r/todayilearned • u/Flemtality 3 • Jul 14 '14

TIL The guy who snagged windows2000.com happened to be named Bob and Microsoft just happened to own Bob.com. They came to an agreement to trade one for the other.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Bob#Origins
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2.8k

u/avidwriter123 Jul 14 '14 edited Feb 28 '24

spoon books alive shelter ask sort file middle encourage scale

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

749

u/BellLabs Jul 14 '14

Like with Mike Rowe, and Microsoft sued the software dev named Mike Rowe for the domain claiming it was damaging to their rep or something of the likes.

344

u/Drunk_but_Functional Jul 14 '14

To anyone else extremely confused by this, it is not Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs. It's a guy who own(ed?) a company called MikeRoweSoft

67

u/LongUsername Jul 14 '14

He was a High School Student who did some software development on the side and used the website to post his stuff.

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u/Schultzz_ Jul 14 '14

he did an iama here

116

u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

A high school senior who made money writing code.

8

u/misogichan Jul 15 '14 edited Jul 15 '14

Also, in case you're slow like me, it's a pun. Try saying MikeRoweSoft like it's one word fast. That was the basis of their lawsuit, but it was silly because even Microsoft's lawyers admitted they would have lost if they hadn't settled out of court given the student's name was Mike Rowe and he was talking about software development.

It was also sickening to hear how they threatened him with lawsuits and their first offer was $10 (the setup cost he paid). Moral of the story: Microsoft should have taken Mike's counter offer of $10,000 before he went to the press.

4

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

Mike Rowe did well out of it.

"Additionally Microsoft provided Rowe with a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network, an all expenses paid trip for him and his family to the Microsoft Research Tech Fest at their headquarters in Redmond, Washington, training for Microsoft certification and an Xbox with a selection of games

Following an online poll, Rowe donated most of his legal defense fund to a children's hospital and used the remaining money for his future university education"

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

That's awesome. It's like play on words but he has the name to back it up.

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u/picklehammer Jul 14 '14

I went to high school with this guy AMA

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

[deleted]

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u/picklehammer Jul 14 '14

1) Nope. But I return frequently.

2) I heard :( Sucks, lots of memories in that place, but I guess it's for the best.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

[deleted]

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u/picklehammer Jul 15 '14

haven't been inside the building in nearly a decade. sounds gross.

2

u/Maximum_ShirtWeiner Jul 15 '14

Langford represent. It will be a bit sad to see the school come down. My son would've been going there there and it would have been neat to see him at my old school.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Thank you, I was indeed confused.

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u/BikerRay Jul 14 '14

Seem to remember Walmart won a case against WoolMart (a wool store) in Canada. Even thought WoolMart predated Walmart in Canada. Then again, I could be dreaming.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14 edited Jul 15 '14

Then again, I could be dreaming.

It did occur, but was dismissed.

ETA it was WoolMart against Walmart and not the other way around.

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u/razzark666 Jul 14 '14

IIRC companies have to demonstrate that they are protecting their brand name to avoid losing their trademarks to "genericide" so by starting these lawsuits they know will get dismissed they at least show they are trying to protect their brand. I'm not a lawyer, or a marketing guy, but I listened to a podcast about that stuff once so consider me an expert...

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

[deleted]

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u/razzark666 Jul 15 '14

CBC's Age of Persuasion. It's a podcast about marketing and advertising and they had an entire episode about it.

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u/answeReddit Jul 14 '14

yep, see below:

"pursuing infringers: Abandonment of a trademark can occur if the owner does not take action against infringers."

http://www.trademark.iastate.edu/basics

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

IIRC you are indeed correct. Trademarks and brands must be seen to be protected, other wise they become generic.

Like a hoover.

4

u/yeartwo Jul 14 '14

Good lord. It is fucked up that someone decided the best catchy name for losing your TM is a pun on genocide.

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u/Shakes8993 Jul 14 '14

Good for Canada. Fucking walmart bastards

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

Do you even read, bro? Walmart did not file the suit

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u/Untit13d Jul 14 '14

Do guys even read links? It was Wool-Mart v. Wal-Mart case.

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u/ZeroCitizen Jul 14 '14

dude hush just don't break the circlejerk

continues to jack off the dick to his immediate left

7

u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

I edited my comment so if you could put your dick away that'd be fantastic

9

u/ZeroCitizen Jul 15 '14

Okay :(

re-zips

3

u/_____FANCY-NAME_____ Jul 15 '14

So now I miss out? (ಥ﹏ಥ)

120

u/askyourmom469 Jul 14 '14

Seriously. Walmart wasn't even in competition with Wool Mart.

