toetagger1 - Slashdot User

Comment Re:Is that even legal? (Score 1) 605

by toetagger1 on Tuesday September 25, 2007 @01:20PM (#20745705) Attached to: Upcoming Firmware Will Brick Unlocked iPhones

Apple gets X (10?) % of the monthly subscription from AT&T. Also, they book the iPhone revenue as a service, spread over each month for 2 years. So yes, Apple looses money when people don't get an AT&T contract compared to those who do.

Submission + - Google lost german toplevel domain google.de

Submitted by Korkman on Monday January 22, 2007 @08:40PM

Korkman writes: It seems Google has just lost one of it's major toplevel domains, google.de, to some german webhoster which was obviously well prepared for the traffic hit. See "http://www.google.de/", and, if already recovered, "http://www.goneo.de/" for the webhoster. Google.com stopped immediately redirecting german visitors to google.de. Anyone here to guess how much economic damage this will deal?

Submission + - google domain expired

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday January 22, 2007 @08:34PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "It seems that the german google domain "google.de" expired (about 30 min. before midnight CET) and was taken over by a guy named Mario Micklisch from Wiesbaden (germany) (see www.denic.de) that uses (and owns?) the service from www.freshdomains.de (alias favo.org) that allows to register domains automatically, when they expire. (But it also seems that he forgot to place adds on his recently acquired domain to make a lot of money.;)"

Submission + - Domain google.de apparently kidnapped

Submitted by

Christian_Franz_LL.M

on Monday January 22, 2007 @08:22PM

Christian_Franz_LL.M writes: "On tuesday night, someone appears to have managed to be registered as the holder of the domain "google.de". The service of the German section of Google Inc. was unavailable, displaying only an "under construction" message.

This appears to be an extraordinarily spectacular attempt in suicide, lest the apperent new domain holder, a Mr. Martin Rusteberg of Germany, happens to hold prior rights in the string "google". A quick search revealed that there are no trade marks registered in Germany (https://dpinfo.dpma.de/protect/mar.html), with OAMI with respect to European trade marks (http://oami.europa.eu/CTMOnline/RequestManager/) nor with the WIPO with respect to so-called international trade marks that might have been extended to cover Germany (http://www.wipo.int/ipdl/en/search/madrid/search- struct.jsp). This should allow Google Inc. to sort out the problem by means of an injunction by a German court within the day or a couple of days at most.

This might be different though, should the current domain holder turn out to have any other kind of rights in the string "google" himself, e.g. using it as a company identifier prior to Goolge Inc.'s market entry in Germany.

Unlike other TLDs, the German registrar DENIC e.G. (http://www.denic.de)does not provide a dispute resolution procedure. That means that the possible kidnapping of the domain will be subject to German jurisdiction. That means that while, for example, the ICANN Uniform Dispute Resolution Policy (http://www.icann.org/udrp/) allows for "soft arguments" to be brought forward and domains to be transferred directly if there is no response by the defendant, arbitration in front of a German court could turn out to be more difficult that one might, at first sight, expect.

Whilst there can be little doubt that google would eventually succeed in regaining the domain due to it's overwhelming fame, the path to victory could turn out stony.

There is juristdiction by Germany's Federal Court of Justice that accepts that in a conflict of prior rights, the rights of a party that has what has been described as "an absolute reputation", prevail (BGH, Urt. v. 22.11.01, I ZR 138/99 — shell.de, http://netlaw.de/urteile/bgh_13.htm).

Still, it is rather unlikely that this concept would be sufficient to allow Google Inc. to achieve an injunction under German law. This is due to the requirement that no injunction must anticipate the final decision — which would be the case if the current domain holder was forced to cancel the domain.

By the way: under German law, no right holder can ask for a domain to be transferred. It has to be cancelled and can then be re-registered by the rights holder. Google Inc. will have to ask for a so called dispute entry by the registrar Denic e.G., which will bar the domain from any further transactions, and then go to court really, really quickly.

Depending on whether or not the current registrant has any prior rights, this might turn out as a finacial suicide or the easiest way to earn real money without any effort at all — if, which is not unlikely, Google Inc. decides to cut things short and buy the new registrant out. Which, I have a tinkle, may have been the idea in the first place.

Still, this is high rolling: from both a legal and a financial point of view, it would have been less risky just to rob a bank. It's probably just that geeks aren't any good at this sort of thing, in contrast to the fine detail of domain registration policies...

For further information on German internet law, visit http://www.netlaw.de/ or just ask: cfranz@christianfranz.net.

Christian Franz, LL.M.
Rechtsanwalt
(Attorney at Law)
Düsseldorf, Germany"

Submission + - Google.de is gone ?

