back to article Murdoch machinations mean Microsoft must rename SkyDrive

Microsoft is going to have to rename its SkyDrive cloud storage service after agreeing to submit to a British court's ruling over ownership of the brand name. British Sky Broadcasting Group, the European satellite broadcasting arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire, took on Redmond over the rights to the SkyDrive name, pointing …

COMMENTS

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  1. Alan Bourke

    DoubleDisk

    Arf

    1. Trevor_Pott Gold badge

      Re: DoubleDisk

      Actually, I prefer "LightDrive." Light goes in to the PRISM and out comes rainbows!

      Really, you guys, we're not spying on you. Honest. Please trust US-based cloud computing. Oh gods, please?

    2. Bob Vistakin
      Linux

      Re: DoubleDisk

      Droidenfreude

      KarmaBitch

      RupertSlap

      ThinkAgain

      PeguinsJoy

      1. Mips
        Childcatcher

        Re: DoubleDisk

        Droidenfreude? I should have thought Schadenfreude was more appropriate. Anyway I really enjoy the thought of Microsoft getting bitten by someone else.

        Now who can take a bite out of Apple? Perhaps Dr Who could help.

  2. JASR

    EmBalmerDrive

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about

    YAMESH

    Yet Another Massive Enterprise Security Headache.

  4. Benchops

    I heard they were going to combine their remote services with a virtual world and twitter style messaging.

    CloudCuckooLand

  5. B-D
    Devil

    I'd utterly hate to give the lawyers some ammo but surely MS can now turn their own loss into a gain by using the Sky ruling to pressure LiveDrive into handing over their name?

  6. Howard Hanek
    Trollface

    How about, "We'llShortlyAbandonYouDrive"? or "OnlyAsLongAsWeMakeMoneyDrive" ??

    1. Wade Burchette
      Childcatcher

      What about "GiveUsMoreMoney Drive"? Or "WeAreJealousOfAppleAndGoogle Drive"? Or "BallmerDrive"?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      I didn't realise we were naming a Google product?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        If it was a Google product, I would say 'Borg Base'

        1. wowfood

          BingDrive.

          Badaba ba ba. I'm bingin' it

  7. This post has been deleted by its author

  8. An0n C0w4rd

    BSODrive

    1. Mystic Megabyte
      Mushroom

      Is that the Blue Sky of Death?

      <looks out window for meteoroid shower>

  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    huh? BSkyB have a product called SkyDrive? I never knew. Oh is this another bullshit thing?

    Anyway anyone uses microsoft products (and isn't' some whack job fundamentalist) and has skydrive know it shits on the shit you get from other vendors.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      They don't but because BSkyB offer telecommunication products and services that put them in the same category as cloud products its enough for people to believe that SkyDrive is a BSkyB product.

      In fairness to Microsoft BSkyB and Sky TV as a trademark is barely heard of outside the UK, Sky's Internet offering's even less so and after the Edge fiasco it seemed trademark's based on a common word weren't really enforceable.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Sky TV as a trademark is barely heard of outside the UK"

        How long is it since you were last in Germany? have a look at www.sky.de anyway.

        I believe Italy has a bit of Murdoch too. You'd have thought Berlusconi might have put them off, but apparently not. You could try www.sky.it

        Maybe others too; someone's annual report would cover it, but I'm too lazy to work out which piece of the empire would have the details (it doesn't seem to be in the BSkyB report, but that's no big surprise).

      2. plrndl

        "after the Edge fiasco it seemed trademark's (sic) based on a common word weren't really enforceable."

        You mean like "Windows" and "Apple"?

        1. M Gale

          Actually yes, just like Windows and Apple.

          Microsoft Windows, and Apple Computers on the other hand...

    2. M Gale

      "Anyway anyone uses microsoft products (and isn't' some whack job fundamentalist) and has skydrive know it shits on the shit you get from other vendors."

      Can you explain for people who aren't tied into the Microsoft treadmill, what the advantages of Skydrive are over every other online storage locker out there?

      (Also yay to Reg comments for inserting random newlines everywhere. This paragraph inserted solely to prevent it.)

      1. Professor Clifton Shallot

        Can you explain for people who aren't tied into the Microsoft treadmill, what the advantages of Skydrive are over every other online storage locker out there?

        I haven't investigated in depth but there's some reasonable integration with the Office products and there's no undesirable chatter from the client like there is with DropBox.