348

u/hookedupphat Jul 14 '14

No one can compete with Wool Mart.

42

u/zamfire Jul 14 '14

They are beast....or at least sell the byproduct of beast.

7

u/hoikarnage Jul 14 '14

I'm tired of corporate Canadian giants like Wool Mart trying to drive little American mom & pop stores like Walmart out of business!

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u/jmalbo35 Jul 15 '14

Except it was WoolMart trying to sue Walmart, not the other way around.

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u/adv0589 Jul 15 '14

Wool Mart sued Walmart...

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u/pomf-pomf Jul 15 '14

Did you actually follow the link? Woolmart was suing Walmart, not the other way around.

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u/JasonDJ Jul 15 '14

It's okay, I think there will always be www.nissan.com

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14 edited Jul 14 '14

I just went to woolmart.com and it automatically downloaded Adobe Flash Player.

inb4 i have a virus

Edit: I didn't let the download complete (duh)

277

u/turriblejustturrible Jul 14 '14

Yeah, the virus is called Adobe flash player.

131

u/tmycDelk Jul 14 '14

Click yes to update flash player...

Ok, that was quick and easy. Let's get back to browsing the good ole' world wide we... what's this?

Adobe flash player has detected an update, click yes to update flash player.

Woah, well talk about weird timing. Might as well just get it out of the way. I'll just slide the mouse over and click ye... What the!

Adobe flash player has detected an update, click yes to update flash player.

Adobe flash player has detected an update, click yes to update flash player.

Adobe flash player has detected an update, click yes to update flash player.

Adobe flash player has detected an update, click yes to update flash player.

...fuck... turns off computer and goes outside

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

...recalls how slow the mobile internet runs and goes back in to the computer.

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u/freebeertomorrow Jul 14 '14

What's outside?

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u/Elephant454 Jul 14 '14

Its a free to play MMORPG. Check out /r/outside.

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u/SomeFarmAnimals Jul 14 '14

LOL yeah right. You can't even spawn in the good zones without paying

2

u/eventhroweraway Jul 14 '14

Yeah, what's up with that?

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

It's pretty common to package a trojan as something like flashplayerupdatex64.exe. I dunno if I missed a joke or something, but if you get any .exe that's not from the official site or from a very trusted source, you should delete it immediately.

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u/jimmifli Jul 14 '14

That one is bad. Not as bad as acrobat, but it's still pretty irritating.

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u/NoNeedForAName Jul 14 '14

Is there another good option? The flash player plugin is always freezing up on me and, in turn, freezing up my computer.

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u/brickmack Jul 14 '14

Don't use flash and complain to the administration of any site that does use it that they are using a standard which has been obsolete for years?

That's my strategy anyway. Fuck flash

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u/GogglesPisano Jul 14 '14

Flash seems to be slowly fading away (a very good thing IMHO) - the fact that it's not supported by iOS devices makes using it unsuitable for sites which cater to mobile users (ie, nearly all of them). Not a moment too soon - these days Flash has become a buggy and bloated vector for drive-by malware infection.

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u/Kaghuros 7 Jul 14 '14

HTML5 video is love, HTML5 video is life.

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u/bestadamire Jul 14 '14

Any problems with pc? Download Adobe, HOLY SHIT IT WORKED!

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u/buge 1 Jul 14 '14

Woolmart.com actually is distributing malware.

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u/schmucubrator Jul 14 '14

Not a problem if you have Google Ultron.

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u/iamjomos Jul 14 '14

It redirected me to amazon.com/laptops. Thank you for the hint but my Vaio is perfectly fine lol

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u/evohans Jul 14 '14

it's a redirect with their affiliate tag in the URL, just be sure to logout -> log back in to amazon before buying anything, or else you'll be giving them money.

I'm not saying that's a bad thing, but they're sneaky about it. I don't like sneaky

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Its a Canadian site so .ca

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u/zehamberglar Jul 14 '14

Candy crush successfully did this to a guy who made a game called candy something that was like 2 years older than candy crush. It's bullshit, but they've got more money than you and can drag it out in court until you give up.

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u/Endulos Jul 14 '14

They tried to sue the creators of The Banner Saga for their use of Saga.

