VANCOUVER, British Columbia (AP) -- It's Microsoft versus Mike Rowe-soft.
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 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.
COME ON. How ridiculous is this? Is Microsoft not happy enough with their oligarchic control of the computer world that they have to bully a 17 year old kid? Do they feel so threatened that they have to take something as trivial as a kids' REAL name and say he can't use it for a web site domain? I think that kid is pretty industiral. Really cute world play there. They call it a copyright infringment (although I am not so sure how that would stand up in a court because of the different spellings). They could have let it slide, but the real reason they are making a big deal is because this kid is jeopardizing their feelings of omnipotence.
Posted by peninah at January 19, 2004 07:29 PMI would suggest exchanging "oligarchic" for "totalitarian" and "omnipotence" with "ubiquitiousness."
You might want to subscribe to the Dictionary.com Word of the Day (http://dictionary.reference.com/wordoftheday/list/ - they have RSS as well), as I do. Their serendipitous choice of words will give you a yen for neoteric statements. No need to get obstreperous or bilious. Your thoughts are much more galvanic when they are irenic. Gustatory.
Posted by: Greg at January 20, 2004 11:25 AM