Microsoft to take over MikeRoweSoft.com
Teen settles with tech giant for, among other things, an Xbox
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Mike Rowe, 17, holds documents he says Microsoft Corp. sent asking him to give up MikeRoweSoft.com.
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SEATTLE, Washington (AP) -- A Canadian teenager whose Web site address bothered a certain giant software company will find a new home on the Web, Microsoft Corp. said Friday.
Mike Rowe, a 17-year-old resident of Victoria, British Columbia, has agreed to pick a new name for his Web site, currently called www.mikerowesoft.com, said Microsoft spokesman Jim Desler.
Mike's father, Kim Rowe, confirmed that his son had struck an agreement with Microsoft. Rowe said his son could not be interviewed Friday because he had to study for final exams.
Mike also is working feverishly to put together a new Web site, his father said.
Desler said Microsoft would cover Mike's costs of changing to a new Web site and redirecting traffic from the old site. Microsoft also had agreed to help the teen get Microsoft certification training and other gifts, including an Xbox game console, he said, and has invited Mike to a technology festival in March at the corporation's headquarters in suburban Redmond.
"We wanted to do this in a way that's going to foster his interest in technology," Desler said.
In a posting on his Web site earlier this month, the teen said he received a 25-page letter from Microsoft informing him he was committing copyright infringement, and threatening legal action.
Desler said Friday that Microsoft believes it's important to take steps to prevent widespread infringement of its name. But he conceded Microsoft's original approach was "admittedly maybe impersonal."
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