        I wouldn't say it was notably superior from what I have seen so far but it's not obviously deficient.

  10. PhilipN Silver badge

    Skypedrive

    No ... Seriously.

    1. Will Godfrey Silver badge

      Re: Skypedrive

      Make that SkypeDive and iId agree

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about

    DataClod.

    Oops - typo. Forgot the "u".

  12. Giles Jones Gold badge

    ChairDrive - Transfer your data at the speed of a flying chair.

  13. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Coat

    Network Storage Access

    Well someone had to say it...

    1. Captain Save-a-ho
      Black Helicopters

      Re: Network Storage Access

      More like "Never Secure Again"

  14. Mephistro
    Angel

    A.Y.D.B.T.U.S

    All Your Data Belongs To US

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: A.Y.D.B.T.U.S

      A.Y.D.A.B.T.U

      "All Your Data ARE belong to us", surely?

      1. CmdrX3

        I believe it was a subtle touch of satire... "All Your Data Belong To U.S <<<- as in USA

      2. Mephistro

        Re: A.Y.D.B.T.U.S

        "All Your Data ARE belong to us", surely?

        No, that's a different meme. :^)

  15. Vlad The Impatient

    They could ask Mr Clive - very ni$ely - and name it MicroDrive.

    1. CmdrX3

      Unfortunately Sir Clive sold all the rights to Amstrad, including the rights for the Microdrive. Amstrad was then bought by... wait for it.... BSkyB. I would assume that the takeover would include those trademarks as well.

  16. Dean 4

    TheCloudStorageFormallyKnownAsSkyDrive?

    ModernDrive?

  17. Vlad The Impatient

    I have of course meant Sir Clive...

    1. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

      Ah, yes, MicroDrive, a name that just drips reliability :-)

  18. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It went something like this...

    Sky: "How desperate are you to have Sky TV services on the Xbone?"

    Microsoft: "Really desperate, it's flopping worse than Surface RT"

    Sky: "Then go change the name...."

    1. Nuno

      SkyDive

      If we have a reference to RT, surely the best name would be SkyDive

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Maybe

    SkyFloppy should be safe.

  20. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    SpyDrive

    They only need to change 1 letter AND it gives a more accurate description of the service they provide to the "customer"...

  21. JustWondering
    Happy

    POS Drive?

    I don't believe an explanation is necessary.

  22. Alex in Tokyo
    Joke

    Azure Storage Services?

    They could even brand it as Azure Redundant Storage Extensions in the UK and Oz.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Azure Storage Services?

      Azure Redundant Storage Extensions For Workgroups (32-bit), Azure Redundant Storage Extensions For Workgroups (64-bit), Azure Redundant Storage Extensions For Students...

      We're going to need a larger live tile.

  23. LinkOfHyrule
    Joke

    SeeDrive

    I think that would be good - See because it sounds like C:\ and cannot be seen - a complete oxymoron that will baffle users in the way only MS can! They could even bring back good old Abort, Fail, Retry for when it goes tits up and set the website background colour to a nice deep blue when the servers go down!

  24. gregthecanuck

    Well, obviously, it should be called....

    Nokia Drive

  25. Tom 35

    Bing Zune

    They could use it for the Windows 8.1 start sound too.

  26. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Drive harder

    The SQL

  27. John-IT-Guru
    Linux

    SkyDive is perfect

    Since no Windows servers really work and you are certain to lose access all the time due to constant MicroFlop server bugs and errors.

    I say they should rename it to SKY DIVE!

  28. Anonymous Coward
  29. Grikath
    Meh

    Microsoft Extensible Hosting ?

    Icon because...

  30. Scarborough Dave

    TIFKASD

    The Interface Formally Known As Sky Drive

  31. Sir Barry

    NotSkyDrive

  32. Magister

    Black Hole?

  33. thondwe

    Opportunity to fix confusion

    At least there's an opportunity to fix the SkyDrive + SkyDrivePro (SharePoint) confusion which only gets worse with 2012 R2 "Work Folders", which probably should have been SkyDrivePro?

    Guess they'll go with "Live Drive" assuming they're not planning to rename Windows Live now that chunks of it are Office 365 (Outlook)? Though I'd prefer they call it something obvious!

