfault: Scott
hrmm, suddenly we realized where the name came from...
and no one really knows Illiad's real name, do they?
Damn, I can't believe I'd been taken.
->www.chuma.org, ranting and Newtons, what more could you want?
Hear, hear. If this does turn out to be for real, I s'pose the thing is just to put the site up
somewhere other than in the US. To the extent that Illiad remains the author and remains in the
States, this may not help but if he's game, I know we are.
I know the best ones are the most convincing but
if it turns out that this is s'posed to be a joke
I shan't be laughing.
Isn't this a bit coincidental? With a certain prank-playing day?
It's gonna be like this all day.. be prepared. =)
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
The really good ones pretty much -have- to be started in advance in order to be believable..
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
[sarcasm]
Yeah, I guess it's too much to assume that Illiad could coordinate with the guy who runs Segfault and whatever other sites are down.. we've given them too much credit for being clever.
[/sarcasm]
If it were 100 sites, yeah, I could see your point, but 3? Hell, that's two emails and 2 response emails minimum to set this up. No sweat. And as for the set-up time.. go check out any of the AFD archive sites, you'll find -very- elaborate and well-planned stunts there..
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
Then they would have clamped down on Tripping The Rift and T.R.O.O.P.S. a long time ago, and certainly before going after a cartoon website and a parody news site.
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
You're right, but the font is not the giveaway: Arial is the default font for most browsers. So if you don't specify anything else, and just slap a page together, Arial is what you'll see..
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
Or 'Microsoft Twit'
Hokey statistics and ancient misconceptions are no match for a good thought in your head, kid!
I've heard of something similar - someone connecting two Macs using a barbed-wire fence (!!), in effect making for a very slow Localtalk connection - as if Localtalk wasn't slow to begin with. :>
- Darchmare
- Axis Mutatis, http://www.axismutatis.net
- Jeff
While it is true that UserFriendly commonly uses the likenesses of the Star Wars universe, does the same hold true for BeDope and Segfault?
To be honest, I think it is all an April Fool's joke and am a bit embarassed that I was one of the "600" that submitted the story of UF being down. This is after I laughed at the concerned callers of a local radio station after they ran a story about the "Internet Clean Up day" today in order to clean up the mess of the Melissa Virus and to test Y2K issues.
Still, if it is true, I don't think it is Microsoft(they don't need too much more bad publicity and besides...Dilbert is still around) or LucasArts. Anyone else think it could be Apple?
Userfriendly often makes fun of the iMac(iWhack) which is Apple's cashcow and baby right now. I think we all know how they try to protect their copyrights. This also ties in BeDope (in a fashion). Not sure where Segfault fits in as I only learned of them yesterday...after they were turned off.
Happy April Fools' Day and let's all hope it is just a joke on us.
How about a poll?
1) It's all a hoax
2) It's Microsoft's fault
3) It's LucasArts's fault
4) It's Apple's fault
5) sunspots, dude
6) This poll sucks/Rob sucks/Slashdot sucks
"Dogs and cats, living together...it's mass hysteria!"
--
--
This signature left intentionally blank.
... but of course I'd guessed and was participating in the prank, which explains why I sent in a message DESIGNED to look as if I'd fallen for it, when IN FACT I'd realised that the older setup articles in Slashdot were just setting me up. I mean, you don't expect me to ADMIT to being a fool, do you?!
Now excuse me please while I go wipe the egg off my face.
2 dashes and a space, or just 2 dashes?
This is a scream. Its not only a funny (ha ha) but very cleverly funny. It sends a strong message on the right to free speech. On a serious note I think the site owners needs to contact ACLU if not already done.
Help fight continental drift.
Those of you who think this is an april fools joke - Think again!. /. is closed down?
The 'as-yet-unnamed' complainant is Microsoft's legal department. Illiad has been hassled by them for the past week.
If Illiad is hassled by MS, how long until
Remember, Segfault is across the sea. Different time zone. Nasty trick, isn't it!
http://www.theregister.co.uk/990331-000002.html
Assuming this isn't a long planned april fool joke, the main question is what can we do to show our support? Email, /.ing of sites, snailmail? To who - saying what?
THat moderators think it's a good point and thread? WHat else could it be?
First, it's April Fool's Day (in my timezone, anyway).
Second, isn't it just a little suspicious how similar the explanations looked at each site? Formulaic, almost.
Little Debian: America's #1 Snack Distro!
