The story of how Penguin Books is attempting to steal the katie.com domain. Basically, they published a book about the victim of an internet chatroom paedophile and called it "katie.com" (as "girl.com" was taken by a porn site). Which is all very well, except that katie.com was already owned by someone else (it was the personal domain of a woman named Katie Jones in the UK). Instead of backing down or attempting to resolve this, Penguin are promoting the hell out of their katie.com assets, rendering the actual site unusable as a personal domain, with the hope of pressuring Jones to hand it over; and have even made noises about using the katie.com trademark they own to seize it. Anybody want to start a legal fund for Katie Jones?

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Fri Aug 6 09:51:28 2004

If she wanted to poison the well, Katie could just bung the goatse image on the root index...

Posted by: datakid | http:// | Sat Aug 7 04:22:01 2004

good lateral thinking, g

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Sat Aug 7 16:45:42 2004

Anyway, it looks like she's had a win... http://www.boingboing.net/2004/08/07/katiecom_a_total_vic.html

Posted by: gjw | http://the-fix.org | Sun Aug 8 00:16:43 2004

The fact that they started a paragraph with the words "Going forward,..." leaves me with no sympathy for them.

Posted by: Ben-Baba Ali Gazebo | http:// | Mon Aug 9 14:02:15 2004

Why doesn't she just use the domain to host sign-ups for a really offensive paedo-scat type porn site. That should affect the sales of their book interestingly as they are all rushed off shelves by horrified PR people.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Mon Aug 9 14:11:11 2004

Can you see anything wrong with your plan, Ben? Hint: things like that are highly illegal and very easy to prosecute.

Posted by: Ben-Baba Ali Gazebo | http:// | Tue Aug 10 15:55:34 2004

Not an actual kiddie-porn-scat site, but one that is suggestive of one. With a really offensive name, some pictures of kids stuffing their faces with chocolate bars, and lots of links to hardcore XXX sites. And imagine how much $$$ the publishers will blow as soon as word gets around.

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Tue Aug 10 17:30:26 2004

I think one needs an above-average degree of moral flexibility to come up with, and devote effort to, ideas like that. Or at least to have forever given up hope of being a respectable member of society.

Posted by: Ben-Baba Ali Gazebo | http:// | Wed Aug 11 06:30:08 2004

I find they just come naturally..

Posted by: Denis Neilson | http:// | Wed Aug 11 06:33:33 2004

Reminds me of that 3 stooges episode where Moe dials someone on the phone and says 'Mr Aaronavitz, I'm not going to beat about the bush. It's a thousand dollars or your wife is seeing those photos!' Then when he gets hung up on he consults the phone book, dials again and says 'Mr Aaronavitz? It's a thousand dollars or your wife is seeing those photos!...

Posted by: Graham | http://grudnuk.com/ | Wed Aug 11 10:14:22 2004

Where would society be without sociopaths?

Posted by: Ben-Gurion Jacarutu | http://www.tristantimes.com | Sat Aug 14 05:14:41 2004

More importantly, where would sociopaths be without a society?

Posted by: Ben | http:// | Sun Aug 15 00:50:56 2004

Which reminds me, Andrew, you weren't planning on leaving the country before returning my Buckaroo Banzai Adventures In The Eigth Dimension DVD were you?

Posted by: acb | http://dev.null.org/ | Sun Aug 15 11:58:12 2004

What sort of crack are you smoking? I don't have your DVD.

Posted by: Ye Arab of Ye Booke | http://chaosium.com | Mon Aug 16 17:09:44 2004

The thagweed affects me that way sometimes. In fact you haven't borrowed it yet, however when you do I'd like it back!

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