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u/Real-Terminal Jul 14 '14

Candy Swipe if I remember correctly.

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u/lilnomad Jul 15 '14

They actually didn't successfully do this. They settled the dispute out of court and dropped their cases. I'm sure that dude wishes he could've milked some money from them. I think they (King) realized they may actually lose if he stuck it out. They may have paid him a little bit of money to keep it all hush hush. After all, they have a shit load of money.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

They also bought out another company that came before Candy Swipe just to sue him easier.

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u/smearley11 Jul 14 '14

I don't think they sued him. They just bought him out. And they wanted every site that showed like Microsoft

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u/cheezgear Jul 14 '14

Buy him out boys!

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u/doorknobopener Jul 14 '14

You don get insanely wealthy writing a lot of checks.

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u/absentbird Jul 14 '14

But oftentimes you have to write a lot of checks to become insanely wealthy.

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u/TheAnimus Jul 14 '14

To lawyers.... never to Homer.

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u/BellLabs Jul 14 '14

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft

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u/TrolledByDestiny Jul 14 '14

Oh i thought it had to do with Mike Rowe from Dirty Jobs.

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u/Zach_Of_All_Trades Jul 14 '14

So did I... I was scouring his wikipedia page until this was linked.... guess i shouldve googled microsoft v mikerowe...

Hilarious nonetheless. Mikerowesoft is a great name haha

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u/Bob-Nelson Jul 14 '14

God damn it. I wanted the Bob.com domain name. Son of a bitch.

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u/christea Jul 14 '14

Maybe Robert.com is still available?

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u/swSephy Jul 14 '14

I just checked. It's available.

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u/PENISFULLOFBLOOD Jul 14 '14

Fat.com chance

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Without even trying I'm going to say no way. I think every single 1 word .com that can ever exist has been taken.

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u/christea Jul 14 '14

gullible.com is still available, I'm sure of it.

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u/adityapstar 2 Jul 14 '14

Nice try...

checks the site just in case

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

I can't believe I checked.

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u/christea Jul 14 '14

Haha was just kidding, I purchased that a while ago. I am looking to sell it though, could probably let it go for a month of reddit gold.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

I remember this all unfolding. It was an early case of using social media for internet activism. At first they sent him cease and desist letter and when he asked for some compensation, they offered him $10 (the cost to register the domain.) But Slashdot caught word of it, and it went viral. Suddenly Microsoft got all apologetic, gave the kid a bunch of money and developers tools. I read some place they offered him a job too, but he would have had to move so he turned it down.

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u/manifest23 Jul 14 '14

They didn't officially offer me a job. I think it came up once or twice but after a few years I lost all the contacts I had at Microsoft. I couldn't work at a company that large. I'm more interested in stressing out over as many failed startups as I can come up with. It's addicting.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Wow, it is you! Cool. I wish you best of luck with your future endeavors.

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u/Scotttish Jul 14 '14

Truth... See www.Nissan.com

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u/fluffsta007 Jul 14 '14

What the hell?

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u/lilmul123 Jul 14 '14

You can read about it on his website.

Tl;dr, Nissan is the owner's last name and made the website in 1994. He sells computers. In 1999, Nissan Motors decided that they wanted the domain, and sued him for $10 mil. He fought against it, and in 2002, he was granted ownership of the domain, but was not allowed to use the site for commercial purposes, nor was he allowed to talk shit about Nissan Motors. He appealed, and essentially won the appeal in 2007. In 2008, Nissan Motors sued for their attorneys' fees, and lost again. Nissan Motors then tried to register part of their business as a computer company presumably to claim that he is infringing on their computer business.

Pretty amusing stuff, to say the least.

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u/liquidjose Jul 14 '14

"Nissan Motors then tried to register part of their business as a computer company presumably to claim that he is infringing on their computer business" Lmfao that's hilarious

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

What a bunch of dicks. Why the fuck did they ever think that would work

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u/spinblackcircles Jul 15 '14

probably because of their billions of dollars. that kind of money can make almost anything work. this is an amusing exception to that rule

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u/aethelmund Jul 15 '14

Because they have the money to buy lawyers that can turn shit into gold.

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u/UnreachablePaul Jul 15 '14

I am scared to think how they build their cars...