Productivity in the corporate world hit an all time new high today. Some authorities think it is because of a few certian "Web Sites" that were taken down due to some "technical difficulties".
film at 11
Never argue with an idiot. They drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience.
Any ideas who is responsible?
I know M$ is the usual target of UserFriendly gags, but you'd think they'd have had enough bad press lately, and have no need to pull stunts like these to get some more...
Wouter
I hate to ask but didn't anyone vote on the vaction poll on UF? I beleave Illiad was going on vacation untill Sunday. This is prob. a joke.
Tom
That legal counsel's name looks a bit dodgy to me:
Michael Scott DeWitt = MicroSoft Do It.
Oh well. Slow morning.
Why is it that many people who claim to support standards have such atrocious spelling and grammar?
"MS DeWitt" Such a likely name for a lawyer...
http://www.pauldrobertson.com
As much as I hope this is just an april fools joke, I don't think it is... I think this ones for real.... there has been news up on the pending law suits for awhile now, and as someone else pointed out, segfault went down yesterday, followed by UF and BeDope today... I think this is for real.. and if it is, I think its time to unleash alittle /. effect on behalve of these sites!!! Lets find out who the slime bag sueing them is and /. them into next week! This is just totaly bogus!!!!!!!!!
I forgot about the date thing.
ah well, even if it is a joke, Its a little to close to home.
I cannot really express my anger, frustration and disappointment that someone would stoop this low.
This is *humor*
funny.... you know, ha-ha?
like my wife said, eveyrone is free to make fun of the president, politicians, etc, but God forbid they poke fun at MicroSloth (or other corp with expensive lawyers.)
bastards
even the Ufies site (http://ufies.userfriendly.org/) is down too. They covered all the bases ;)
i'd have to go with a hoax....
remind me not to check any web pages early in the morning, my brain just doesn't work right, damn holidays sneaking up on me like that.
Okay, we all know Be Dope, Segfault and UserFriendly have been shut down. And they've been shut down in *exactly* the same way. Further, the client is unnamed... this is *highly* irregular, and therefore this is very probably indeed a joke.
Now, who'll join me in supporting Linus to buy a Compaq Dynamouse for his laptop to be recharged? The power in Russia is said to be flakey at best...
Please see the old press releases about the special agreement between LA and Microsoft. Basically LA is not supposed to release any PC games for anything but Windows and other partnership stuff. It dates somewhere between Dark Forces and the next LA games.
So actually, LA is obliged to sue these sites under this agreement even if they do not want to...
Baker's Law: Misery no longer loves company. Nowadays it insists on it
http://www.sigsegv.cx/
IMHO this is a case of poor taste if it is a April Fool's joke. I understand the joy of the day, the joy of making a good time out of it, I also understand the seriousness that we of the net take our freedome of speach.
Implying than any company is doing this even without making direct reference to a specific company can have major backlash and I don't think that's the sort of publicity any of them want. True, the timing implies that it was a huge setup for an even larger April Fools joke, but then again, it could just be bad timing of the courts.
We won't know til at least tommorow... Til then try not to get too hot under the collar, and for crist sake, stop the script kiddies from doin anything stupid if you can...
Zanthor
Zanthor
When I read this article the only -1 comment was from the Glorious Meept. Well it just so has it that Meept's comment linked to a bit on The Register that impled this thing was a hoax.
Since this is one of the stronger pieces of evidence on this topic, I wish it were at least moderated at 2. Now I can't even find his article even though I have my threshhold at -1. *sigh*
Redmond (WA) - Today Microsoft announced that the source code for Windows 2000 will be released under the Gnu GPL...
There's a new one today - "IP Over Avian Carriers With Quality Of Service", RFC 2549.
Also RFC 2550, which addresses the Y10K problem.
This was just well planned and executed. UF and SegFault will hopefully be back up by lunch (tomorrow at the latest). The best practical jokes are just close enough to the edge of reality to make them hard to completely dismiss. While the litigation may be real, I doubt that a judge is going to rule against the First Amendment and close down those sites. If a judge did do that, I would imagine that only the portions which were offensive to the thin skinned corporation would be silenced.
Still kudos to UF and SegFault for banding together on April Fool's Day and providing entertainment.
-----Don't Take life seriously, you'll never make it out alive.
Dave's Classics had already been down a few months ago. It has to be for a different reason. Anyway, now the only sites I really read are /. and freshmeat
As an aside, I'd like to get this code that detects my sexual orientation, because I don't know what it is. Also, exactly what encoding is that? Base65536? IEEE floating-point?
