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back to article Judge trounces Register.com in Baidu.com hijacking case

A federal judge has given Chinese search-engine giant Baidu the green light to proceed with its negligence lawsuit against domain registrar Register.com in a court decision that said an error that wreaked havoc on the Chinese site smacked of intentional wrongdoing. The ruling came after Register.com argued in March that it …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    FAIL

    Pretty hard to see....

    ...from the details given how they can defend themselves.

    One cock up, acceptable(ish)

    Two, not acceptable

    more than two, thats just utter incompetance (and gross negligance)

    Go Badu.

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  2. Slaytanic

    They're screawed...

    Register is going to get a pounding over this one. I guess it also doesn't help much that their judge's last name is "Chin", as there could be some racial preference towards Baidu in this case. Unless someone can tell me that a last name like "Chin" != Chinese...

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Thumb Down

      Uh ...

      Because ... all chinese think and act as one ...?

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  3. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Doesn't look good...

    for register.com. Claim 3, that the E-Mail address was with a rival, I find irrelevant -- it's not up to register.com to tell them what E-Mail provider to use. However the other 3 claims, each individually appears quite negligent to me, all 3 together sure look like gross negligence to me.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Pint

      You've missed the point

      Baidu is a Chinese search engine. Do you seriously think their admins would use Gmail accounts, webmail provided by their chief competitor? It's a massive massive clue this wasn't legit.

      It would be like Dell employees using HP laptops etc.

      1 1
      1. Gav
        Reply Icon
        FAIL

        Prime Asset

        Or Google employees using Windows. No, wait...

        But fair point. High ranking tech staff do not secure their prime company asset through a free throw-away email address hosted by their competition. It's maybe not impossible, but very, very unlikely. Combine that with every other aspect of this screw-up and you'd think anyone competent would have started to smell a rat.

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        1. Anonymous Coward
          Reply Icon
          Pint

          Except, of course ...

          Google employees are no longer using windows now they make their own o/s ...

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  4. AndyMM
    Thumb Up

    Good

    Not often I support the Chinese but after reading sex.com it is nice to hear some of these registrars getting a bit of their own medicine.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
      Reply Icon
      Joke

      There are words?

      I didn't know you could read there. You live and learn...

      (I know, I know, but I can't just let the typo of the week slip past)

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  5. Robert Hill
    FAIL

    Used to be trendy...

    Used to be trendy (very trendy) to bash Network Solutions whenever they cocked-up, and everyone screamed that ANYONE else could do a better job....

    Well, now we see that anyone else can cock it up just as well as NSI...perhaps better!

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  6. mhenriday
    Coat

    Cynical as I am,

    I suspect that that the reason Register.com is pouring «breath-taking resources» into the defense of «what almost everyone would agree is a massive cock-up» instead of just settling and saving a bundle is that they reckon that in the good old US of A, anyone who does something harmful to a Chinese firm is a patriot. We'll have to see if this calculation holds....

    Henri

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  7. Alan Firminger

    refer back

    There was the article describing the competition based on corporate gullibility. The voice on the 'phone only has to sound convincing.

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  8. Liam Thom
    Go

    Register.com are brutes

    <rant>I hope the shower of shit gets taken to the cleaners. They are nightmare to try and get a domain name away from. You ring them up and they tell you to use the web site, you use the web site and nothing happens. And then they send invitations to renew the domain for a millennium for 2% discount.

    Die, Register.com, Die.</rant>

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  9. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unfortunantly ...

    .... this happens all of the time.

    I myself work for a company that also registers domain names, and while there are security procedures in place to prevent such things as domain thefts, I have seen far to many cases where insufficent or incorrect information is provided and account information is given out.

    *anon for obvious reasons.

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  10. Mr Lion
    FAIL

    snafu?

    I don't think it means what you think it means

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  11. Chris Evans

    One employee multiple mistakes not gross negligance!

    I don't think that one employee making multiple mistakes is necessarily gross negligance!

    Restrictions should though be in place to stop mistakes where possible. The one thing that to me strikes of gross negligance is the two hour delay in starting to try and sort it it out, presuambly this involved different and more than one employee!

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    1. Doug Glass
      Reply Icon
      Go

      You don't think ...

      ... keeping that one idiot employee working on things s/he has alreday frakked up more than once isn't neglegence on the part of the supervisor or manager?

      That's funny.

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  12. Goat Jam
    Paris Hilton

    Deny Deny Deny

    The catch cry of modern corporate culture.

    "The amount of resources that Register.com is pouring into the defense of what almost everyone would agree is a massive cock-up is breathtaking."

    On the face of it this is an open and shut case and if ever there was a situation that called for an instant mea culpa then surely this is it.

    And to make things even worse for Register.com, I notice that the Judge is named "Chin".

    Uhoh.

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  13. Geoff Reed
    WTF?

    Fool me once.

    I can't help but think fo the saying.

    "Fool me once, Shame on you.

    Fool me twice, shame on me."

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    1. Tatsky
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      @Geoff Reed You're quoting it wrong...

      I was thinking of the famous quote

      "Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice.... you can't get fooled again." (Cue the Who)

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  14. Peter 39
    Megaphone

    about time Register wrapped

    Why is it that registrars think they're God's annointed and the greatest inventions since sliced bread?

    The business is simple -

    (1)do a good job and get revenue, or

    (2)screw up and get sued

    Is there a death-wish that keeps them pointed at (2) ??

    If the people they have are incapable of following simple instructions then there are lots of competent ones looking for jobs.

    Issues such as this are NOT solved by thickening the rule-book, much as though the corner office folks push that approach. They are solved by hiring smart people with common sense and empowering then to do sensible things. You'll get better results by making the rule-book thinner, not thicker. If it becomes thicker then you've failed because you're relying on rules rather than principles.

    Rely on principles, and smart people, and the "bad times" go away. And, hey - management gets easier when you do. Really. Try it. Hire the best people, pay them appropriately, give them the appropriate decision-making power (gradually - I'm not stupid) and you'll be amazed.

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  15. Eduard Coli
    Grenade

    So that's why

    With Baidu being another arm of the CPC it's no wonder why the PRC is flaunting their anti flattop rocket.

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  16. Henry Wertz 1 Gold badge

    Re: Missing the point

    Oh I didn't miss the point, I do realize someone supposedly from baidu using a gmail account would be highly irregular. But it is at least a judgement call, whereas the other 3 actions were both stupid and I'm sure against procedure.

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