"Microsoft to take over MikeRoweSoft.com
Teen settles with tech giant for, among other things, an Xbox
Monday, January 26, 2004 Posted: 10:18 AM EST (1518 GMT)

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A Canadian teenager whose Web site address bothered a certain giant software company will find a new home on the Web, Microsoft Corp. said Friday.

Mike Rowe, a 17-year-old resident of Victoria, British Columbia, has agreed to pick a new name for his Web site, currently called www.mikerowesoft.com, said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler.

Mike's father, Kim Rowe, confirmed that his son had struck an agreement with Microsoft. Rowe said his son could not be interviewed Friday because he had to study for final exams.

Mike also is working feverishly to put together a new Web site, his father said.

Desler said Microsoft would cover Mike's costs of changing to a new Web site and redirecting traffic from the old site. Microsoft also had agreed to help the teen get Miclrosoft certification training and other gifts, including an Xbox game console, he said, and has invited Mike to a technology festival in March at the corporation's headquarters in suburban Redmond.

"We wanted to do this in a way that's going to foster his interest in technology," Desler said.

In a posting on his Web site earlier this month, the teen said he received a 25-page letter from Microsoft informing him he was committing copyright infringement, and threatening legal action. "
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It musta have been the X-box that clinched the deal :)
-CW


read from the source<

"among other gifts"

was one of those gifts a promise to not have him scalped?

and just what final exams would he be having in January?

Yes, let's foster interest in technology by teaching young people that the best way to get ahead is NOT to be innovative or even clever, but to buy out the competition and maintain a manopoly over anything that even looks like it might kind of sort of in a way remind you of the monopolistic bastards that perpetuate this bullshit.

What I'd like to know is how they got a copyright on the name Microsoft. Wouldn't this be a trademark dilution issue?

Copyright is out of control and, as a result, is now virtually useless.

Thanks to the good ol' RIAA, who is responsible for starting all of this mess becuase they were worried about mp3s.

What a bunch of pricks.

captdunsel my high school always had exams in jan

I wonder if there were any Cash awards involved. Microsoft darn near got their tail burned on this and like any corporation does, threw money at the issue to make it go away.

BTW Code, projects done. contact me

What a sell out. Fuck Microsoft. I would have register MikeRoweSoft as a new company name. Im so sick of people selling out. What ever happened to morals.

Correction

What a sell out. Screw Microsoft. I would have register MikeRoweSoft as a new company name. Im so sick of people selling out. What ever happened to morals.

The Microsoft action makes perfect sense. Mike Row did not "sell out". He made a pretty wise choice. Microsoft is already facing pressure on many fronts. Watching a teenager get sued for trying to start his own company doesn't sound good to me. I'd rather see Microsoft give him the tools to be even more innovative in the future, which is probably what he'll do.

Mike Rowe has a bright future.

:-:~ Phantom

It's all about the X-Box lmao

Haha!
Microsoft is jerking ...
Yep, it seems to me that they don't want to risk this teenager converting his site into "BOYCOTT MICROSOFT" webcenter. They are far wiser than RIAA and don't want a 'poster child' in the campaign that could be directed against them. So (in my view), they want to 'caress' him, in order to wipe out his anger.

Cheerz,
Critto

Perhaps he will mod the xbox to run linux.

The name "MikeRoweSoft.com" was not copyrighted when I did a search at the copyright office the other day. And, though I didn't do a trademark search, my experience tells me that it is extremely unlikely that Microsoft, long before Mike Rowe got his web site, registered the trademark, MikeRoweSoft.com...

I mean, did they register trademark on :
MyCrowSoft.com
MykeRowSoft.com
MaiKroSoft.com
MyCrowsOft.com
etc....
NO....

Obviously, they just let him know they would tie him up in court forever, and break him financially, and let him know opposing them would be a "career limiting decision"...and after showing him the club...offered a few carrots...

Shameful bullying!



will do around the end of the day comp....

Hmmmm...how about...

BuildGates.com
BillGatez.com
BillGaytz.com
BillGaeTs.com
BuildGays.com
BillGhatez.com
and on and on....

I dont understand Code - if there are soo many before him - why the challenge the kid? I dont see how he out of all people would pose a problem.

Ghost....His was the most creative!

those weren't actual sites...just examples of what people could reserve as domain names....
but there are sites like "windoze", "microshaft.org" and similar plays on the microsoft, windows theme...and they are still in business...so the answer is, I don't know..except maybe picking on kids like Mike Rowe and Brianna LaHara is just how pitiful MicroCrap and the RIAA are...

captdunsel: I had finals two weeks ago, end of the semester is in January, and due to the block schedualing, all my year long classes are only one semester, so there are finals in January.

Actually they couldn't force him to give it up, but they are giving him something that he obviously must really want and he is willing to take their offer... Cough: a :cough: high :cough: paying :cough: job :cough: with :cough: Micorsoft :Cough

American Corporations.......the NEW MAFIA. And ooh....I should really add the overseas corporations as well, especially those that are members of the RIAA. New World Order = mafia?

For those of you who read 1984(Don't read ahead if you haven't finished the book!)

~SPOILERS AHEAD~



Remember when Winston was taken into room 101 and tortured? He was forced to experience his worse fear, and then embraced by O'Brien. O'Brien told them they do not kill deviants, they convert them and then kill them. This situation seems to have a lot of parallels. They used their clout to scare this teenager with a lawsuit, and then went further when he said he would sell his site for 10,000 dollars, by having their lawyers state he was only in it for the money. After threatening him, they make a nice deal in order to show their kindness and forgiveness...aka trying to brainwash him. Perhaps its bit of a stretch, but I certainly see parallels.

What I want to know is where the copyright infringement is. The only similarity is in the pronounciation and technically that isn't infringment of any kind. Or am I wrong?

beats me.....you can't declare it copyright infringement if you don't have the copyright ....and in fact, a duly diligent search at the copyright office showed, as of two days ago..NO one registered mikerowesoft.com as a registered copyright

I'd told em to stuff it.

They bothered his ass during final exams? I'd kick Bill's lawyers in the head.

X-Box? Screw that. I'll give you my domain for a PS2.

"you can't declare it copyright infringement if you don't have the copyright"

Yes you can. I don't know how or why, but they just did it. And the UK knighted his worthless punk ass for it.

Fuck Bill Gates.

I have an xbox and after 2 years it's about ready to take a crap on me.. The DVD drive that thompson makes for it has known problems and when I called them they basically told me they would repair it for 100 bucks.. yeah right ... great customer service.. Don't get me wrong, I love the Xbox, but that was lame of them.. I'll just put my own DVD drive into the damn thing.. For being a multibillion dollar company, they sure suck at customer service!!

So they go after MikeRoweSoft.com (a website that was not even ABOUT windows) but they don't seem to care about this website: fuckmicrosoft.com or this microsuck.com

Both names point to the same site, an anti-ms page.

I don't see their reasoning in only going after him. Fuckmicrosoft.com is much more of a threat to them.