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One Canadian Mike Folds, Another Stands Firm |
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 It seems there is a somewhat anti-climactic ending to the mikerowesoft vs. Microsoft tale. As "reported" here last week, Mike Rowe needed a domain name for his fledgling web design site and he registered mikerowesoft.com, eliciting many people to chuckle appreciatively at the clever name. Microsoft however was not as thrilled, and the big giant went stomping from Redmond to Mike Rowe's Canadian home, demanding that he turn over the domain or it would blot out the sun (ok, that's not exactly how it went down, I'm paraphrasing here).
Instantly Mike Rowe was a celebrity. Well, a geek celebrity at least. Quite a stir was caused and there was a huge groundswelling for the small guy in this David vs. Goliath story. (That's usually how these things go, or so I'm told.) Microsoft then found that the situation was turning into a PR nightmare, so they quickly backed off and said it had taken things a bit too seriously, according to this ZDnet article.
Well anyway, according to this ZDnet article, the matter is settled. As in 'settled out of court'. The terms? Microsoft will give Mike Rowe an XBOX (and supposedly whatever games he wants) and a subscription to the Microsoft Developer Network Web site. Microsoft will also pay for a Microsoft certification course, will send Mike and the whole fam-damily to the Microsoft Research Tech Fest at Redmond, and will pay for a new domain and will redirect traffic to it.
Which I guess is good, if you happen to like Microsoft and want a job there eventually, right? Right? Ok, maybe not, and perhaps young Mike should have held out for more. But as Mike says, "I have a budget of about $1,000 to spend on lawyers while Microsoft has a billion. If I happened to lose after everything I would have to pay the lawyers myself, which would make the rest of my life horrible".
Mike's new site is up at http://mikeroweforums.com/ if you want to go over there and yell "SELLOUT!", give words of encouragment, or just talk about fishsticks.
For those who think this ending is a little sad, being that the big corporate bully won - well, the battle may be lost - but the war is still on! There's another Mike who actually didn't fold like a wet leaf when Microsoft told him to take his Website down.
That's right, according to The Register, Mike Morris (another one'a them thar ruckus raisin' Canucks') has the domain name mikerosoft.ca, and is doing his fellow Canadians proud by standing firm:
"I do not want to sell the domain to Microsoft - mostly because of principal. I run a non-for-profit Web site based on my own name that does not reference Microsoft Corporation in any way."
Mike Morris is currently accepting donations, suggestions, and apparently legal counsel. So if you want to help out in a pitched battle against a mega-corporation that thinks that anything that sounds like their name should be owned by them, now is the time.
Or you could register your very own Microsoft-sounding domain name! The options are plentiful: mycrowesoft.net, mye-croa-saft.com, mike-grows-soft.org, the possibilities are endless! Plus you just might get an XBOX.
"The battle of Helm's Deep is over, the battle for Middle Earth has just begun."
-- Gandalf
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January 27 2004, 11:48 AM EDT, by
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Comments:
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| Jack Armstrong |
1/27/04, 12:33 PM EDT |
"The battle of Helm's Deep is over, the battle for Middle Earth has just begun."
actually, that's off by a small bit. it's actually "The battle for Helm's Deep is over; the battle for MIddle earth is about to begin."
:D
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| stickman67 |
1/27/04, 6:54 PM EDT |
Well, I'm behind Mike Rowe 93% (part of me still screams "Bastard! Sellout!", even though the nicer part of me thinks better).
He never said he didn't want to sell the rights of his domain name to MS, but that he wanted more than the offensively paltry $10 that they offered him. And he got it. So who loses?
By the way, who said you could use MyCrowSoft.com? That was my idea! Either pay me $10,000,000 in used $20 bills at Philly Station on midnight of January 30, 2009, or get off my porch!
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| Jonahan |
1/28/04, 10:11 AM EDT |
Dammit Jack! That's what I get for going with text I pulled from another site instead of what I remembered! ;)
And sorry Stickman, we were going to give you credit, but then we got a case of the Microsofts and decided to just take your cool idea and pretend we came up with it. We tried to make it suckier, but just couldn't. I guess we're not too good at this. :(
But really, we shoulda put a "Thanks Stickman" in there as that was what inspired the whole poll. =)
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| Rick |
1/28/04, 11:34 AM EDT |
Hell, I'm glad he got anything from them, I think he's the winner. He still has a domain and a lot more. Like he said, he didn't have to money for lawyers to get more out of them.
I just wish he wanted to be a Mac developer, that way he could have gotten MS to pay for the Apple Developer membership instead. I just think that would be funnier. Maybe even get a G5 out of it, a 12" PowerBook and an extra copy of Panther too, just because it's MS, that's what I'd do!
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| stickman67 |
1/28/04, 5:56 PM EDT |
Awww, Jonahan! Now you done gone and made me cry!
It's alright! You can stay on my porch as long as you want, ol' buddy. And keep the dang name. I were just funnin' with it anyways.
I don't know why you're so good to me. I ain't worthy ...
*Sob!*
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| MacconverT |
1/29/04, 8:03 AM EDT |
Looks like his (Mikersoft) 15 minutes is up as well, as the site has been re-directed. Not sure what to make of all this except that I just can't believe these guys are as pure and "ah shucks" honest as they are making them selves out to be. The "soft" part in their domains is my stickling point. They seem to have a little bit of "Bushizm" in them. (I know, I made it up, but how about trading off the label of the honest car salsemen to the honest Bush!)
I haven't seen too many www.apull.com's out there. Come to think of it, what a great idea!
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