BTW, we released XFree86 4.0 today. It's got antialiasing, ability to switch client windows between displays, and true 3-D support with both OpenGL and Pex for over a dozen 3-D accelerator cards. Go to the XFree86 project webserver and check it out.
Cheers,
Joshua.
--jon. Postel is dead. May we all mourn his, and our, loss.
Well, at least not until tommorrow when I can start feeding my DustPuppy and Iambe addiction again. ;->
What's the difference between an orange?
In any case, my brothers and sisters, it is time to rise up in arms. If this is a hoax, I'm not laughing. If it is not, I'm really not laughing. If this thing is real, them we really need to show the offending party something about the value of free speach.
viva la revolucion!!!!!!!!!
Alberta is in the Mountain Time Zone.
Silly American.
UF is actually in Vancouver, which is in the Pacific Time Zone.
Laugh while you can, monkey boy!
... the Joke A Day website has been hacked. www.jokeaday.com
I'm sure they meant well. So did the makers of Thalidomide.
... they will be when a ton of hate mail floods Redmond and MS accuses them of a denial of service attack.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
It's a CONSPIRACY!
I'm sure they meant well. So did the makers of Thalidomide.
Aw.. you're no fun anymore.
I'm sure they meant well. So did the makers of Thalidomide.
After stupidly being convinced that UserFriendly was down for real. I now relized it is April Fools Day (after reading a few comments) This is a joke, all the sites legal info look the same, and they just prepared very well. They know most of their audience reads /. All their partners websites have been updated with the new logo too, that takes planning, it would take more then a few hours for people to relize to change their websites, hell, its too early in the morning.
I couldn't agree with you more.
What can we do? Is it that current times will
force linux users and consumers to take
it up the ass if a corperation is big enough?
Does it mean that small free web sites that deliever orignal content
with large followings will be forced to just quit and give up domains
if any sizeable company with money wants the domain?
In recent times we've seen stories on here of
companies demanding web sites because the domain
was a trademark violation even though the site
had existed well before the creation of the
demanding business.
We've also seen the trademarking of just plain old
stupid shit. I'm waiting for a patent on eating
and a trademark on words like cheeseburger (so
you can no longer use the word eating and will be
liable for a lawsuit if you put cheeseburger on a menu).
So. What Am I Rambling About? This wonderful
captilist economy we (US citizens) live in is
great for the goings-on of real life, but is not
ready to handle a free self ruled internet and
will, as long as it runs unchecked, try to apply
US rules of business to a medium never meant for business.
-Z
suggestion: move UF and SegFault to a server in the netherlands or other country not subject to US laws.
I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going.
how will I laugh for the next 72 hours?
There's still dilbert.
---If it is not a Fool's Joke---
Was one responsible for all three?
010110000010110101010100011110010111000001100101
...I wouldn't even pause to think about it as anything else than as a joke. But now I won't be so sure 'til tomorrow. =/
(Let's hope I'm the fool =)
--> Erik
If this is an April Fool's "joke," then all I can say is that I'm not finding it amusing in the slightest.
"Crying Wolf" would be an appropriate term for it.
If it's "for real," then I hope that all of the sites involved file countersuits.
Specialization is for insects. - R.A.H.
>I strongly suspect an odd April Fool's gag. But if it isn't and if MicroWhack is behind it, NT is OUTA HERE! :) ...restrrrain.... self.
> They'll just have to find some other package to run the plant.
>
Hehee... Yup, if it isn't a gag, my computer becomes 100% M$ free a lot sooner than expected(well, expected is with release of Q3 for linux:)
And then we'd have to look into some of the rioting they had in the previous story:)
Strangly enough, last night, before I read the rioting article, I was dreaming about rioting at M$... Burning CD's and EULA's and stuff... Throwing all my old dos floppies on the fire...
Okay, back now... Must
If I was that drunk, I would have remembered it -- H. Simpson
I very much doubt that Slashdot would be targeted in this way. Other than the "Bill Gates of Borg" icon, I
don't recall seeing anything on Slashdot that Microsoft could complain to Rob about. Read the disclaimer at
the bottom of each Slashdot page: "All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their
respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-99 Rob Malda." Whilst some
of the comments posted to Slashdot are clearly inflammatory, Rob makes it clear that, as far as he is
concerned, the buck stops with the person who made the comment, and not with him.
