Microsoft takes on 17 year old, Michael Rowe says his website 'mikerowesoft.com' illegal squatting

[Argo]

As Microsoft has kindly offered to pay my out-of-pocket expenses, these donations will now no longer be necessary.

That's pretty cool of them. I'd do exactly the same thing if I was them. :beer: to MS

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: DragonMasterAlex
Microsoft makes good with the kid!

[snip: new quote]

So much for the "Microsoft is evil" crowd.

Lamers.

Jason

Impressive. Especially when you consider the name MikeRoweSoft will really do nothing for MS. They must have really had a belief that that domain name could hurt them....

The guy really profitted from this whole ordeal more than anything (although that was not his intention and if you read his website some geeks are accusing him of that).

Of course it could be safe to say MS needed to do something 'nice' since this made national news.

Å

i doubt the domain could hurt them. I'm betting all the negative backlash they got was far worse.Now they are trying to look like a good guy. which they are.

what is it actually costing them to do this? everything is MS related so i doubt very much. but in the court of public opinion they are winning big. This was a great move on there part. going from a big bad mean business to a nice one.

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: waggy

i doubt the domain could hurt them. I'm betting all the negative backlash they got was far worse.Now they are trying to look like a good guy. which they are.

what is it actually costing them to do this? everything is MS related so i doubt very much. but in the court of public opinion they are winning big. This was a great move on there part. going from a big bad mean business to a nice one.

In my own psychotic eye and if I had financial backing, if I owned MikeRoweSoft.com I could unleash a barrage of TV and Radio ads that could paint a pretty bad picture to them.

MikeRoweSoft and MicroSoft sound no different on air....if I said it, who would the average person think I was talking about.

Å

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: DragonMasterAlex
Microsoft makes good with the kid!

Microsoft has reached an agreement with Mike Rowe, the Canadian teenager who was using the Web site mikerowesoft.com in alleged violation of the Microsoft tradmark. Here are the details, as relayed to us by Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. In exchange for Mike turning over the mikerowesoft.com domain to Microsoft, the company has:



Agreed to help direct any traffic from mikerowesoft.com to Rowe's new Web site (which he's currently working on) to make sure he doesn?t lose any business. The company will pay any out-of-pocket expenses related to this change, including cost associated with changing over to the new url and any other expenses. (The Rowe family is now calculating those expenses.)


Invited Mike and his family on to the Microsoft campus for the company's Microsoft Research Tech Fest in March. The company will pay for the travel and accommodations. No promises, but it's possible he could meet Bill Gates, depending on the Microsoft chairman's schedule, Desler said.


Agreed to pay for Mike to get Microsoft Certification training. Depending on which courses he chooses, this could lead him to become a certified support technician, or system administrator, or something along those lines.


Agreed to give Mike a subscription to MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network Web site, with various tools for developing software around Microsoft products.


Agreed to give Mike an Xbox game system, complete with a number of games of his choosing.


Said Desler: "It is a story of a young, bright kid starting a business, came up with a creative domain, and I think our initial step was maybe perhaps a bit too impersonal. Once we understood the circumstances around it, we wanted to work things out in a way that would be fair to him." He said the company also wanted "to do things in a way that would foster his interest in technology."

Said Kim Rowe, Mike's father: "It's nice that this is over, so that he can go back to being Michael. He still has school and if he fails, that's six months of his life gone. He's also setting up his new Web site so that things can get zipped over there quickly and it will be ready and stuff, because he's going to get a whole whack of hits."

Mike, in a brief phone interview this afternoon, said he feels "good" about the way things turned out. "I'm just looking forward to all the media going away," he said. "I'm pleased that everything is over and we settled."

Full Story

So much for the "Microsoft is evil" crowd.

Lamers.

Jason

The kid selling out for a few games and some bullsh!t worthless MS I'm-too-dumb-for-a-degree training doesn't make Microsoft not evil.

This just proves how easy it is to manipulate the public. They spend a few dollars, and everyone forgets that they have no right suing in the first place.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis

Originally posted by: DragonMasterAlex
Microsoft makes good with the kid!

Microsoft has reached an agreement with Mike Rowe, the Canadian teenager who was using the Web site mikerowesoft.com in alleged violation of the Microsoft tradmark. Here are the details, as relayed to us by Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler. In exchange for Mike turning over the mikerowesoft.com domain to Microsoft, the company has:



Agreed to help direct any traffic from mikerowesoft.com to Rowe's new Web site (which he's currently working on) to make sure he doesn?t lose any business. The company will pay any out-of-pocket expenses related to this change, including cost associated with changing over to the new url and any other expenses. (The Rowe family is now calculating those expenses.)


Invited Mike and his family on to the Microsoft campus for the company's Microsoft Research Tech Fest in March. The company will pay for the travel and accommodations. No promises, but it's possible he could meet Bill Gates, depending on the Microsoft chairman's schedule, Desler said.


