microsoft threatens legal action on 17 year old kid

http://news.zdnet.co.uk/0,39020330,39119181,00.htm

Microsoft is threatening teenage software writer Mike Rowe with legal action for registering and using the domain name mikerowesoft.com

Microsoft has set its lawyers onto a 17-year-old software writer from Vancouver, called Mike Rowe, because he has registered MikeRoweSoft.com, which the company said infringes on its copyright.

Mike Rowe, who registered the domain name in August 2003, received an email from Microsoft's lawyers three months later asking him to transfer the domain name to Microsoft. They also offered to pay him a "settlement" of $10 (£5.55), which is the cost of his original registration fee.

"I was surprised that they would offer such a little amount of money to persuade me to hand my domain over," said Rowe, who wrote back telling them that he had worked hard on the site and spent money printing stationary, but would be willing to give it up for $10,000. In response, he received a 25-page letter explaining why Microsoft's customers could get confused between his site and their site.

The Ashcroft Justice Department today filed an amicus brief supporting Microsoft's claims of trademark infringement against a renegade Canadian boy who created a website that was a homonym of Microsoft.