That's the thing, though. A company THAT vast really doesn't need a leg to stand on. They've got money. They just keep filing suits/motions, whatever. The other employees/stockholders are happy cause the lawyers are finally doing something, instead of just sitting around, and no one person could keep up with them. They can just keep putting off the trial, which leaves whichever website it is in question offline. People stop coming to it, pretty soon, it's gone...The Evil Empire could run trials indefinitely. No one could keep up with that.
If I was that drunk, I would have remembered it -- H. Simpson
Actually, it did happen on March 31st, at lesat where I am... Not too long before midnight, but still before...
UF is in Canada--I think in Alberta, so that would be Central Time Zone. It was around 11 EDT when I noticed that UF was down....
I don't know... I hope it's a april fools joke, but it seems pretty realistic, with all the news on the UF site and stuff...
Let me just put it this way:
I wouldn't be surprised.
If I was that drunk, I would have remembered it -- H. Simpson
I found this article at The Register. It talks about notices recieved by User Friendly, Segfault, BeDope, and OTB. There's a bit at the bottom (seemingly unrelated) about April Fools Day. There was another article, which seems to have disappeared about how The Register had been told not to give away the April Fools joke that was the subject of a conspiracy of humour sites. Pretty fishy...
-- THIS SPACE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK -- --
This can't possibly be a gag by Illiad. What will he say? April Fools! No company was ever suing me! Funny, eh?
This would not be funny. Illiad has expressed in very sincere terms his uneasiness and gratitude for the support of the community since the first e-mail was received. And let us not forget what sentiments this flagrant persecution of the underdog has already brought about.
I had never felt so appalled at the actions of Microsoft as when I first saw that the "Site Shut Down" page. (Yes, it is not yet known for certain that it is M$, but is there any other company that would have the gall to do this?) And yet at the same time, I felt a bit thrilled. Why?
Because Microsoft is going to regret this.
This is the sort of thing that can turn public opinion. Can you imagine how the media will see this? How many human-interest articles and sound bytes will relate how the multi-billion-dollar corporation shut down a lowly cartoonist's Web site because he made fun of them? How many interviews with Illiad will show that the only danger he poses to Microsoft is as a widely-read and loved member of the non-M$-friendly crowd? How many people will begin to SEE to what depths this supposed innovator of innovators will stoop to in its quest to control the computing technology milieu as we know it?
In the past, Microsoft has destroyed corporations. This was bad, but the victims were always faceless, branded entities. NOT SO HERE.
Long live freedom. Of speech and of software.
iSKUNK!
If this is a prank, I'm gonna email them and take back everything nice I said about Iliad.
-------------------------------
Dude, lay off. It's a practical joke for crying out loud!
Seriously, assuming it's a joke, (and when I realized that it probably was around 1 am) I started laughing uncontrollably. In fact, I laughed harder than I do when I read UF!
Plus, if you went and mailed Microsoft, Lucas, etc that's your own fault for doing so without knowing who was "suing" UF. I'm fairly confident that the reason he couldn't tell us who was suing him is that, if he said M$ was doing it, then that WOULD be libelous (sp) and he could easily have been sued then.
I for one think this was an excellent prank, made better by several sites being in on it.
I'll say this is the best April 1st joke I've ever come across.
Much saner than the what's under your chair kind that everyone comes up with (one person ewrnt around installing Back Orifice on everyone's system around here).
Keep it up UF. You almost had me there. Your "closed" notice even made it to our notice board today morning.
-- Kiran Jonnalagadda http://www.pobox.com/~jace
1. Legal reason for not naming the third party: it would be libelous since the whole thing is a prank, i.e. not obvious satire or parody. 2. Reason for not simply announcing on their home page "This is no prank": it is a prank. If this were legit, they could name the party involved openly, and declare it's not related to April 1st. They have conspicuously not done so. It's a good prank, but maybe not so funny.
www.cgstock.com
Anyone who gets sick of April fools, come on down to New Zealand.. It's 1.30am, April 2nd ;)
(yes, that's right I almost took some of this stuff seriously until I remembered the date line, thing)
--- "If a man speaks in a forest, and no woman hears him, is he still wrong?"
I wanted to see if I could find out if Michael Scott DeWitt (UF's legal counsel) was really a person, really a lawyer, etc, so I punched his name into Alta Vista. It displayed the following:
AltaVista found no document matching your query.
