Slashdot Log In
Microsoft to sue Mike Rowe for Copyrights
Posted by
CmdrTaco
on Mon Jan 19, 2004 08:53 AM
from the to-strange-to-be-real dept.
from the to-strange-to-be-real dept.
An anonymous reader was among a host of submittors noting that a 17 year old named Mike Rowe has been sued by Microsoft for copyright infringment of their name.
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
Microsoft's plan of attack (Score:5, Funny)
MS the scammer (Score:5, Informative)
Re:MS the scammer (Score:5, Insightful)
Ah well. Any bad press for Microsoft has to be a good thing.
Parent
Re:MS the scammer (Score:5, Insightful)
It was still dumb to send a counter-offer if one had no intention of selling it. (Though if I thought for a minute that one of my domains was worth that much to someone...)
Parent
Re:MS the scammer (Score:5, Insightful)
So he would consider selling the domain if M$ helped him regain that cost. IANAL but this sounds like a slam dunk for Mr Rowe.
Parent
Re:MS the scammer (Score:5, Interesting)
200 hours web design work @ $15/hr = $3000
100 hours seting up and securing web hosting machine @ $45/hr = $4500
250 hours blah blah @ $10 = $2500
etc and then hit them with a $10,000 buyout deal, and then it's not tring to profit of the domain name as it is fair compisation for the work (of course numbers were made up on the fly and rates should be close to what real professionals make a hr).
Based on what I have read before this would be the way to make a counter offer or am I missing something?
Parent
Re:MS the scammer (Score:5, Interesting)
I think you're close, but giving Microsoft too much credit. Under the system of Capitalism where Microsoft has thrived, the concept of a property right is sacrosanct. Anyone really interested in promoting Capitalism would acknowledge that Mike Rowe owns the domain name, and is not under any obligation to sell it, or name a price, or even justify why such a named price is warranted. A simple "That property is not for sale." should suffice, and there should be no questions asked about motivation should Mike choose to change his mind suddenly when the price reachess a given level.
What we see here, again, is Microsoft hiding behind a policy of "We're just good little Capitalists trying to make a buck like everyone else..." while their real policy of "control everything at any price" shows through in their actions.
While I don't always agree with prople who promote Capitalism as the one true way, I do wish even they would recognise when they are being used by corporations bent more on promoting their own power than on promoting Capitalism.
Parent
They don't want the content, just the name (Score:5, Insightful)
They don't want the content, he can take that with him.
It's like parking next to a fire hydrant, they are saying move along, take your car.
And all you flamers who don't read very carefully, note that I make no mention of whether M$ is doing the smart thing, the right thing, the correct thing, or anything.
Parent
M$ Lawfirm = smart and bigger! (Score:5, Interesting)
The article points out that this could easily be confused with an article from The Onion. I'd add "or an urban legend".
Did you notice the law firm that he claimed M$ uses to scare him? In order for the law firm to seem smarter and bigger than the peon they are suing, they are allegedly called "Smart & Biggar"! Obviously fake, right?
And then I looked it up, and it's a real law firm!!!!!! http://www.smart-biggar.ca/About/ [smart-biggar.ca] (Presumably Smart & Biggar/Fetherstonhaugh is based on people's names... :-)
Parent
They may be smart & big... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
*Trademark* not Copyright (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:*Trademark* not Copyright (Score:5, Interesting)
That Microsoft's lawyers sent this notice by email is also odd. That's not any kind of proper legal notification. (But then some people trust faxed signatures, so who knows?)
Parent
Re:*Trademark* not Copyright (Score:5, Funny)
This is Microsoft's new, more efficient, form of communication and distribution. Just the other day I got a critical Service Pack update from them. I find this so much better than trying to remember to check Windows Update periodically...
Parent
Re:*Trademark* not Copyright (Score:5, Informative)
Copyright - literally "the right to copy" - Covers a particular creative expression of an idea, such as a song, a movie, a poem, or a C++ program. Currently lasts longer than any of us will live.
Trademark - literally "a mark used in trade" - Covers names, slogans, logos, and such when used in the packaging and marketing of a product or service. Lasts as long and only as long as it's in active use.
Patent - literally "openly disclosed" - Gives temporary exclusive rights to a invention [insert debate over definition of "invention" here] in exchange for publishing the details of how it works. Currently lasts longer than the technology is likely to be useful.
(The so-called fourth kind of IP is a trade secret, which is the opposite of a patent: instead of publishing a how-to, the inventor keeps it private, so they can try to keep exclusivity indefinitely.)
Parent
If you don't want this to happen to you... (Score:5, Informative)
Don't make them an offer. It seems that the big catch here is that Mike made a $10,000 offer to Microsoft ('s lawyers?), and that single act essentially made their case that it was a bad-faith registration.
