   Nintendo settlement
  I''ll just post a link instead of wasting bandwidth by pasting the whole article...http://www.businesswire.com/cgi-bin/f_headline.cgi?day0/213170142&ticker=Basically, Nintendo won $560,000 through "statutory damages" from 48 internet sites using names that it thought they shouldn''t, such as pokemon-trader.com and growlithe.comHmm... sounds similar to Hasbro BS with reclaiming a furby-related domain name and ... what was it, ms-monopoly.com?  ...Never mind that I think this is BS.  Let them run their fan sites... I imagine someone will come here and at the very least explain to me why they think I''m wrong, possibly even straight-up flame me, but really--a couple of fan sites aren''t going to suck business away from Nintendo, and if they really felt they needed those domains, they would''ve registered them long ago.  
  No they can't.Because you can never stop me.  ;[Edited by Martee];*High-fives Martee*For the record, I''d like to see at least a little   discussion of my actual topic... ;quote:Original post by Deceiver of Many  Because you can never stop me.  Wanna bet?;  Your false assumption is that large companies are usually capable of acting intelligently.  Experience suggests that the larger the corporation, the more likely that it acts without cohesive direction.The IP lawyers get paid to defend Nintendo''s IP.  They get to show that they are shutting down sites that infringe upon trademark and thus keep their jobs.  (IANAL, but there may be a thing where a company that doens''t vigorously defend its trademark loses the trademark.  Dunnno if it''s true)If the lawyers consult with the marketing people (not likely) the marketing folks may try to suggest they back off, but just as likely not.  Marketing would like to keep fans coming to the official unofficial sites (the ones where the company makes an ''unofficial'' site to resemble a real fan page), since maintaining the sites keeps them on the payroll.If a true fan site looks better than the company sponsored one, then the marketing folks aren''t doing their job.  If the fan site looks bad, then that may reflect on the product.It also lets the company keep firm control over complaints or questions about defects. (The thinking is ''He who controls the forums...'')The worst that the employees have to fear is a manager making an arbitrary decision (like employment) based on the content of a real fan site.  Things like: Why doesn''t our page do this? or Such and so is getting banner ad revenue that should be coming to us (never mind that banner revenue is nil).So the answer is: fear, incompetence, short term thinking, and the need to control.Just an opinion, mind you.JSwing  ;  Oh, I have no delusions about whether it''s large companies can act intelligently--I''m positive they can''t   I just despise stupidity like this--I mean, c''mon, most of the Gamespy network wouldn''t exist if every company was like that and the use of Quake, Unreal, Duke, (Total) Annihilation, etc...And now, I must remember to put in my username and password before trying to post... I''m sick of being the anon in my own thread ;  The reason companies go after anybody in that way is actually trademark and copyright protection laws in effect. If it is deemed that a trademark or copyright has been violated and a company has not taken appriopriate actions to rectify the situation given adequete time, then that trademark or copyright may become invalid over time.I agree the money value is a little steep, companies typically bloat costs to represent revenues lost in some way (can''t remember exactly - try looking up Kevin Mitnick to see a good example) and to ''set an example'' to scare other away from infringing on their most-protect rights.Jim Adams