AltaVista Recommends:
Gender & Sexuality > Pornography
States M > Minnesota
If Illiad had metioned a name like M$, then the backlash from the /., UFIE, Segfault, and Be community's would have been overwhelming.
Look what happens when someone posts an article about a big corporation picking on a lone user who happens to have a domain name they want. Compound that in with big corporation picking on our favorite humor sites, I think the slashdot effect would be worse than ever before.
That said if this is an April Fools joke then the sites could be held responsible for damages against the "offending" company if they were to give out their names.
If it's not then I definetly hope they get the name of the company out to the public so that we can show them how well we protect our own.
April 1. Coincidence? I think not. Quite elaborate I must say.
Lie, n.:
A very poor substitute for the truth, but the only one discovered to date.
I was really freaked for a second.. then I realized. :)
.. pull that crap on me. :)
It's been one of those weeks, I mean, hell, I couldn't remember what DAY it was today, let alone what DATE...
Now I don't know.
My damned proxy was cacheing the page, now I see illiad's new page... hmm.. I donno, i guess tomorrow I'll find out..
You know, the whole thing.. (the letters, the threats, now the shutdown).. could be a long elaborate april-fools joke??
Anybody seen anything about this on any of the "mainstream" news sites?
The sites went down on March 31st. Not April 1st. Also, they received the letters about a week ago, if you hadn't noticed on the websites or on /.
Just because the date happens to be 04/01 doesn't mean everything you hear is a joke.
Bitchslapped. Neat.
Illiad and User Friendly are in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
Bitchslapped. Neat.
NAARFFF!!!
Poit!
Zoik
Fjord!
-- Life: Hate the Game... Love the cereal
Epsecially considering this week's (newspaper) storyline. The web strips are a week behind the papers.
I am not your blowing wind, I am the lightning.
they can't shut down userfriendly, I work at a tech support office and my days aren't whole without the daily userfriendly, I'm gonna miss it.
either we are networking or we areNT networking
All these sites take the piss out of
:)
....
Slashdot, don't they?
So in 72 hours don't be too suprised
if the letters turn out to be from
blockstackers
that would be a cool ending to this
april fools
I, for one, hope that 2 is true and that we have all been hoodwinked, but if 1 is actually the case, I hope that we can band together in our support of two quality sites.
I think you're right. Espcially given the context in which the Star Wars likenesses were portrayed (M$ henchmen cast as Imperial Storm Troopers). If I were George, I be a bit peeved too that my characters were being associated with those guys.
AJ
Admit nothing, deny everything and make counter-accusations.
...is in making the subject suspicious, yet presenting it so convincingly that the target believes or half believes, until they belatedly realize the date. The same sort of material done on any other date, as in the assertions last week that userfriendly/segfault had gotten registered letters from lawyers, would come under the much less attractive name of 'lies'. There's no art to that, just abusing the goodwill of your supporters.
That's why I had been presuming that while the shutdowns were potentially a joke, the legal stuff wasn't. If I'm wrong, and the Register article implies I am, then I think the guys are going to end up apologizing, not laughing; given that public pressure is the net community's only real weapon when Big Companies with Many Lawyers go after small websites or individuals like Theo de Raadt, it's a real bad idea to cry wolf.
Laura
If there had just been *one* site that shut down (and not all three), and if there hadn't been all the talk in the past week over Illiad and Segfault and BeDope getting e-mails and letters from 's lawyers, THEN I might have chaulked it up to April Fool's Day pranks. However there's just too much for it to be a joke.. even old bookmarks right to old archived favs at UserFriendly get a 404 Not Found..
It may be an April fools joke, but as someone else pointed out, there is a semi-tradition in the "hacker" community. But it may be a joke being played on them. I have no evidence of this, but their sites could have been "cracked" and semi-maliously shut-down as an April Fools joke.
Until such time as someone comes forward with more details, everything else like this is just speculation. And that's the other thing about this possibly being an April Fools joke, there's supprisingly little on the rumor mills. Somebody in this community must know the maintainers of these sites why hasn't anything come around from that angle.
I can't believe the most intelligent post on this article has come from Meept.
"Whatever happened to fair use?"
