Well nin, according to you, ICANN would take the domain and give it to the guy (Mike Row).

There may not be a law, but it's enough that ICANN or whoever will take the domain name away and give it to "the rightful owner". That's how celebs get their domain names back, after someone has already registered them.

http://www.neworderonline.com/

Well, from MS' perspective, yes. They'll try and claim he's trying to make money with THEIR name.

But what I'm trying to say, is that is this illegal? Is there a law somewhere (and this is where it gets really grey, as we're dealing with an issue that spans borders) that says that it is wrong for joe blow to try to make money off of another company's name via a domain name?

PZ
------------
Reading: Welsh, Dalheimer, and Kaufman's "Running Linux"
Listening To: Sam Roberts "We Were Born In A Flame", Treble Charger "Detox", Sum 41 "Does this Look Infected"

Either way, does it matter if he's trying to make money of the domain name?

Well, from MS' perspective, yes. They'll try and claim he's trying to make money with THEIR name.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with you. It's HIS name, and he should be able to do whatever he wants with the domain. But that's the angle MS will try in court, now that he's said "$10,000."

http://www.neworderonline.com/

Most Mc D's have crappy service anyway... that and they either don't salt there fries or oversalt them to the point your on the verge of a heartattack.

I always go back to the places that have good service, and to this day if I ever ran a buisness and needed a top notch PR person I'd still higher Betty from the Taco Bell across the Street in Indy. she's a heavy set older lady, but she is all personality. Talk about a person who could get a smile outta anyone.

RIAA is like the paranoid despot. Heaven forbid they stop trying to gouge consumers and be at all reasonable. People know they're being gouged and will respond accordingly. When they stop gouging, people will stop pirating (most people).



"The ability to quote is a serviceable substitute for wit."
- W. Somerset Maugham

When in doubt, say nothing.


My god, the RIAA is the new Republics... oh thats not good.

So now the RIAA is just going to hack into our computers, check for mp3's and whatever, then call our ISP and have them say "yup he did it?"

This comment was edited on Jan 19, 15:40.

I agree with nin. The idiot shouldn't have tried to sell it.

<devils advocate>
But the motivation behind legislation governing trademarked names is to protect a party from being unduly affected by the actions of another.

I'll give you an example that they gave us in Business Law class. There was this guy in England (I think it was England) who's last name was MacDonald (note the "Mac" and not "Mc"). Anyways, this MacDonald fella decided to open up a burger restaurant, and named it after himself -- "MacDonalds". The problem was that lets say that a customer walks into MacDonalds and gets lousy service, gross food, etc, etc, then they'll talk to their friends saying "never go to MacDonalds, they suck". And as such there is a potential for having a negative impact on the well known fast food chain of the very-similar sounding name. McDonalds Corp ended up suing Mr MacDonald, and if I remember correctly won their case.

</end devils advocate>

Now, of course, I agree completely with you, that MS is being rediculous on this one, as Mike Rowe is a web designer, whereas Microsoft is a software company. Two different (although not entirely unrelated) businesses.

MS emailed the guy and said they'd pay him whatever he paid to register it. He countered with $10,000. At that point, MS then has a case that he's trying to profit from the name.

I saw this story on the local news (I live just outside of where he lives), and they reported that MS offered him $10, which was in fact less than what he paid to register it. That's when (feeling insulted) he made the joke counter-claim of $10K. Either way, does it matter if he's trying to make money of the domain name?

PZ
------------
Reading: Welsh, Dalheimer, and Kaufman's "Running Linux"
Listening To: Sam Roberts "We Were Born In A Flame", Treble Charger "Detox", Sum 41 "Does this Look Infected"
This comment was edited on Jan 19, 15:19.

I read the article, and it has an odd twist. MS emailed the guy and said they'd pay him whatever he paid to register it. He countered with $10,000. At that point, MS then has a case that he's trying to profit from the name.

So, if he'd kept his mouth shut, he'd have a lot better chance of hanging onto it...

http://www.thecrystalmethod.com/

Where the hell does microsoft think they are gonna take this? Its his name, they cant do jack shit, adding soft at the end doesnt make it copyright infringement. These big companies need someone to smack them around more often, so they stop filling our courts with bullshit like this.