Microsoft, Friend of the People
Corporate behemoth, Microsoft, has decided to sue Mike Rowe for registering the domain mikerowesoft.com. The well-intentioned 17-year-old Canadian high schooler does web design on the side when he’s not busy with school. He made a whopping $1,000 last year. I don’t even think the IRS will tax you on earnings that low. He innocently registered his domain name to host his website. Microsoft, in a truly despicable move, had their lawyers mail him an intimidating legal notice. This notice said, among other things, that Microsoft’s customers could be confused by Mike Rowe’s website. If they have customers that are stupid enough to be confounded by the difference between microsoft.com and mikerowesoft.com, they are probably better off without them. What kind of idiot would type in mikerowesoft.com instead of microsoft.com? Thanks for encouraging capitalism and the free market, Microsoft. America is supposed to hold the promise of letting someone like Mike Rowe start his own business with only his sheer pluck and moxie. It’s a shame that you apparently need a good amount of devious underhandedness to go along with that pluck and moxie to be successful. Just take a look at Bill Gates’ early years.
I suppose this is what happens when capitalism runs amuck. You get companies like Microsoft and Walmart that wield all the power, control the market, raise the overall cost to the consumer, deny the consumer choice, retard innovation and just generally piss people off.
