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January 19, 2004
Homonymal Property
That first word should be pronounced "how minimal," as in "how minimal must a person's 'infringement' be before Microsoft's lawyers come calling?"
According to this Vancouver Sun article, pretty minimal. Apparently, there's a Canadian teen, Mike Rowe, who purchased the domain MikeRoweSoft.com, and uses it to feature his design work. You can imagine what happened next, right? The lawyers come calling, and despite the fact that he's spent the last year designing and developing his site, they offered him a whopping $10 to transfer the domain to them.
All things considered, Mike seems to be pretty good-natured about the whole thing. And of course, MS seems bound and determined to confirm everyone's worst opinions of them. Should be a fun story to keep an eye on.
[Speaking of which: Microsoft says it may have been overaggressive in threatening Web entrepreneur Mike Rowe over the name of his Web site, Mikerowesoft.com. (from News.com)]
Posted by cgbrooke at January 19, 2004 01:26 AM