Re:If you don't want this to happen to you... (Score:5, Insightful)
The point is that it's not really down to the lawyers to decide, and it's going to have a hell of an uphill struggle trying to explain that 'Mike Rowe' was trying to use his chance grouping of syllables in his own name in 'bad faith', although he might've shot himself in the foot by admitting that he'd already thought about it.
However, now I'm thinking about names to register because a $10 cheque from Microsoft would be worth framing.
Parent
Re:If you don't want this to happen to you... (Score:5, Interesting)
Parent
Re:If you don't want this to happen to you... (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, there are already 3 or more +5 comments regurgitating this crap from the article. I don't buy this for a minute. Everyone has their price, and it shouldn't be an act of "bad faith" to name it.
Take slashdot for example. I doubt I could buy the domain for $10, but I bet valinux would be perfectly happy to sell it to me for 1 billion dollars. That's the reality of the situation. I fail to see how stating that reality is an act of "bad faith".
The only reason arguments like this work is because the other side doesn't have the resouces to fight them. It has basically nothing to do with the validity of the actual claim.
Parent
Re:Yes, that's what I thought (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Yes, that's what I thought (Score:5, Insightful)
And seeing as this Mike Rowe has ownership over his name and plans to study computer science and makes no mentions to MS on his site, the case seems pretty clear to me. It usually takes a lot for WIPO to overturn ownership on a website, and I don't see any clear evidence that Mike Rowe was cybersquating. Come on, phonetic spelling in a written medium? And I'd just like to know how MS found his site in the first place. Do they have a phonetical analyzer?
Parent
Re:Yes, that's what I thought (Score:5, Insightful)
Likewise, if they came and offered me an absurd fee such as $10, it'd be a natural conclusion for me to counter offer something that I *would* be willing to sell it for. I'd say that there are few privately held domain names that there isn't some purchasing price for. Even corporately held domain names would come with a purchase price, though that price might lump in the corporation. Eg, if I offered Adobe $700 billion, I'm guessing I'd come away with a shiny new domain name, and probably a new office building filled with employees to go with it.
My point is that just because the kid *was* willing to sell the domain doesn't make it a bad faith offering. None of mine are bad faith, and I'd easily sell any of them for 10 grand.
Parent
overuse of 'copyright infringement' (Score:5, Insightful)
I'd bet a nickel the reporter who wrote the first story and editor never looked up the difference between "copyright infringement" and "trademark infringement," and then the story was duplicated to other news services without anyone bothering to double-check it.
maybe they will go after (Score:5, Funny)
p.
Re:maybe they will go after (Score:5, Interesting)
My mom is the directory of a public library. She was working at the front desk one day a while back, and this paniciky old woman comes up to the desk practically in tears.
The woman is whispering: "I swear, I didn't do anything... I just happened... and it won't stop.... and I would never do anything like... and.... oh... my... I just went to check my email.... and...."
Yup.... you guessed it. She was emailing her grandkids, and typed "hotmale" instead of "hotmail". (Evidentally unleashing a storm of pop-ups) So, this sort of thing does happen.
Story aside, I don't see a problem with whoever registered "hotmale" which is a lot easier to confuse than MikeRoveSoft. To get MikeRoveSoft confused with Microsoft, the user would have to not only have serious issues spelling, but likely would have to have never seen the word in print. I can't beleive a user meeting those qualifications is going to be making any major software purchases soon...
Parent
At first (Score:5, Interesting)
You're doing the Devil's dirtywork! (Score:5, Funny)
(yeah yeah, I clicked it too...the Devil made me do it.)
Well, this is one way to take his site offline... (Score:5, Funny)
The resulting traffic accomplished what their legal papers were previously unable to do...
Alas, he fell into the trap... (Score:5, Interesting)
So, from a "legal" standpoint, he is going to have a tough time of things. He plans to fight though, and I sure wish him luck!
mycrowsoft (Score:5, Interesting)
Don.
---------
Eatthepuddingeatthepuddingeatthepudding
I certainly hope that MS don't get away with this. (Score:5, Interesting)
...not because they are who they are (MicroSoft, who has de facto dominace over the desktop, and thus are evil according to the tinfoil-crowd), but because no one should be allowed to get away with something as silly as this.
Its not even like the name MikeRoweSoft.com sounds that much like MicroSoft.com anyway, at least not to my ears. Possible the pronocication is different in MS HQ, but... this is plain silly. It would have been a different matter if Mike Rowe had called his website MikroSoft.com, but as he didn't I can't see that even MS's battalions of lawyers can believe they have a case.
Re:I certainly hope that MS don't get away with th (Score:5, Informative)
No, they're not evil because they dominate the desktop.
