MikeRoweSoft

[colicab-d]

mmmmmmmm free publicity, nothing like a little scandal to get folk on yer site lo, i bet he doesnt have trouble getting work now does he?

think i,ll call myself "lenny you-icks" register a doamin of it and maybe mirror my forums on it lol.

actually, "Mack Oswald Smith@ would be better aand i could registered www.mack-os.com

[MasterMac]

and phpbb too, it seems.

http://mikerowesoft.com/phpbb/

lol @ http://mikerowesoft.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=21

-_-

phpBB : Critical Error

Could not connect to the database

[Vile]

Lol yeah I read about this last night.
Very sad indeed.

/off to register domains www.Gelsoft.com and www.veebulletin.com

[Freddie Bingham]

The kid is the one at fault here. His intention with the domain was to create a domain name that sounded like Microsoft, he has admitted as much and so he *is* going to lose this one. Microsoft has to defend such trademark violations, less they appear to not care and with trademark enforcement, that is everything.

[zaon]

Yeah, I'm totally on microsoft's side here. The fact that this kid, rather than trying to defend his right to own the domain, was making counter offers to milk a corporation for cash is really F'd up. Saying his time for making a few business cards (which he might not even have made) was worth $10,000???... hahahaa, the hell it was.

Now, if when MS made the $10 offer he would have refused it because he genuinely wanted to keep the domain for business or personal uses, that'd be fine. But it seems that this kid feels like he is entitled to cash for the idea of making a domain that rips off someone else's success (in this case, MS's).

But I guess people are donating money to this kid. Hmm... Maybe I should post some "David vs. Goliath - fight the big bad corporation" sob story with a donation link... could use some extra cash for doing nothing HAHAHAHA...

[CeleronXT]

Why does everyone keep saying he wanted $10,000 for it? It was $1,000.

EDIT: Okay, apparently this value varies based on source.

[Zachery]

MS will get the domain regardless unless this kid gets johnny cockran or whatever.

he just wanted 1k, big deal, i wouldnt sell ANY of my domains for less than 20 bucks, but 10 bucks for a play on words. he does have his own business

Mike Rowe Soft(ware) or whatever, its not the kids fault his name sounds like MS.

as far as im concernd he did the right thing to demand more money, i wouldnt just give up the domain for no reason.

[CeleronXT]

One problem with the domain name is the -soft suffix, which implies software, when software is clearly not his area. He may take a bit of a pounding for that, as that further adds to the obviousness that he purposely went after the name to sound like Microsoft (even though he admitted it anyway). They'll probably make the argument that it doesn't even suit his field.

My law teacher said the same today as well. Microsoft will win.

[colicab-d]

no doubt ms will win, i mean hes looking at a bit of a pounding firstly cause its soft and hes a designer, he then asked for $1000 when there was no reason to, aside to see if ms would and sayin nah he had the rite, no he didnt as he probs payed about $5 for it and gets free hsoting from a friend or something, plus hes not loosing $1000 of business from it, if hes lucky he,ll have 2-3 paying clients ashes 17 and not employed, so a 17yr old freelance designer against ms.. yeah hes gonna win, i wonder what kinda lawyer paypal pays for these days??

[Dark Shogun]

Personally I think is Mike guy will when. Even if this guy made the name sound like microsoft. As long as it isn't spelt like it he is fine. The guy isn't even offering the same services as microsoft. That would be like Jelsoft sueing a place another bulletin board company call ebulletin because vbulletin and ebulletin sound alike.

Dark Shogun

[CeleronXT]

Not really. If the other company was "veeBulletin" I think they'd sue, even if it wasn't offering the same services. Now that sounds alike - vBulletin v. eBulletin doesn't (at least not as much).

[Joe Gronlund]

Damn Canadians

[M1th]

Well, who knows.. maybe Jelsoft has already taken [a-z]Bulletin!

[Vile]

Not really. If the other company was "veeBulletin" I think they'd sue, even if it wasn't offering the same services. Now that sounds alike - vBulletin v. eBulletin doesn't (at least not as much).

Hey hey, no taking my idea (j/k)

[CeleronXT]

I wasn't taking it, I was just referring to it..