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Microsoft is using extortion moans typo-squatter
MORE PROOF that there must be something in the water that innoculates Americans from recognising irony has surfaced in California.
Alf Temme was sued by Microsoft last month over his thriving typo-squatting business. He bought domain names such as "ho0tmail.com" and "hot5mail.com," then redirected Hotmail users to his company's website, fastexercise.com, where he sells expensive exercise machines.
Temme said that he would have surrendered the domain names if the Vole had written a big enough number on a cheque.
In its lawsuit the Vole wanted the domain names and $2.4 million to go away.
Last week, however, Temme got a letter from Microsoft's law firm, Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe, with a settlement offer of $500,000.
Temme moaned to the Seattle PI that what Microsoft is in effect trying to do is put a small company of eight employees out of business. Then without the slightest trace of irony he claimed, "It's extortion! All they could have wanted to do was get the domain names."
However Teme claims that he is not an "evil Typo dude", he is actually just trying to flog his $14,615 ROM Time Machine exerciser. Over the last two decades he has sold 5,300 of them.
Teme said that misspelled domain names are prime real estate. "It's just like if you were to buy some property next to Disneyland," he said last month. "Put a hotel on it, you should not be able to get sued for 'property squatting.'"
But unfortunately for him there is an Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act in the US, which says Temme's typo-squatting is illegal.
Thus, however Temme puts his spin on it, he is a criminal who makes money off the back of a Microsoft trademark. In short it is extortion.
If the Vole wants money because of his antics it might be extortionate but that only highlights his original extortion.
It is a bit like a hacker claiming that the coppers illegally hacked into his network to convict him. µ
Tags: Friction
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How sad is to see big corporations using lawsuits as a tool to drive the price down of what they want, or as a weapon to destroy or bend a competitor. If they wanted the sites why didnt they buy them before. I think consumers should asociated in big groups that lobby politicians the same way that the big corporations do. And have lawyers that will defend our interest in a general manner (when a new law or rule that will affect us) or in specific cases when the big corporations attack a small company or person. If the behaviour of those corporations is shady then we consumers should judge personally and punish the corporation by not buying or using their products.
Please edit my comment my english is not very good
If the dude was offering an email service, or anything remotely similar to the stuff Microsoft does, I can see the problem. But he is offering exercise equipment. There is no possible way that a person smart enough(dumb enough?) to go to the Microsoft site would think that they had gotten there. 100% of those people would realize they'd made a typo and it would be their choice to leave. Free advertising because of Microsoft? Absolutely. But since there's no reason to assume he's connected to the Microsoft brand, no reason for him to need to leave. At the worst, he should have to put up a disclaimer that says he is not affiliating with the company he is "squatting."
These kinds of lawsuits are just silly, and I don't see how it isn't extortion to perform this lawsuit, except possibly for the disclaimer I mentioned.
Disneyland, indeed, and Microsoft is the evil Captain Hook. Run, Peter, run!