Microsoft Takes On Teen Over Web Site

[KingCobra]

~*McoreD*~

Slow down, don't sell your stock. :P

I just thought after looking at the video above that this guy seems like there is nothing he wouldn't do to protect M$. I just assumed he would be the guy that had a call in this M$ mess. Even if he did, I really doubt he would get fired over it.

Sorry if I scared ya.

[~*McoreD*~]

No need to apologize KC.
My bad. Stupid /me.

I just re-read post.

Can't believe I read it first as "someone is going to get fired" and that is "Steve Barmer, 47".

Rgds,
McoreD

[KingCobra]

Sounds like they might reach a deal soon. <_<
I'll bet the deal is only good if this kid Don't Tell Us how much money he received.
Just my guess, we have all seen it too often.

Quote:

:: Microsoft Updates :: January 20/2004 :: CNN Live 
Today at about 9AM PST I was on CNN Live. I never thought it would get this big in my wildest dreams. Thank you for all of the support the last few days.

I will be talking to Microsoft today to discuss clearing this situation up. Please stay tuned to what happens. There has been an article on CNET and ZDNet news regarding Microsoft and how they say that they took me too seriously. All along I have just wanted to prove a point that the small guy can win against the giant corporations. Hopefully people will stick up to what they think is right even if someone bigger than you is behind it.

Code:

http://mikerowesoft.com/

Edit - You know, if he does take a cash payout and don't goto court...
All those people who pitched in money to help him defend himself in court will be
Maybe they will then sue him in a class action lawsuit.

[KingCobra]

For those of you that have not seen the update on his page.

Quote:

Posted by Mike on 01-24-2004 01:18 AM - 6 comments
Sorry there hasn?t been a lot of news posted by me lately, I have been very busy with school, exams, the media, new website and settling with Microsoft.

I will post my opinion on this and my settlement reasons and thoughts shortly.

I would like to thank everyone world-wide for the support I have received from individual people, radio, TV, magazines, etc. This really made THE difference and it would have been impossible without everyone?s support.

Many people would like to know the status of the donations I have received towards my legal fees. This had to be downloaded from PayPal into my bank because someone tried hacking my PayPal account (unsuccessfully, fortunately). As Microsoft has kindly offered to pay my out-of-pocket expenses, these donations will now no longer be necessary. As I have said from the beginning, I was not into this to make money and therefore I would like to offer the following:


Return donations to those who would like their donation back (Minus PayPal fees).

Donate these funds to a terminally ill children?s charity as they could use this much more than I.

Or your suggestions.

I have set up a poll regarding the issue, as seen on the left. If you have another suggestion please make sure your voice is heard and post in either this thread or the poll thread. I will be going with the majority vote at the end of the day on February 14th, 2004 to give everyone the time to make your opinion known and for those who would like a refund.

If you would like your donations returned before hand, please forward your PayPal information to refunds@mikeroweforums.com (Please do not send an email to this address for any other reason). It is easy to check if you have donated, so please do not ask for refund if you did not donate.

I would prefer to deal with this quickly so that it is taken care of to everyone?s satisfaction and I can get on with my new website, schooling, and life.

Thank you to everyone for contributing as that not only made me feel better, knowing I would have some funds for lawyer fees if needed, but also likely showed that I had some resources available to fight this if it would have been necessary.

I look forward to sharing the future with you on these new message boards. I will be posting regularly to keep in touch.

Yours truly,
Mike Rowe

Code:

http://mikerowesoft.com/

Sounds to me like he got M$ $MONEY$ and is not going to tell anyone how much.
I signed up as a member on his board so I could post my thoughts of his offer to return the donations or donate them to charity. If you care to, you can view my comments here.

Code:

http://www.mikeroweforums.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=14&perpage=15&pagenumber=2

[DoG]

I just recieved a newsletter with this snippet in :

Code:

* Microsoft has backed down from their hard line stance over a 17 year old
Canadian student's domain name.  The MS lawyers served papers on Mike Rowe
because they claim www.mikerowesoft.com infringes on their copyright. As he
had worked many hours on the site, he asked for some compensation for giving
up his domain, and they offered him the out of pocket expenses he had
incurred - $10.00 (US).  Figuring that two could play the game, he requested
$10,000.00 for the time and effort.  MS went stupid on him, accused him of
intending to sell his domain name to Microsoft for a large cash settlement,
and generated some really bad PR for themselves in the process.

The saga of Mike Morris, who has owned http://www.mikerosoft.ca/ for two
years, is very similar. In this case, Microsoft has left the domain
unchallenged until they came down on Mike Rowe.  Now they have set their
lawyers on him.

Does MS think we are all so stupid that we could possibly mistake either of
these sites for theirs, simply because they SOUND alike???

[I just got the word that Mike Rowe and Microsoft have reached a settlement
- MS will be paying for Mike's out of pocket expenses and throwing in an
X-Box for him to change the name. The site mentions that he will have the
details posted soon.]

(Source: Common Sense Security Newsletter-http://markkaren.com/markkaren/security/)

[richardc2000]

I found this one from
Seattle
_http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/microsoft/archives/001313.html