Submitted by Funnyfant on Monday January 22, 2007 @08:08PM

Funnyfant writes: Hey, it's 6 past 1 at night, and google.de is gone ! AT LAST !
Very funny:

[me@marvin ~]# whois google.de
[Querying whois.denic.de]
[whois.denic.de]
% Copyright (c)2006 by DENIC
% Version: 1.06.0
%
% Restricted rights.
%
%
% Terms and Conditions of Use
%
% All the domain data that is visible in the whois search is protected
% by law. It is not permitted to use it for any purpose other than
% technical or administrative requirements associated with the
% operation of the Internet or in order to contact the domain holder
% over legal problems. You are not permitted to save it electronically
% or in any other way without DENIC's express written permission. It
% is prohibited, in particular, to use it for advertising or any similar
% purpose.
%
% By maintaining the connection you assure that you have a legitimate
% interest in the data and that you will only use it for the stated
% purposes. You are aware that DENIC maintains the right to initiate
% legal proceedings against you in the event of any breach of this
% assurance and to bar you from using its whois query.

Domain: google.de
Domain-Ace: google.de
Nserver: ns4.google.com
Nserver: ns3.google.com
Nserver: ns2.google.com
Nserver: ns1.google.com
Status: connect
Changed: 2007-01-23T00:58:24+01:00

[Holder]
Type: ORG
Name: favo
Address: Hellmundstr. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Remarks: ID #8616
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:45:06+02:00

[Admin-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

[Tech-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Phone: +491717067046
Fax: +49 12126 32863286
Email: info@favo.org
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

[Zone-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Phone: +491717067046
Fax: +49 12126 32863286
Email: info@favo.org
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

Submission + - google.de hijacked

Submitted by Maavin on Monday January 22, 2007 @08:06PM

Maavin writes: It looks like google.de has been hijacked. According to the german domain registry (denic.de) the domain is not owned by Google anymore. Sounds like lots of fun for lawyers.

Submission + - whois google.de

Submitted by Anonymous Coward on Monday January 22, 2007 @07:36PM

An anonymous reader writes: $ whois google.de

Domain: google.de
Domain-Ace: google.de
Nserver: ns1.namesecure.de
Nserver: ns2.namesecure.de
Status: connect
Changed: 2007-01-22T23:53:06+01:00

[Holder]
Type: ORG
Name: Martin Rusteberg
Address: Hellmundstr. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Changed: 2007-01-22T23:49:53+01:00

[Admin-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

[Tech-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Phone: +491717067046
Fax: +49 12126 32863286
Email: info@favo.org
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

[Zone-C]
Type: PERSON
Name: Mario Micklisch
Address: Hellmund Str. 31
Pcode: 65183
City: Wiesbaden
Country: DE
Phone: +491717067046
Fax: +49 12126 32863286
Email: info@favo.org
Remarks: ID #8614
Changed: 2004-10-27T10:46:05+02:00

Submission + - google.de domain pirated??

Submitted by

Anonymous Coward

on Monday January 22, 2007 @07:29PM

Anonymous Coward writes: "hi folks. seems that some really smart guy managed to have the german domain 'guardian' denic.de to tranfer the google.de domain to himself.

Domain query on
http://www.denic.de/de/whois/data.jsp for google.de gives the following results (23/01/07, 00:26 )

Copyright DENIC eG
Domaindaten
Domain: google.de
Letzte Aktualisierung: 22.01.2007
Domaininhaber

Der Domaininhaber ist der Vertragspartner der DENIC und damit der an der Domain materiell Berechtigte.

Domaininhaber: Martin Rusteberg
Adresse: Hellmundstr. 31
PLZ: 65183
Ort: Wiesbaden
Land: DE
Administrativer Ansprechpartner, Technischer Ansprechpartner, Zonenverwalter

Der administrative Ansprechpartner (admin-c) ist die vom Domaininhaber benannte natürliche Person, die als sein Bevollmächtigter berechtigt und gegenüber DENIC auch verpflichtet ist, sämtliche die Domain google.de betreffenden Angelegenheiten verbindlich zu entscheiden.

Der technische Ansprechpartner (tech-c) betreut die Domain google.de in technischer Hinsicht.

Der Zonenverwalter (zone-c) betreut die Nameserver der Domain google.de.

Name: Mario Micklisch
Adresse: Hellmund Str. 31
PLZ: 65183
Ort: Wiesbaden
Land: DE
Telefon: +491717067046
Telefax: +49 12126 32863286
E-Mail: info@favo.org
Bemerkungen: ID #8614
Technische Daten
Nameserver: ns1.namesecure.de.
Nameserver: ns2.namesecure.de.

Might wanna check this out."

Submission + - Google.de captured by domainsquatter

Submitted by

kreegee

on Monday January 22, 2007 @07:18PM

kreegee writes: "One or two hours ago, the german domain-registry denic seems to have made one big mistake: it allowed an owner-change of google.de — it know belongs to some "M. Rusteberg" which uses it to display another search engine. (looks like a scam)"

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