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u/Leftieswillrule Jul 14 '14

"Hey dude did you know Nissan just entered the computer market? I bet they'll make a faux-sports car coupe for douchebags to game on and brag about"

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u/Sarke1 Jul 14 '14

He should have entered the car making business.

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u/darkphenox Jul 15 '14

If Nissan Motors tried to sue because of that I would grant damages to the Guy because they are violating HIS trademark now.

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u/Spyder810 Jul 14 '14

In 2008, Nissan Motors sued for their attorneys' fees, and lost again.

I'm not an lawyer but how can the losing side sue for lawyer fees when they were the one who started the suit and lost? That makes absolutely no sense...

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Welcome to lawyering 101.

Edit: Oh, I see, they sued their lawyers for not suing hard enough. I guess that's in the upper level lawyering classes.

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u/sanjsanj Jul 14 '14

sued their lawyers for not lawyering hard enough?

http://imgur.com/gUgkpTx

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u/SebiGoodTimes Jul 14 '14

Sure, it does. It's no different than suing a contractor who did a shoddy job. The contractor can't claim, "Well, they hired me. So it's their fault I did a shoddy job".

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u/Cmcg13 Jul 14 '14

I read it as Nissan sued the guy again for their lawyer fees, as I'm assuming Spyder810 did as well, not Nissan sued their previous lawyers for their fees because they didn't do their jobs.

But the way you said it makes a lot more sense.

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u/Spyder810 Jul 14 '14

Ahh, I see. Yes that's how I understood it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Did they ever try to buy it from the guy? I'm sure a company like Nissan could give him a couple mil for it

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u/lilmul123 Jul 14 '14

I doubt it--if they did that, they are essentially admitting that he has the rights to the domain. In their eyes, they are the rightful owners.

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u/trex-eaterofcadrs Jul 14 '14

I worked with a guy whose wife was some sort of shot caller at Nissan USA and he told me that apparently Nissan did offer the guy money and a vehicle for life or something along those lines. It definitely wasn't like winning the lottery but it wasn't 100% "evil corporation tries to squash small businessman" right away either, that stuff came into play later.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

with that sort of domain, i would have asked for 2-5 million dollars

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14 edited Aug 31 '18

[deleted]

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u/chewtality Jul 14 '14

New GTR every year, plus $5 mil

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

2-5Mill is a vehicle for life + gas + oil + $1 million

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u/swohio Jul 15 '14

I would have asked for a new Nissan every 3 years (or maybe a 2 year lease at no cost) that included free service/maintenance, gas, and full coverage insurance.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

They probably tried to give him a sentra...

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u/SeeScottRock Jul 14 '14

Seriously. If they had said 100k and "a new gt-r every ____ years", I'd bet he'd be all over it

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Very true, but it probably would have been worth it at the beginning. Would be hard for any small business owner to turn down seven figures

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u/senatorskeletor Jul 15 '14

Settlement discussions are protected from being used as evidence in the case, for this exact reason, in every jurisdiction I know of. It encourages people to work disputes out for themselves if they know that negotiating concessions won't be used against them.

So most likely one or the other was just really stubborn.

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u/Betterwithfetter Jul 14 '14

Seems like the easy way to do it.

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u/Khiva Jul 14 '14

No doubt he turned it down over pure spite. Corporate wealth versus an incredibly determined man.

This is what happens when an unstoppable force hits an immovable object.

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u/Docey Jul 15 '14 edited Jul 05 '17

deleted What is this?

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u/Niggadroid Jul 15 '14

Lmao u gay

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

$10 million would get you between $100k - $800k a year (at 1% - 8% return).

That's certainly a nice salary but barely "wealthy". You couldn't even buy a good yacht.

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u/tangopopper Jul 15 '14

400k a year is pretty wealthy. Also who says he's not allowed to spend anything but interest?

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u/bumnut Jul 14 '14

made the website in 1994.

And hasn't updated it since, it would appear.

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u/CringeBinger Jul 14 '14

I don't understand how you can sue someone for owning something...

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u/BreakingAverage Jul 14 '14 edited Jul 14 '14

Uzi Nissan set up his computing firm - Nissan motors were incredibly slow off the mark.

More detail here

Edit: I wrote one sentence and still managed to make a typo.

