MISC> [NETGOLD] MICROSOFT: Internet Battle Pays Off for Teen Challenger to Microsoft

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Net Happenings - From Educational CyberPlayGround
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Date: Wed, 21 Jan 2004 12:45:24 -0500 (EST)
From: "David P. Dillard" <jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: Gleason Sackmann <gleason@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [NETGOLD] MICROSOFT: Internet Battle Pays Off for Teen Challenger
  to Microsoft

Subject:  MICROSOFT: Internet Battle Pays Off for Teen Challenger to Microsoft

MICROSOFT: Internet Battle Pays Off for
Teen Challenger to Microsoft

Internet battle pays off for teen challenger to Microsoft
Threatened legal action over Web name
attracts international attention
Norman Gidney
Times Colonist
Canada.com
<http://www.canada.com/search/story.aspx?id=
9b1d9a7f-202b-4edc-afd9-f243b4591f6f>

A shorter URL for the above link:

<http://snipurl.com/3ymv>

"Teenager Mike Rowe's Web site www.mikerowesoft.com
was taken off the Internet Monday, but not because of legal
action by Microsoft Corp.

Too many people were trying to look at his Web site,
similar-sounding to the technology giant's own domain name.

The Langford high school student and part-time Web designer
had to take it down because he could not pay for the extra
bandwidth to keep his site open to all the traffic.

The busy news Web site CNN.com featured his
David-and-Goliath story on its home page Monday.
Rowe said a quarter of a million people tried to look at
his site in 12 hours.

But he wasn't discouraged. All the publicity has generated
Web design business, and his big adversary in cyberspace
was making conciliatory noises on Monday."

-----------------------------------------------

MikeRoweSoft Design
<http://www.mikerowesoft.com/>

:: NEWS :: January 15/2004 ::
Microsoft Corporation vs MikeRoweSoft
My story starts on November 19th , 2003.

I received an email from Smart & Biggar,
Microsoft's Canadian lawyers, informing me
that I have been committing copyright infringement
against Microsoft. They told me that I must transfer
my domain name over to Microsoft as soon as possible.
I was baffled by this email, yet thought it was
funny at the same time. Microsoft was going after
a 17 year olds part time business that he put a lot of
time into just because it has the same phonetic sound
as their company.

I responded to this email saying that I was not ready
to give up my domain name since I had put so much
time and effort into establishing my name, getting my
business cards out and posting my services on the Internet.
If I were to give up my domain, I would lose all the time
and effort I had put into it. I requested that they offer me a
settlement of some sort to help with me losing my business.
A few days later I received an email back from them telling
me that they would give me all of my out-of-pocket expenses
for the domain name, which came to be $10USD.

<snip>

:: Microsoft Updates :: January 19/2004 :: Wow.
Wow, this is amazing. My site this morning went down
because of the massive amounts of visitors coming to my site.
250000 to be exact. My host couldn't handle the bandwidth
so he was forced to shut it it down. I pleaded my case on a
couple message boards and Deafening-urge.net came
through for me with a great offer to host my site.
Many thanks to him.

I have been all around the world and back, I never expected
this type of feedback. I have put up a defence fund so that I
can hire a lawyer to guide me through the process of talking
to Microsoft. I have already received a lot of pledges and
I think each and every one of you for that.

I could never think this could happen,
even in my wildest dreams.

-----------------------------------------------

Microsoft takes on teen's site MikeRoweSoft.com
Monday, January 19, 2004
Posted: 11:34 PM EST (0434 GMT)
Mike Rowe
Microsoft Corporation
Lawsuits
Patents, Copyright and Trademarks

VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) --
It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft.
<http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/internet/01/19/
offbeat.mike.rowe.soft.ap/index.html>

A shorter URL for the above link:

<http://snipurl.com/3z06>

Rowe, a 17-year-old high school senior and Web
designer from Victoria, has angered the software
giant by registering an Internet site with the address
http://www.MikeRoweSoft.com.

"Since my name is Mike Rowe, I thought it would be
funny to add 'soft' to the end of it," said Rowe.

Microsoft, however, is not amused.

It has demanded that he give up his domain name.
In November, Rowe received a letter from Microsoft's
Canadian lawyers informing him he was committing
copyright infringement.

"I didn't think they would get all their high-priced lawyers
to come after me," Rowe said.

He wrote back asking to be compensated for giving up
his name. Microsoft's lawyers offered him $10 in U.S. funds.
Then he asked for $10,000.

-----------------------------------------------

Full articles may be read at the URLs provided for each.

Sincerely,
David Dillard
Temple University
(215) 204 - 4584
jwne@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
<http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NetGold/>
<http://www.edu-cyberpg.com/ringleaders/davidd.html>
<http://www.kovacs.com/medref-l/medref-l.html>

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