  34. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Staying with with the work environment theme (office, windows, tiles) - how about deskdrive

  35. This post has been deleted by its author

  36. Slacker@work
    Coat

    How about....

    Transfer Information To Storage

    I can just imagine the marketing - "TiTS -Up 99.9% of the time"

    And with Cameron's porn blocking, we will never have to worry about it again :)

  37. auburnman
    Unhappy

    I'm a little disappointed that Sky won the ruling. Companies that trademark names that already mean something should have to accept the consequences (namely a lesser degree of protection from similar forms to the trademark). I seem to recall the Rosetta Stone company having a spat with Google a while back over naming confusion as well.

  38. mikale

    French flair

    D'riveGauche

    (apologies if this is posted redundantly)

  39. mikale
    Joke

    OK... more

    Drive! (too bad that Yahoo! deal didn't take off)

    iDrive (see what Apple does with that one)

    My Drive (right before My Music and My Pictures)

    YDrive? (why, indeed?)

    UDrive (your turn)

    SexDrive (never can have too much capacity...)

    Ndrive (oops... trouble from Nvidia)

    Rdrive (as in yours, mine, and the NSA's)

    MurDrive (take that, Rupert...!)

    DriveL (for all those cat videos)

  40. Ascylto

    How about:

    SKYHIGH

    gives the pricing and cloud connotations.

  41. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Vapour Drive

    Clouds are made of vapour aren't they? Oh I'm sorry, that should read Vapor Drive. My apologies.

    Hmm, there's a big temptation to stick your data into a place that looks very, how shall we say?

    Sexy.

    But in doing so you may pick up some kind of infection from other people who've been doing the same thing. It is highly likely that you will not realize it immediately either.

    How embarrassing to have to go to a professional and admit what you've been up to.

  42. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    FriskyDrive

    Can still be frisked by government agencies and still annoys Murdoch.

  43. InsaneSquirrel

    I think it’s seriously wrong now that the word ‘Sky’ cannot be used in anything much like the letter ‘I’ before a word.

    As for a replacement name I would suggest:

    TheExpanseOfAirOverAnyGivenPointOnEarthDrive

    : )

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Try registering HBODrive and see how far you get

  44. Chris1984

    Hodor

    Hodor

  45. Vordicae

    A Place for you to put all your shyte

    in the Shyte-Box (TM)

  46. Gomez Adams

    OffPlanetDrive

    Taking it to the next level.

  47. Mr Michael Strelitz

    Pie-in-the-sky drive

    NeverNever Landdrive

  48. MJI Silver badge

    Hmmm

    Well when I first heard of Sky Drive my thoughts were of Walnut heads empire.

    In fact it puts me right off using it.

  49. MJI Silver badge

    TIKFAM

    Why did they name it after the Austin Metro?

  50. Lostintranslation

    Windows9

  51. Lostintranslation

    Windows9

    Microsoft thinking outside the box....

  52. Pascal Monett Silver badge

    I have it : EasyDrive !

    That way we can have Round 2 of lawyer spats when EasyJet, who thinks it owns the word "easy", comes a'knocking.

    Come on, I like popcorn.

  53. Anon NHS IT flunkey

    NSA Offsite Backup

    I'm sure Microsoft touting it's NOB won't cause them any problems... and really no chance of it flopping, surely?

  54. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Crowley's Bentley

    It's either that or Madame Tracy's Moped....

    1. Thecowking

      Re: Crowley's Bentley

      Good Omens reference, but at least it's not Dick Turpin.

  55. Version 1.0 Silver badge

    I suppose that WhiSky is out of the question?

  56. big_Jim

    VistaDrive

    It reminds me of the good things MS have done.

  57. IT_grease_monkey

    SpyDrive

  58. Brewster's Angle Grinder Silver badge

    Why has nobody suggested Drive Off? And for that matter Drive Way.

  59. MikeyD85

    TCBSFKASD

    The Cloud Based Storage Formerly Known As Sky Drive.

  60. HKmk23

    Perhaps

    Balldrive

  61. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    How about "easyDrive" .... can' t see that causing any problems!

  62. jon 13

    I believe "News of the World" would be a good name to replace SkyDrivel, that's assuming Lord Justice Leveson won't let you use his name ...

  63. Bungle

    devnull

  64. Just_this_guy

    Marketing Drive

  65. keith_w
    Headmaster

    Sky?