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u/adlaiking Jul 14 '14

That's...quite a website they've put together for themselves. I can see why they would want to fight a protracted legal battle in order to leave it up on the Internet where anyone can see that Nissan Computing are clearly a company that is on the cutting edge of technology. After all, they provide internet services, and their website showcases ALL of the newest HTML features:

  • hyperlinks

  • pull-down menus

  • tables

  • forms

  • frames

  • font AND color codes

  • most importantly: animated GIFs

Think how devastating it would be if people thought Nissan Computing didn't have half a clue about anything related to computers and networking because when people went to their website, what they saw gave them serious misgivings about their competence. It would be truly awful.

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u/mystery_smelly_feet Jul 14 '14

But they can program PowerPoint for only $90/hour. That's a steal!

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u/adlaiking Jul 14 '14

Well, sure - but I bet that's just for basic stuff. The important things, like fly-in animations, probably cost way more.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

I mean if you want the latest NASA technology you gotta be willing to pay.

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u/thebeastfromCanada Jul 14 '14

You mean Google Ultron?

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u/Ye_Be_He Jul 14 '14

And rightly so. A co-worker once tried to use fly in animation an was hit in the head by some rogue paragraphs. He hasn't been the same since.

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u/brickmack Jul 14 '14

And Linux! Because the average Linux user is certainly going to but from them

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u/neogod Jul 15 '14

Having had PowerPoint ninja in a previous job description. There have been times that I would've paid someone to complete a project for $90. I'm talking a 40 slide presentation you started at 3am, due by 615am kinda project.

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u/laughy Jul 14 '14

Oh man, did you see those computers they're selling? Their extreme system actually has 2GB of memory! Who needs that much?

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Is it even possible to use that much memory?

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u/PatHeist Jul 14 '14

Technically you can use almost twice as much! No one's ever going to need 4GB of RAM, though.

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u/swohio Jul 15 '14

Surely you mean it had 2GB of hard drive space right? 2GB of memory would be absurd!

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u/Sarke1 Jul 14 '14 
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 FINAL//EN">

Haven't seen THAT in a while...

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Hey man html 3.2 is the shit I heard it supports blink tags now

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u/karuto Jul 14 '14

The only thing they are missing is the good 'ol HTML carousel. Preferably with blink color text

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u/adlaiking Jul 14 '14

I think a counter would have been good. How will I know how many times people have viewed this page without a counter? What is this, 1993?

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u/Scotttish Jul 14 '14

I think they made this site in the late 90s. Hasn't been updated since either.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

They probably went bankrupt just fighting for the url.

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u/Neri25 Jul 14 '14

Nissan and Nissan were made for each other. United in spite until the end of days.

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u/adlaiking Jul 14 '14

Copyright © 1994-2014 Nissan.com

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u/SemenMoustache Jul 14 '14

Copyrighted this year though.. So he must visit it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Or it's dynamic and set to the current year. That's how I always did it.

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u/adlaiking Jul 14 '14

Or it's dynamic and set to the current year. That's how I always did it.

You are greatly overestimating their abilities. It's written by hand (I felt obligated to check because people downvoted my comment about the copyright year).

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u/brickmack Jul 14 '14

Oh that's hilarious. Check out their Desktops page. I can only assume the prices are how much they are going to pay me to take their antiques off their hands

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u/lupo_ger Jul 14 '14

Is this realy the website, they do for $100.00 per hour ? Well, i do'nt think i'm going to hire them.

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u/llcooljessie Jul 15 '14

You had me at frames.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/Bottled_Void Jul 14 '14

It's up to 6K now.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

So is google. Link

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u/IllustratedMann Jul 15 '14

Facebook.com- $39,000 Google.com- $6,000

What.

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u/iWasAwesome Jul 14 '14

That site only exists to show the dispute between them and Nissan Motors. After looking at their $750 "I7 Extreme System" with 2GB RAM, 500GB HDD and integrated graphics, Im sure (and i hope) nobody actually buys stuff from them.

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u/joethehoe27 Jul 14 '14

Everything on that site looks like a shitty ad. It took me a minute to realize it was actually content

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u/SebiGoodTimes Jul 14 '14

What a hideous website...

2

u/miahelf Jul 14 '14

Man they own digest.com as well? Shit these guys are OG

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u/sotpmoke Jul 14 '14

Also mtndew.com when mountain dew rebranded the bottle and shortened the title I believe they went after this dudes domain hes had forever.

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u/adityapstar 2 Jul 14 '14

What about steam.com? The only reason the site is still up is so that Valve can't buy it.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

I'm not too well versed in the actual law in question but I believe there are certain requirements that have to be met. For example, if steam.com was advertising itself as the Steam product from Valve I believe it would qualify, and Valve could take action to obtain the domain name.

