The Name Problem, Part IV
Curiouser and curiouser. OSM has posted a correction:
Due to a miscommunication, OSM inadvertently wrote on our site that Christopher Lydon of Radio Open Source “graciously agreed” with us to give up the url opensourcemedia.net. This is incorrect. He gave up the use of that url entirely of his own volition and after no discussion with us. We had never contacted him before he took his action.
We apologize to Mr. Lydon for this error on our part.
OSM, Errors and Corrections, November 18, 2005
This is still not true. We never gave up the URL opensourcemedia.net. If you click on it, there, you’ll see that it points to us. In May, this was our URL; we stopped using it after we registered radioopensource.org, which is easier to remember on the radio. But we never gave up ownership of the URL, we just stopped using it actively.
Disclosure: two days ago, it didn’t point to us, it pointed to a generic page supplied by our old hosting company. But an email to the the URL’s registration service provider, which is publicly available, could have confirmed that the URL remained registered to us.
November 18th, 2005 at 5:59 pm
Still, one has to admit that it’s *ever-so-slightly-closer* to the truth, eh? At this rate we should have it all sorted out in just a few years’ time…
November 18th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
No need to take Radio Open Source’s word for it even:
http://www.whois.sc/opensourcemedia.net
November 19th, 2005 at 6:03 am
[...] 217;s a little tough love. 1. Name fiasco part 1: They’re using a name that’s not theirs to use. And I’m pretty sure Christopher Lydon is no stranger to detail [...]
November 19th, 2005 at 9:10 am
This is pretty appalling. I mean, snagging the name is one issue, but completely misrepresenting what’s going on with that URL is just baffling to me. I read that text on the OSM site before I saw your explanation, and even the corrected version still reads like Chris gave up the URL, which, regardless of where it’s pointing, is just not true. You guys still own it, therefore you haven’t “relinquished” the URL. Not using it as your main URL doesn’t mean it’s relinquished. Sheesh.
I know I’m preaching to the choir on this one, but it’s so clear what the “legal” argument is going to be on this one just by reading the site.
I get why you guys are called “open source”. Them? Not so much. There’s nothing very open about their system or their motives, as far as I can tell.
Good luck on fighting the good fight.
November 20th, 2005 at 1:04 am
what’s that giant sucking sound?
November 20th, 2005 at 4:00 pm
[...] , then Roger Simon is one dirty rotten scoundrel. *name previously copyrighted by another entity. This entry was posted on Sunday, November [...]
November 21st, 2005 at 2:32 pm
“…OSM inadvertently wrote”? What, did they trip over something?
November 22nd, 2005 at 11:27 am
[...] nd what really irritated me was the Simon-Reynolds OSM attempt to mislead its readers with cover ups and lies (and here and here): Fake OSM: Due to a miscommunication, OSM inadv [...]
November 27th, 2005 at 9:27 pm
>Disclosure: two days ago, it didn’t point to us, it pointed to a generic page supplied >by our old hosting company. But an email to the the URL’s registration service >provider, which is publicly available, could have confirmed that the URL remained >registered to us.
Interesting analgoue: If a people stop using a country and some other people decide to use it, THEN about, oh, 2000 years later, the original people decide they want back, can they use your URL?
May 27th, 2008 at 10:35 am
[...] rned out there was already a well-known public radio show by the name of Open Source which hadn’t been consulted even though it occupied such URLs as opensourcemedia.net. Ann Al [...]