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LOL - MS versus www.MikeRoweSoft.com

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Microsoft should just pay him the amount that he's asking. To them it is just pocket change. They should get over it and move on.
 
Microsoft is too huge for their own good. On one side of the company, you got a PR guy trying to boost corporate image, on the other side, you got a bunch of crazy lawyers trying to mug a pour kid into giving away his ligitimate domain name. Bullies! ^_^

What's hilarious, is that the legal fees needed to put this kid out of business would be at least 10 times the legitimate $10,000 they could have given him. But hey, lawyers got to create feuds to fuel their own work load... and banck account. catching!

I can imagine the conversation:

* * * * *

Lawyers: Mr. Gate, we've got this kid up there in Canada running a website with a name taht could confuse consumers. (more than we already oursleves)

Billy: Huh? Is this a bad thing?

L: YES! It's evil. If you don't stop him, microsoft is doomed.

B: Well, OK. How much would it cost us to buy him off the web?

L: He's asking 10 grands.

B: *Chuckles* give him a hundred Grands. I spend more than that daily on wireless musical toilet paper, especially on chili day.

L: Not a good idea sir. This is not about money, it's about justice! Caving in to his demand would encourage future generation of kids to change their name to phoneticly-similar-to-microsoft names and build sites so they can rip you off of your profits.

B: Well... ok... what do you suggest.

L: Let us handle this kind overlord. We'll offer the kid $100. This way, we can be sure he'll refuse our offer... wait, make that $10. After that, we'll enter a long... lllllloooooonnnngggg processus of harassement and intimidation. Hopefully, in a few months or years, he will finally give up the name.

B: I see.

L: And if that does'nt work, we'll simply give the guy $10,000.

B: Well... Ok.

L: We'll send you our fees on a weekly basis sir. Glad... *giggles* VERY glad to be doing business with you.

* * * * *
 
Hmmm... is it just me or is the site shut down now...?

When i tried to access it it says

"Forbidden
You don't have permission to access / on this server."

note: the URL says http://www.MikeRoweSoft.com/
:confused:
 
The website works for me. I read some of his summary and it does sound pretty insulting that Microsoft is strong arming the guy like this. He put a serious amount of time and effort into this and MS is getting offensive and offered $10? The guy went out of his way to make business cards, get word out, and establish himself and that seems ridiculous. Hopefully people will see this and realize that at some point they will have to stand up against large corporations like this who are just out to be the equivalent to schoolyard bullies out to steal everyone's milk money.
 
Click Here to see it on Google's Cache

This has really blown up is microsofts face.

I think the fact that he's 17, a student, and the site is about his game clan, design biz, and some school stuff really makes microsoft have NO case against him.

I could see if he was selling software, or it was a anti microsoft site that had the same page layout ect.

Sometimes when I'm looking for a major company's web site ill just type the name in as the URL and on some sites it says something like "are you looking for the car manufacture?" And there is a link. Thats all microsoft had to do. Not even have a lawyer contact him. Just ask him if he would provide a link on his page to their site. :rolleyes:


When will Microsoft ever learn friendly buisness practices?! :mad:
 
Reason # 342 to switch.

If I were Mr. Rowe, I would fight, and when I won I would give my pro-bono attorney some of the $10K to change my name to Steve Jobs or Mack Intosh. :)
 
I wrote this to him:

My gut feeling is that MS will bleed you dry with its horde of incredibly expensive lawyers. I hope you can find a pro-bono, or folks pony up some cash.
My humble advice is to NEVER say anything negative about them on the site, you might even do better without ANY mention of the litigation at all. Just keep it the Mike Rowe web site and proceed with business.
Good luck!


Trouble is, BOTH e-mail addresses are gone!
I'm sure hotmail, owned by MS, killed his account.
 
They are not doing this to piss of this boy. They are doing this because people might think his site is some how related to MS. If you get the domain name ebae.com or bestby.com best believe you would be shut down. Go ahead.....try it. The fact that he's 17 dont mean jack, the RIAA are sueing people no matter what age they are. People are looking at this from a personal point of view, which you cant, you have to look at it from a business point of view. But with the majority of people here being kids, I can understand that.
 
Originally posted by 1macker1
People are looking at this from a personal point of view, which you cant, you have to look at it from a business point of view. But with the majority of people here being kids, I can understand that.
Click to expand...

1macker1 - you couldn't possibly be a bit more patronising, could you?

Its a valid point you raise, but surely a distinction has to be made between someone who is using a similar sounding domain name to impersonate the company involved, and someone who is using it legitimatly.

Rather than go heavy on him, surely it would be better business practise to negotiate an agreement with this lad- for instance they could ask him to clearly disassociate his website from Microsoft.
 
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