-- Duff-Man
Shut down dates for these sites (from View site info):
bedope.com 2am Apr 1
segfault.org 23:30 Mar 31
userfriendly.org 5:30 Mar 31
I very much doubt that Slashdot would be targeted in this way. Other than the "Bill Gates of Borg" icon, I don't recall seeing anything on Slashdot that Microsoft could complain to Rob about. Read the disclaimer at the bottom of each Slashdot page: "All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective companies. Comments are owned by the Poster. The Rest © 1997-99 Rob Malda." Whilst some of the comments posted to Slashdot are clearly inflammatory, Rob makes it clear that, as far as he is concerned, the buck stops with the person who made the comment, and not with him.
Whether this would stand up in court is another matter. I hope it never comes to that. There is also the worry that some corporation could subpoena (is that the right word? I'm not well up on American legalese) Rob and make him hand over the account details of a poster. I think this happened on a Yahoo message board recently.
I got a bright shiny nickle that says it's an April Fools joke.
-Andy Martin
If y'all don't like me, blow me.
Strange coincidence that all off this has been leading up to april 1 ?
beauty is only a light switch away
Then i saw the date...
...OUCH
Menno
Hmm..
When Userfriendly, segfault and Bedope goes down because of a lawsuit, guess who's going be the next one??
Frankly I am quite scared to see those site going down because someone doesn't like them.. Which site is next to be taken down??
There still is something called freedom of speach.. Unfortunaly there also is something called 'sueing till bankrupcy'..
Menno
In my european ears "de Witt" sounds a bit like the german word "witz" which is "a joke".
Paranoid? me?
---------------------------------
F.J.J. van Heusden
Mobile: +31-6-22390057
e-mail: fjjvh@wxs.nl
---------------------------------
www.vanheusden.com - home of Multitail, HTTPing, CoffeeSaint, EntropyBroker, rsstail, bsod, listener, nagcon, nagi
What's that crying wolf thing? Read it more often this day on slashdot and really don't have a clue what's behind it.
Eleborate on it please!
---------------------------------
F.J.J. van Heusden
Mobile: +31-6-22390057
e-mail: fjjvh@wxs.nl
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www.vanheusden.com - home of Multitail, HTTPing, CoffeeSaint, EntropyBroker, rsstail, bsod, listener, nagcon, nagi
Well, I just mirrored all the cartoons yesterday! (coincidence, huh!)
So, if anyone living in the netherlands want's em to put 'em on a mirror, come along with a zip-drive (cellular phone number is in sign-off).
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F.J.J. van Heusden
Mobile: +31-6-22390057
e-mail: fjjvh@wxs.nl
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www.vanheusden.com - home of Multitail, HTTPing, CoffeeSaint, EntropyBroker, rsstail, bsod, listener, nagcon, nagi
I am sure this is just a joke - very nicely executed, but a joke. However, the idea of a GNU/Linux legal team isn't a bad one. Might come in handy in the future. There must be some geek lawyers out there somewhere: 'fess up!
- It's April 1st.
- They won't name who the company is, on the basis of advice of their lawyer. I can't think of any reason why, unless you want to keep the other side happy.
- They claim to have voluntarily shut down their sites? Why? Why not just stop the individual act that is the basis of the legal claim? A voluntary shutdown means they can't countersue. It's also a part admition of guilt. It would be a bad legal move.
- Claim that motion has been filed. Motions are a matter of public record. There would be no point in secrecy after that.
- "Double-registered" What the heck is that?
- Contrary to TV, lawyers don't do a lot of face time. "my lawyers meeting with thier lawyers" And is that multiple laywers. For a free web site, they must be well funded.
- If it was "the evil empire", don't you think they would be protected
- His lawyers, "an IP firm", say they don't have a leg to stand on, but he takes this action?
- No attempt at media work, no real press, just playing on the netizens.
- They are all doing the SAME THING IN LOCKSTEP. When one giant goes after three little companies, not everything progresses at the same speed.
Now what reasons exist for believing in this?Only that there have been a lot of stupid internet lawsuits in the last few months. But have any of them been anything like this?
To purchase it is not like spending money but rather it is an investment in the future in a blow against the empire
Isn't UF Canadian? Woldn't that mean that Mr. DeWitt would be a Canadian too?
This had better be an April Fools joke, or else I'm gonna bust somebody's head open at whatever corporation is responsible for this.
"That's Tron. He fights for the Users."
9pm PST.... that would be midnight EST (or midnight CDT if that's started yet) on April 1, wouldn't it? ;)
"If it's a bad idea, trash it. If it's a good idea, steal it and release the source code."
--
"This isn't the post you're looking for. Move along."