Agreed to pay for Mike to get Microsoft Certification training. Depending on which courses he chooses, this could lead him to become a certified support technician, or system administrator, or something along those lines.


Agreed to give Mike a subscription to MSDN, the Microsoft Developer Network Web site, with various tools for developing software around Microsoft products.


Agreed to give Mike an Xbox game system, complete with a number of games of his choosing.


Said Desler: "It is a story of a young, bright kid starting a business, came up with a creative domain, and I think our initial step was maybe perhaps a bit too impersonal. Once we understood the circumstances around it, we wanted to work things out in a way that would be fair to him." He said the company also wanted "to do things in a way that would foster his interest in technology."

Said Kim Rowe, Mike's father: "It's nice that this is over, so that he can go back to being Michael. He still has school and if he fails, that's six months of his life gone. He's also setting up his new Web site so that things can get zipped over there quickly and it will be ready and stuff, because he's going to get a whole whack of hits."

Mike, in a brief phone interview this afternoon, said he feels "good" about the way things turned out. "I'm just looking forward to all the media going away," he said. "I'm pleased that everything is over and we settled."

Full Story

So much for the "Microsoft is evil" crowd.

Lamers.

Jason

The kid selling out for a few games and some bullsh!t worthless MS I'm-too-dumb-for-a-degree training doesn't make Microsoft not evil.

This just proves how easy it is to manipulate the public. They spend a few dollars, and everyone forgets that they have no right suing in the first place.

as i said this is not costing MS much and they are getting a good amount of "good" publicity. They f-up by threatening to sue him. They get a lot of "negative" publicity (heck i seen it on CNN and msnbc). the head guys get on the lawyers case about it. So they offer the guy a bunch of MS crap and tell the papers "see were good guys!".

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
The kid selling out for a few games and some bullsh!t worthless MS I'm-too-dumb-for-a-degree training doesn't make Microsoft not evil.

This just proves how easy it is to manipulate the public. They spend a few dollars, and everyone forgets that they have no right suing in the first place.

?!? too dumb for a degree or too smart to go get a degree. I have almost two degrees (one full Comp Sci BS and one Chem/Bio Degree - about 9 Credits) and the absolute first question I get asked is what certificates do I have. I have been told degrees are old school and over rated. When I can't say I have A+, MCSE, comptia whatever then they lose interest....it doesn't matter I have been online since 1983, managed 10 people, or developed some profitable online shops from the ground up....they want that MCSE and the like. My own bank I worked for sent some n00b to MCSE training instead of me because they needed me to work. He comes back and they give him memory and harddrives to install....he fried one machine before they took him off the project. This guy was clueless and he was going around bragging about he was going to be the next director of our department. Dude got his ass canned.

Seems to me though that the guy got a pretty good take...what is MS's gain in this? Seems like they are the ones to lose.

Yet again I will say if this didn't make headlines it'd probably be a different outcome.

Å

 

[MrYogi]

M$ is evil
but the kid has already made too many $$$ through paypal donations. :Q

 

[WinkOsmosis]

Originally posted by: alkemyst

Originally posted by: WinkOsmosis
The kid selling out for a few games and some bullsh!t worthless MS I'm-too-dumb-for-a-degree training doesn't make Microsoft not evil.

This just proves how easy it is to manipulate the public. They spend a few dollars, and everyone forgets that they have no right suing in the first place.

?!? too dumb for a degree or too smart to go get a degree. I have almost two degrees (one full Comp Sci BS and one Chem/Bio Degree - about 9 Credits) and the absolute first question I get asked is what certificates do I have. I have been told degrees are old school and over rated. When I can't say I have A+, MCSE, comptia whatever then they lose interest....it doesn't matter I have been online since 1983, managed 10 people, or developed some profitable online shops from the ground up....they want that MCSE and the like. My own bank I worked for sent some n00b to MCSE training instead of me because they needed me to work. He comes back and they give him memory and harddrives to install....he fried one machine before they took him off the project. This guy was clueless and he was going around bragging about he was going to be the next director of our department. Dude got his ass canned.

Seems to me though that the guy got a pretty good take...what is MS's gain in this? Seems like they are the ones to lose.

Yet again I will say if this didn't make headlines it'd probably be a different outcome.

Å

:Q

 

[parsley007]

Originally posted by: Staley8
He can say his name is Mike Rowe and he has erectile dysfunction. Case closed, he has a legitimate claim to it and there should be nothing Microsoft can do about it other than buy it out from him. It would be a drop in the bucket for Bill Gates and Co. to pay this kid $100k even. I don't understand why Microsoft does this type of thing, it hurts their image more than it would cost to just pay the kid off or just to ignore it.

lol

 

[John]

Check out his eBay auction

😉

 

[alkemyst]

Originally posted by: John
Check out his eBay auction

😉

I wonder if people still think it's just him bidding on his item

The bid retractions are classic....you know they probably thought at first it was just a 'fake' ebay deal like the 'punch in the face' one.

Smart kid....I wonder if he is going to hang on to the second one still.

Å