Sometimes the good guys win. I just happened across this Wikipedia article, which I found interesting:
Microsoft vs. MikeRoweSoft was a legal dispute between Microsoft and a Canadian Belmont high school student named Mike Rowe over the domain name “MikeRoweSoft.com”.[2] The case received international press attention following Microsoft’s perceived heavy-handed approach to a 12th grade student’s part time web design business and the subsequent support that Rowe received from the online community.[3] A settlement was eventually reached, with Rowe granting ownership of the domain to Microsoft in exchange for Microsoft products and training.[4]
Frankly, I thought the domain name was pretty clever. And bless his heart, the blogger/internet community came to his aid when he began publicizing his problems with the software giant:
Rowe went to the press, creating publicity for the case and garnering support for his cause, including donations of over $6,000 and an offer of free advice from a lawyer.[11][5] At one point Rowe was forced to take down his site after it was overwhelmed by around 250,000 page views over a period of twelve hours, only managing to get the site back up after changing to a service provider with a higher capacity.[12] The case, portrayed as a David versus Goliath struggle by the media, characterized Microsoft in a negative light. The resulting bad publicity was later described as a “public relations mess.”[13][11] The public showing of support that Rowe received was credited with “softening Microsoft’s stance,” leading to an eventual settlement.[1]
And he put the settlement money to good use:
Following an on-line poll, Rowe donated most of his legal defense fund to a children’s hospital and used the remaining money for his future university education.
The kid sounds smart and gutsy. I wonder if he’s related to the guy who gave that awesome TED talk about the value of hands-on work(ers)? The guy who does fish squeezing and poop collecting?
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.