I'm not sure. Scott Remnant has been complaining about these legal problems for quite some time. I just don't know what to think......
No sig.
I honestly don't know either way. While the letters started about a week ago, this simply implies that, if it's a joke, it's a very elaborate one.
This from the culture that planted a balloon on the 50-yard line of the Harvard-Yale game and put a bogus police cruiser on top of a dome. Spending a week setting up an April Fool's joke makes sense, in this context.
Also, the legal notes are particularly miniscule from both sites. The air of wrongness has been around this from the get-go, but we have been chalking it up to legal foul play (a favorite to blame anything from the Internet to bad weather on).
If this is an April Fool's joke, I am humbled to be caught by one of the great ones.
If this is real, somebody has made a big mistake. The benefit of shutting down these sites down will be little compared to the media and legal frenzy that follows.
And people thought that the Slashdot Effect itself was bad enough...
--The basis of all love is respect
April fools pranks are a tradition in the hacker community - anyone remember the IP over Avian carriers RFC? This simultaneous cessation is a good prank, but chances are that it is not due to legal action or advice.
Now if this had happened on March 31 or April 2 there'd be a greater likelihood of it being for real.
As I don't think that this is a hoax, I'm very dismayed.
Is there a mirror site somewhere which has all the previous cartoons of UF, so one can still download them?
Re: cookies: I just got:
religion
mothers_maiden_name
sec_sec_num
Seems slashdot tries to fool cookie sniffers by putting bogus data in users' cookie files??
Ooh, good catch on the lawyers name. Before posting in response to the earlier /. thread on this topic, I tried to find any other web references to a Michael Scott DeWitt without any luck. Seems very likely MS has been set up as a presumptive bad guy in this April Fool's joke.
Consider all the other widespread heckling and parodying of Microsoft (by other comic strips for example) that they don't try to shut down, and consider the 1st amendment and web PR backlash. No way it's Evil Bill Crushing Free Speech.
Even if it is an April fools joke. How can I get through the day anymore?? No User Friendly cartoon, I need a laugh to help me get through the harshness of my life.
I need a dust puppy! I need to know what that geek of a marketing manager will do next. Help me!!!
It's turtles all the way down.
I strongly suspect an odd April Fool's gag. But if it isn't and if MicroWhack is behind it, NT is OUTA HERE! They'll just have to find some other package to run the plant. :)
Hitler - A big lie is more beliveable than a little lie
Me - a big april's fool joke is more believeable than a little april's fool joke
I have to agree that this is a fool's joke, and that they were collaberating all the time.
I've setup a place to build a list of UserFriendly and co. supporters.
http://www.thetoybox.org/savethem/
http://www.thetoybox.org/savethem/
Am thinkink perhaps is AOL.
--Not to be worried, Pitr fix.
I have come to the conclusion that all of them are april fool's day jokes. I
f you look at ALL of the websites frontend they all have their logo at the top followed by a title in 'arial' font and then followed by a body of text type in 'times new roman' font. ALSO they all have the name of the editor/lawyer in bold, with the title of that person in italics underneath it. Furthermore in the body of all three websites it talks of a pending litigation from an anonymous company. hmmm.... However bedope is sort of the exception to the rule.
I think this is an april fool's joke personally.
But the font is specified... look at the html the fonts are actually specified in the html plus the html style looks like it was written by the same person.
Don't you hate it?
I used to get sucked in on Usent quite regularly, cause between time-zones and propogation delays, I wouldn't get the article until the 3rd.
"Our scientific power has outrun our spiritual power. We have guided missiles and misguided men"
I'll get 'ma Shotgun, someone else bring the rope. We're gonna have ourselves a hanging.
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There are no facts, only opinions
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There are no facts, only opinions
Okay... so LucasArts busts down on Illiad, a guy being funny and writing a dang good comic strip, and leaves the Millions of Star Wars fansites, archives, message boards, amatuer writers and the like out there? What is that? We all know MicroSoft is a waste of good Ones and Zeros, but I love LucasArts! So why do they single out UF?
Much as I would like to think that this is a farce, if you had been following the threads from these sites for the past few days, you would have perhaps noticed that there were similar worries about possible legal action.
Heart, Hands, Honour
It's April Fools day, and I think you all just got taken again.
I read the internet for the articles.
Uh, Uh, Uh.... ohhhh
This proves that the new test'ment bible was written before Jesus was born.
MEEPT!!