Google readies for action against Dutch smut site
Andy Worth
I doubt they'll win #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:39 GMT
They've been unsuccessful in an awful lot of these cases, if he has anything other than just a squatting page there (I'm not going to check from work) then he has every right to the domain.
So.....Go cry, Google emo kid.
George Johnson
All in a name #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:39 GMT
What on earth is with the Pr0n industry and daft names? Seriously, Ruben Doctor?
jolly
Intolerable! #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:58 GMT

"Jeroen Schouten, legal counsel to Google Netherlands, told Dutch newsite Webwereld that the combination of the name Google, porn, and search machine is intolerable."
I'm assuming Jeroen has safe-search switched on.
Tim
echos of xerox? #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:58 GMT
Google's ubiquity and entry into the english dictionary means they may lose the rights to their own name if they are not careful, in exactly the same way Xerox did in the eighties. Anyone can use the word xerox now (meaning to copy something), in the same way that googling now means to look up on the internet (not just using the google site).
Neil
Shut it, Google! #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 07:58 GMT
It's hard enough trying to find available domain names without companies like Google buying up anything and everything that even remotely resembles their business name.
To be so successful that other people can make profit merely by having a similar name. Such a travesty!
Avalanche
@George Johnson #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 08:15 GMT
Ruben is common Dutch first name, while Doctor is - while not common - also a perfectly normal Dutch last name.
Ash
A new name #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 08:15 GMT

Porngoogdash.nl
Steve
@Tim #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 08:35 GMT

You'll find that you can use the word google now, try it, google google google, look at that, the IP police haven't got me.
If you use Xerox in a business name I think you might find that you'll end up in court though.
Frank Bough
@Tim #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 09:20 GMT

"Google's ubiquity and entry into the english dictionary means they may lose the rights to their own name if they are not careful, in exactly the same way Xerox did in the eighties."
Actually 'xerox' (like 'kleenex' and unlike 'hoover') is part of the AMERICAN language, not ours.
Elmer Phud
Porngoogle #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 09:20 GMT
"Porngoogle actually means porn ogle"
Almost there, try 'porn go ogle' as defence and explain that using underscore or hyphens just confuses people so they dropped the connectors to make it easier for punters to enter the URL.
Absolutely no reference to Google whatsoever, nope none, nada, nothing. Honest.
Phil
Disappointing #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 09:45 GMT
I can't get porngoogle.nl or .com
Guess I'll do some work then...
Dave Bell
IP law--do the lawyers know when to stop? #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 10:00 GMT
Getting a lot of free publicity. On this one, my bias is towards Google.
But I keep hearing of far sillier cases, from the shop in Scotland owned by a Mr. MacDonald, through to Lockheed getting antsy about CGI models of WW2 bombers.
porngoogle for a search engine isn't that sort of stupidity.
But the lawyers never seem to target people who can fight back. Another cease & desist letter--it's almost more effort to do the billing.
Maty
@Frank #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 10:48 GMT
'Actually 'xerox' (like 'kleenex' and unlike 'hoover') is part of the AMERICAN language, not ours.'
Now now, if you are going to be xenophobic, try to be accurate. There is no American language. There are American languages - many of them - and English is one. 'Kleenex' and 'xerox' are part of a dialect of English usually called US English, and the US produces its own dictionaries, which are quite properly called English dictionaries.
If you don't believe me, google the topic :)
Anonymous Coward
And I finally get the joke after all these years... #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 10:48 GMT

Google = Go Ogle
I've been using google to go ogle for years, and I've never ever made the connection. I actually beleived it was a missspelling of Googol.
Sheesh. Paris: Because I'm obviously her intellectual equal.
Guy
@Maty #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 10:57 GMT

Shouldn't that be Go Ogle the topic?
Anonymous Coward
PornGoogle #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 11:29 GMT
Iain McG
@ getting the joke after all these years #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 11:51 GMT

Google has nothing to do with "go ogle". It WAS a misspelling of googol.
http://daily.stanford.org/article/2003/2/12/fromGoogolToGoogle
Dave
on 'googol' #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 12:39 GMT

are there yet one googol (or more) web sites?
has the most-used web searcher collected that quantity?
As to other brand names entering common parlance, I think but am not sure, that use with the initial letter in lower case is permitted and not an offence, use of the capital initial is inferred as intent to mean the original enterprise
When I altavista for GOOGLE all the results I get seem to be about Google
So any website that uses an url of the form <whatever>google should not be asked to cease and desist, but <whatever>Google could be so asked...
Robin Lettice
Typo in article #
Posted Thursday 1st May 2008 15:16 GMT

The original article had a typo in it: the website was mistakenly down as porngoogle.nl, whereas the actual address is pornoogle.nl. Apologies.
Kanhef
@Dave #
Posted Friday 2nd May 2008 04:37 GMT
URLs are case-insensitive, so that doesn't make a difference. Generally, courts have ruled that similar names are permissible only if the businesses are sufficiently different that there is no chance of confusion. For example, a restaurant named MacDonald's would get a cease-and-desist letter before it opened. A farm equipment supplier with the same name would have no problems.
ratfox
@Typo #
Posted Friday 2nd May 2008 05:16 GMT

Aaaaah! That's why I couldn't... Ah... Erm... Nothing nothing.
Anonymous Coward
@ratfox #
Posted Sunday 4th May 2008 06:00 GMT

Dont worry, your not missing much ;(
Chris
Ah yes, and easy typo to make #
Posted Monday 5th May 2008 19:17 GMT

Of course Google are perfectly correct about this... because it's obviously far too easy to make this typo... I mean everybody somewhere has typed 'porn' instead of 'g' when going to a URL, and as a result thousands of dutch people are surprised and shocked to see this website instead of the friendly innocent Google search page due to a simple mistake, when all they wanted to do is search the web!!!
Yeah, I can see how this is a severe threat to Google - shut down the site now, I say!
Er, mine's the pornreen jacket.... er - I mean the green one...
Jim
So... #
Posted Thursday 8th May 2008 13:56 GMT
Google is now claiming any word that ends in 'oogle' is a trademark infringement? WTF?
And for those who haven't been to the site, it is titled "porno ogle" but obviously underscores... etc etc.