They are evil because they use that monopoly unfairly, to illegally (attempt to) dominate other areas. They are evil because of their unethical and illegal business practices: buying out or crushing all competition, secret agreements with vendors, spreading lies, putting profits over user experience and security, doing their utmost to prevent interoperability with other software and systems, continually breaking the spirit and the letter of anti-trust agreements, and much more.
Microsoft are evil, not because they dominate the desktop, but because, thanks to them, most people (think they) have no alternative.
Parent
Site died, content here (Score:5, Informative)
I don't think he saw the
Wow, all of this exposure is starting to overwhelm me. I appreciate all of the emails I have been getting recently. If I don't respond to you that doesn't mean I don't appreciate it, I have been getting flooded and I am only responding to the ones I see fit. I am starting to get coverage all over the world. I have heard I have been on the news in the UK. That really surprised me. Anyways, thanks for visiting my site. I will keep you updated on everything that is happening.
And on 15 jan 2004:
I received an email from Smart & Biggar, Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, informing me that I have been committing copyright infringement against Microsoft. They told me that I must transfer my domain name over to Microsoft as soon as possible. I was baffled by this email, yet thought it was funny at the same time. Microsoft was going after a 17 year olds part time business that he put a lot of time into just because it has the same phonetic sound as their company.
I responded to this email saying that I was not ready to give up my domain name since I had put so much time and effort into establishing my name, getting my business cards out and posting my services on the Internet. If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business. A few days later I received an email back from them telling me that they would give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses for the domain name, which came to be $10USD. I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over to Microsoft. In response to this recent email, I sent one back to them describing how much work I have put into my business and that the domain was worth at least $10000. They refused to give me anything more than $10USD so I proceeded to ignore their most recent email. I didn't hear anything from them after their last email.
Yesterday, January 14, I received a package from the lawyers' office FedEx Priority Overnight. Inside I found a book over an inch thick with a 25 page letter explaining to me that I had all along had the intention to sell my domain name to Microsoft for a large cash settlement. This is not the case, I never thought my name would cause Microsoft to take this course of action against me. I just thought it was a good name for my small part-time business. In this letter it explains that Microsoft's customers could get confused between my page and theirs, which doesn't make any sense since Microsoft doesn't design websites. They do, however, sell a program called Microsoft FrontPage, which they say can cause some confusion between me making websites for my customers and them selling a program to make websites to their customers. I think it is just another example of a huge corporation just trying to intimidate a small business person (and only a 17 year old student at that) to get anything they want by using lawyers and threats. It reminds me of the Starbucks thing against the little coffee shop in the Queen Charlotte Islands.
Do they monitor the domain registry? (Score:5, Interesting)
In my eyes it seems like the overpaid lawyers that Microsoft keeps in it's stable wanted to give the impression of actually doing something
Google Cache, www.mikerowesoft.com (Score:5, Informative)
Google cache of site... (Score:5, Informative)
blowmesmartandbigger.com? (Score:5, Funny)
No... my name is not Blowme Smartandbiggar. Nor is it Blowme S. Andbiggar.
\\signed\\
Blow M. Smartandbiggar
I expect M$ to win this (Score:5, Insightful)
He registered the domain in August because he thought it would be cool to have a site that sounded like the famous company to show his Web designing skills.
Well, that's exactly what a trademark is supposed to protect against; someone else using your brand-name for their own purposes. And because the way the trademark law works, Microsoft has to defend their trademarks; writing letters, suing; or else they risk the trademark being generic; free for anyone to use.
Microsoft may be an evil corporation, but I can't blame them for protecting their main trademark.
That the defendants name is Mike Rowe is interesting, but I personally think it is clear that mikerowesoft is intended to look alike and benefit from the name recognition of "microsoft". Mike Rowe can easily invent another domain name that includes his name and build his own brand name without leeching on Microsoft.
Re:I expect M$ to win this (Score:5, Informative)
So why hasn't Microsoft gone after support.mycrowsoft.com [mycrowsoft.com]?
Parent
Re:I expect M$ to win this (Score:5, Insightful)
I agree that it's regretable that he turned their insulting offer into a respectable one, thereby appearing to be a squatter. I've always been a firm believer in the ability for individuals to register domains based on their name, and this is a good example of that. Hopefully the judge will realize why he made the offer and won't just make him out ot be a squatter based on that alone.
RP
Parent
Computer Gook? (Score:5, Funny)
Is this a typo or have I been left behind in the newest slang update? I feel so old.
1st rule: SHUT UP AND GET A LAYWER (Score:5, Insightful)
SHUT UP AND GET A LAWYER!
The second most important rule:
UNTIL YOU HAVE A LAYWER, STAY SHUT UP.
Suppose somebody contacts you and says:
"You are in violation of our copyright [sic] on our site - give us the domain or we'll sue!"