    Does this mean that I will no longer be able to look up at the <you know what> and say "Oh, the <you know what> is falling? and rather than reference cloud storage will I have to say "Oh look at the <white fluffy / dark grey thing> in the <you know what>", 'cause the version of the <white fluffy / dark grey thing> used for online storage might not appreciate being referenced as located in the <you know what>.

    1. Qwox
      Gimp

      Re: Sky?

      Of course you can say the "S word" as long as you pay Mr Murdoch first

  66. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    LostInSpace

    Danger Will Robinson!

    Danger!

  67. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    MySpace

    Oh, hang on...

  68. Rick Giles

    I'm surprised

    That no one has made a comment about parties involved and that the winner was the lesser of two weasels (yes I know that is not the correct word). The only problem is they are both equally weaselly.

  69. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Put all your data in the ...

    Microsoft Egg Basket For Workgroups

  70. Shonko Kid
    Trollface

    iSkyDrive

    I wonder if they could get another large corporate to pipe up about possible brand confusion, and thus disprove the case that enough people confused it with BSkyB, because sufficiently large numbers of people were confusing it with the other company, hence cancelling out the whole sorry issue?

  71. Nunyabiznes

    Skyfall or perhaps Skyfail?

  72. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    ApplepieintheSky?

  73. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Sneaky Microsoft...

    SlyDrive

  74. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Couldn't happen to a nicer bunch....

    "...the judge noted that customers having problems with Microsoft's product had ended up calling the broadcaster's helpline in the mistaken belief it was responsible for the service."

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-23530337

  75. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Tie to Skype...?

    Skypod

  76. dshan

    Windows MurdochDrive RT, SosumiDrive or DOSDrive.

  77. sjsmoto

    BobDrive

    1. davidp231

      ClippyDrive

  78. IGnatius T Foobar
    FAIL

    Microsoft FAIL

    Doesn't matter who or what. Microsoft got bitch-slapped and that's a good thing.

  79. Robert Ramsay

    ArseCloud

    sprang instantly to mind.

  80. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    CloudBurst

  81. Imsimil Berati-Lahn

    AirChive

    Note the camel-case

    other detritus from the bottom of my tea mug

    Datasphere

    Cumulus

    CosmoDisk

    Anoxia

    VapourPlatter

    EtherLib

    okay, bored now.

  82. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Given that they're nuts-deep in bed with the NSA, a simple rebranding to "SpyDrive" will probably be more than sufficient.

  83. graeme leggett Silver badge

    Welkin - meaning vault of the heavens

    I just like it as an old English sort of word.

  84. Fihart

    8allmer an't got the 8alls wot Rupert's got

    TDFKAS The Drive Formerly Known As Skydrive.

    It's just one 8alls-Up after another.

  85. Will Godfrey Silver badge

    Nova

    It will suddenly expand and blow up in your face.

  86. heynownow

    I think I should have the winning entry which is :

    SkyHive

  87. GKLR

    Microsoft SkyDrive could be called

    M$ MyrrhDock......:)

  88. Vociferous

    Is Murdoch Satan?

    Have anyone ever seen both in the same room at the same time?

  89. briesmith

    SkyDrive Was Always A Misnomer Anyway

    Continuing the "big drive in the sky" theme as the name SkyDrive did was poor marketing, product positioning, statementing, however you want to call it. The big drive shared over the network isn't what the lately renamed SkyDrive service is about at all. That is what Novell offered 20 years ago and what DropBox, eBox, Box and all the other sky drive offerings are about.

    SkyDrive isn't about storage; it's about functionality; about doing stuff either self-collaboratively (sharing stuff around your own devices) or true collaboration; building resources with co-workers and other principals. The sort of thing that Google+ with Google Docs etc was trying to get going and the sort of solution that cloud services like Kahootz and Podio provide with their rich "can do" out of the box tool set.

    As an aside I don't believe anybody in a commercial environment could ever seriously consider using DropBox where anybody with access to a folder can delete anything in that folder. That way lies only despair - and constant undoing.

    I would call it Clusterz and leave others to find a place for the missing "fuc"

  90. Vociferous

    Considering they're going to make it default storage location for all Windows users, and they're making it harder and harder to find files on the local computer, just name the fucking thing C:

  91. davidp231
    FAIL

    So does this mean...

    Sky will pester the MoD to rename Skynet to something else, in case people confuse it with Sky TV?

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