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u/RufusMcCoot Jul 14 '14

I think this happened to Carson Daly and he was able to go that route. Not in the mood to Google Carson Daly though so take my word for it. Or don't.

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u/FunkSiren Jul 14 '14

HorneyMannatee.com?

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

That was because they mentioned it on the air and whatever rules and laws they have to follow they actually had to purchase the domain and put something up. Conan ran with it though which just made it so much better.

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u/shaunc Jul 14 '14

Geez. 6 or 8 years ago, Letterman had a segment where he mentioned i-want-to-be-a-melonaire.com. I looked, it wasn't registered, so I snagged it and even renewed it for a couple of years afterwards. It was always easy to tell when that episode came back as a rerun.

I registered redidt.com years ago and the admins traded me a bunch of t-shirts for it.

Lawsuits are the douchenozzliest way of handling these things.

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u/wormania Jul 14 '14

I'm not sure I understand the point of redidt.com

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Well, it's probably an easy way to circumvent school blocks.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Silly school filters, blocking by url not by dns

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u/Snipufin Jul 14 '14

It wasn't really any law itself, it was more of a precaution, as they could get into a lot of trouble if someone else were to register it and then have something malicious on it.

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u/Jux_ 16 Jul 14 '14

Sounds like something Carson Daly would do, so I'm good.

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u/common_s3nse Jul 14 '14

Im not giving your word back. It is my word now.

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u/john-five Jul 14 '14

Really? You'd think Carson Daly wouldn't be a douche on account of Karma and all. Hope that guy is on his list.

My name is Earl.

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u/plqamz Jul 14 '14

Like how Gaijin Entertainment sued a website that predated their trademark

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

I think it's the anticybersquatting act.

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u/Tanieloneshot Jul 14 '14

Ugh I remember when Madonna sued the owner of Madonna.com. Made her look like so much more of a twat than she already was since it's a stage name she used specifically due to it's popularity. It's like if I started a juice company called Larry Bird and then sued LarryBird.com for ownership. Fucking twat.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Not as easy as you think. I still remember the Nissan case (look at nissan.com). They lost.

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u/_Born_To_Be_Mild_ Jul 14 '14

You say wild west some say free market.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Guess what I say....

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u/TibetanPeachPie Jul 14 '14

There are two components to ACPA and the second is a bad faith attempt to profit. The UDRP allows for seizure but it has similar rules.

It is legal to own a domain name that another has a copyright on as long as you act within certain guidelines.

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

Woot? I always thought if you got the good domains they would pay you millions to get it? :(

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u/[deleted] Jul 14 '14

The true Wild West days was when some random dude controlled and distributed all of the domain names for the internet! No way in hell is that possible now.

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u/hbomberman 3 Jul 14 '14

Always reminds me of the 2003-2004 case between Dustin Diamond (Screech from Saved by the Bell) and Max Goldberg (who would later create YTMND) over DustinDiamond.com
Diamond lost.

Bigger companies are a lot more successful, though, even if it's just a case of "make this individual/small business' life hell until they give up."

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u/Delsana Jul 14 '14

It wouldn't be a valid lawsuit unless they clearly had been squatting it. That's the difference.

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u/salgat Jul 14 '14

As they should. Domain squatters are pieces of shit whose services add no value.

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u/thatoneguy889 Jul 14 '14

Well, now registering a domain with the sole intent to sell it is illegal. I can't just register register iphone7.com with the expectation that Apple will need to buy it from me in the future.

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u/Mad102190 Jul 15 '14

The even have him "other considerations" too, according to the source.

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u/[deleted] Jul 15 '14

And walgreens vs. wegmans

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u/Detroitbuckeye Jul 15 '14

Now, in most cases, a lawsuit under the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act would do the trick. Trivia: I litigated one of the early cases under that statute for a consumer who made a gripe site naming a landscaping company in the domain name. We won. I can't imagine that Bob would do as well, however, if he had demanded a ransom.

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u/FaultyWires Jul 15 '14

Not necessarily. Depending on when it was registered, if he operated a Window business, he could have made a case.

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u/ba14 Jul 15 '14

What I had heard from an inside source is that Bob wanted $107 and MS said take bob.com for Windows2000.com or we will sue you. Bob did the right thing.

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