The proper response is something like:
"Very interesting - OK, please give me the contact information for your law firm, and I'll have my attourney contact your attourney. I prefer to have all furthur contact through my attourney, so please route everything through your legal group."
If they persist in contacting you directly, inform them firmly that all furthur contact should go through their attourney to yours, and any direct contact is harrassment.
In a case like this one, where you ARE being contacted by the other side's legal department, then you should GET AN ATTOURNEY LICENSED TO PRACTICE IN YOUR AREA. First thing. Then route all contact through him.
Otherwise, shut up - say nothing to the other side. While it may be a civil matter rather than a criminal matter, remind yourself that "Everything I say will be used against me in court."
Yep (Score:5, Funny)
Sounds about right. Microsoft customers (by definition) are not the brightest cookies out there. Case in point, Clippy.
Brilliant! (Score:5, Interesting)
You're a big company. YOu're huge. You are very, very controversial. When intelligent, well-informed people think about you and your business tactics, they combine images of alien zombies with all-encroaching slime-mold and a coven of satanists whose approach to product design and quality control issues is limited to ferrying suitcases of cash to Washington.
It has been proven in courts of law that you steal code and suppress competition. It is well-known that you are cavalier towards other people's patents and copyrights and fiercely protective of your own. In short, you are scum.
So What is your optimal startegy? In order to keep the great ordinary from hearing that you are scum so often that it clicks one day (I'm paying WHAT?!! HOW?!!), you have to control as much opinion as you can and a websight on a domain that is easily associated with your name is very dangerous to you at; least psychologically and at worst, materially.
It's got to work on your nerves. It has to make things run through your head.
A site on a domain like that might be used to report every time your blithe unconcern for security costs your customers billions; it might be used to post wonderfully funny pieces about how your founder is a, vulgar, fast-food munching, nerd with documented B.O.--a loser who couldn't have gotten a pity-screw from a nymphomaniac saint until his net worth was in the *billions* and even then, as the world's richest man, his choices were limited to an employee who looks the worse for wear--who looks more and more like a frump with a case of nerves in each royal portrait.
When you've little to offer but a lot to lose, you have to control what people say about you. You have to find the channels and close them: it's a trend that shows your internet savvy which is why 'Georgebushsucks.com' used to take you to a site and ask you for a contribution to his campaign.
Sorry to hear they didn't just pay the damned kid. One thing about being scum is the psychological inability to realize that writing the kid a check--even one for ten times what he asked for--with a handshake and hinting at an internship one day would beat all hell out of reaching for your lawyers and generating news coverage that proves that even your worst critics are dead right about you.
Of course, if their mindset embraced ideas like this, they would have leaned harder on their quality than on their lobbyists and the would have had nothing to worry about in the first place.
You've got to love it....
Based on the Nissan.com Case ..... (Score:5, Informative)
I think if he does get enough support, he probably should fight back. But it brings another case of the Nissan.com domain to me in which the domain name can't be used commercially.
What I thought was very interesting about the case was mentioned in the FAQ to the Nissan.com case. [ncchelp.org] It said
In the www.MikeRoweSoft.com case the interpretion is weaker as the similarity is "phonetic" which is really quite fuzzy, compared to the actual presence of the word "nissan" in the domain name. Despite this the original owner of the Nissan.com domain could not prevail.
If you go to the website Nissan.com you see the following Notice: In compliance with a ruling issued by the United States District Court in Los Angeles on November 14, 2002, in the lawsuit of Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. v. Nissan Computer Corporation, this web site has been converted to non-commercial use.
The story from the Domain Name Handbook was [domainhandbook.com]
So, I guess, I could see something like this happen. Mike Rowe may be ordered to post a prominent disclaimer of any connection to Microsoft Corp and refrain from displaying any computer-related information. IANAL.
In other news... (Score:5, Funny)
Mr. Mike Rosoff of Kennebunk, Maine is especially worried, because he has received a cease-and-desist letter from Microsoft lawyers claiming that his social security card, driver's license, passport, and all items using his birth name are infringing on copyrights.
More on the story as it develops...
--Mark
__:-b
Pronunciation of Rowe (Score:5, Interesting)
Holydays work : please help your friend... (Score:5, Funny)
Your friend Microsoft is lost in the maze of IP infringement.
Please help him to find out all the names used by evil hackers who want to steel mighty things from your friend.
Because there are so many bad boys in the world that speak strange languages,
help your little friend Microsoft to get every occurence of name spelling that can sound like his very own name.
Of course in english, our friend Law Yer has just come with the evil name : Mike Rowe Soft, so this one can not be proposed.
When you have finished this game, hand out the answer to your dad or your mom and go on to the next game.
For instance, in French
[mi | my] [c | k | que] [r] [o | au] [ss] [o | au] [ft | pht]
Microsoft is just covering their asses (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Let's just hope... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent