Subject: [NEXTEL-1] All about nextel sucking

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 10:49:04 -0400

All about nextel sucking

nextelsucks.org & theyreallysuck.org was born
because I once owned two nextel phones. After
canceling them I've had problems with this
company for over a year and a half now. This
includes billing me for months after I
requested cancellation, not turning off the
phones, reporting me to collections agencies
AFTER I paid the bill even though they say I
owe NOTHING. READ THE ENTIRE STORY IF YOU LIKE.

FEATURED NEWS

·.:''::·: :·.:''::·: ::WELCOME TO NEXTELSUCKS.ORG & ·.:''::·:
:·.:''::·: :·.:''::·: :THEYREALLYSUCK.ORG·.:''::·: :·.:''::·: :·.:''::·:
PLEASE READ THIS LETTER AT THE BOTTOM THAT I RECEIVED
FROM NEXTEL. I'm currently consulting an intellectual property lawyer regarding
this letter and we are discussing how to proceed.

I'VE REGISTERED WWW.THEYREALLYSUCK.ORG THIS SITE IS UP NOW. PLEASE PASS THE WORD
TO ANYONE YOU KNOW THAT VISITS THIS SITE. I'VE ALREADY BEGUN TO REGISTER THE NEW
DOMAIN WITH ALL THE MAJOR SEARCH ENGINES.

On July 8th, 2003 I received the letter posted below from a law firm hired by
Nextel. They have demanded that I give them my domain nextelsucks.org for free,
just seven days after I renewed it. They claim I am cybersquatting, diluting their
brand name and confusing consumers that may think this site is somehow affiliated
with Nextel directly. They say I have ten days to transfer the domain name to
them, the domain I have owned for a year and just paid for again. I registered
this site solely to criticize Nextel, not to make money. You know, to tell you the
truth I'd lost my interest in hating Nextel a while back and probably would have
just let this site go in a few years. I'd even thought about giving it to another
nextel victim so they too could feel a bit of satisfaction of getting their story
out. But no, Nextel has to go and try to silence what is obviously my freedom of
speech. You know if they had contacted me without all the threats this could have
went much more smoothly for all of us. In fact if they decide to drop these
threats and be fair then I'm willing to talk. I have a serious problem with a
large company throwing around threats to silence complaint sites.

This seems to me to be a case of reverse cybersquatting or reverse domain
hijacking. Look this term up in google, there is tons of information on this
topic. The Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer Protection Act states that I would have
had to register this domain name in bad faith for me to be guilty of
cybersquatting. They say examples of this are "has a bad faith intent to profit
from that mark", and "in the case of a mark that is distinctive at the time of
registration of the domain name, is identical or confusingly similar to that
mark". I'm sorry but I don't think anyone intelligent enough to get online will
believe Nextel would be so confused so as to think Nextel has something to do with
putting up this site. Past cases of sucks sites have shown that the courts do not
believe a consumer complaint site with the work "sucks" in it are copyright or
trademark infringements.  (check cases on fuckmicrosoft.com, taubmansucks.com,
asdasucks.net, jerryfallwell.com) As long as there is no monetary or commercial
use of the site (and obviously I do not make money from this site, nor advertise
anything, nor link to any commercial sites that make me money, nor take donations)
this sites domain name is legal.

This site is simply a non-commercial consumer activism site. This site is so
clearly anti-nextel that it cannot be construed as NCI's handiwork. In a past
anti-Bally's site the courts said "In Bally, the court noted that Faber "does not
use Bally in his domain name" and that "even if Faber did use the mark as part of
a larger domain name, such as 'ballysucks.com', this would not necessarily be a
violation as a matter of law" because "no reasonably prudent Internet user would
believe that 'Ballysucks.com' is the official Bally site or is sponsored by Bally.

Finally, the court also cited congressional intent to exempt
parody and other non-commercial imitation from the Act.5"

"Nextel's claim will be subject to the defense of "fair use" under 17 U.S.C.
section 107. Federal law accepts the "fair use" of copyrighted material without
prior consent of the copyright owner for "criticism, comment, news reporting,
teaching, scholarship, or research."62 Most "complaint" sites can probably be
classified as some form of criticism, comment or parody, all of which would most
likely fall under the fair use exception."

In a the recent Taubman case in the US court of appeals where the defendent
registered the five domains “taubmansucks.com”, “shoppsatwillowbendsucks.com”,
“theshoppsatwillowbendsucks.com”, “willowbendmallsucks.com” and
“willowbendsucks.com”, all of which contained trademarks and copyrights; the
courts ruled in favor of the defendant.
"Michkoff, the court said, had no intention to confuse or deceive
consumers, or to make a profit, and therefore his use of
Taubman’s marks was protected by free speech. As regards
Mishkoff’s use of the five “sucks.com” domains, the court found
that it was “purely an exhibition of Free Speech.” "

The court also said:
“Although economic damage might be an intended effect of Mishkoff’s expression,
the First Amendment protects critical commentary where there is no confusion as to
source, even when it involves the criticism of a business.” The court concluded
that restricting Mishkoff’s use of the Taubman marks on his complaint sites would
be no different to ordering him not to shout “Taubman Sucks!” from his rooftop,
and dismissed the company’s claims."

The company claims that I am violating federal anti-dilution laws.  According to
the Federal Anti-Dilution laws I am not violating a thing "The federal
anti-dilution statute itself provides only a partial safeguard against the danger
that large corporations will use the statute to insulate their products' images
from effective criticism. The statute does not apply to "noncommercial use" of a
mark. 15 U.S.C. § 1125(c)(4)(B) (1996)." Again, as this site does not make money
or link to any business of mine this is a non-commercial complaint site.

Please lets stop these big companies from thinking they can just step on the
little people! Email Nextel and let them know that you believe in freedom of
speech! Post about this story on message board, duplicate it (you have my
permission!) on your online journals, your websites! Link to my site at
www.theyreallysuck.org! Every consumer has a right to complain about a service or
a company!

I am contacting every major news website, magazine and television station that I
can about these threats. I've already been contacted by a newscaster that I wrote
to and he's very interested in my story and plans to tape and air it sometime next
week after I return from vacation on Monday. I'm hoping that more will respond.
I'm hoping they will put a video of it online so that I may link to it, or that I
might get permission to add it to my site. I have sent out about two hundred
emails in the last two days regarding this and plan to continue to contact
organizations that may be able to offer me some assistance in spreading the word.
I've contacted dozens of organizations that offer free legal assistance for issues
regarding freedom of speech, civil rights and online rights. A few of them sounded
interested and I'm hoping after further discussions one or more will assistant me
in defending myself against Nextel's threats. If I end up having to give up my
domain name I will make it my personal mission to speak out against what I believe
is a reverse domain hijacking and the big corporations that think it's okay to
ignore the law.
If we lose freedom of speech in America because the big companies that operate
here, what will we have left? We are guaranteed by law to be able to voice our
opinions yet in this letter they seem to disregard this completely. They don't
seem to mind saying I'm cybersquatting, when in fact what I'm doing is protected
under the very acts they are citing in their letter!
They seem to claim that YOU, the web surfer, the consumer, are so ignorant that
you would believe this site is somehow associated with their company! This isn't
just about my site, my domain, but about all the companies that believe it's okay
to bully consumers into silence.

Also I would like to announce another site that will be coming up as soon as I
have a little time to design it. The site is will feature any and all companies
that have attempted to take legitimate consumer complaint sites that are totally
non-commercial sites like my own as well as document past court cases pertaining
to what I feel is reverse domain hijacking. The future URL of this pro-free speech
site will be www.heythatsmydomain.com. If you own a sucks site that has been
threatened with legal action please let me know. I would like to hear your story
and list your site and your story on my website.

THIS IS A COPY OF THE LETTER I RECEIVED.
1801 K Street, N.W.
Suite 401L
Washington, D.C. 20006
202.419.7000
Fax 202.419.7007

July 07, 2003

Via E-Mail: [email-masked]

***** ***** ********
***** ********* ********
**********, ***** ******

Re: http://www.nextelsucks.org/

Dear *******************:

We represent Nextel Communications, Inc. ("NCI") in intellectual property matters.
NCI is a leader in providing wireless telecommunications products and services
throughout the world. NCI has used its famous NEXTEL mark in connection with
telecommunications services since at least as early as 1988 and owns several
United States federal trademark registrations for the mark NEXTEL, including
registration number 1,637,139 in International Class 38 for telecommunication
services. As a result of NCI's federal registrations and its continuous use of the
mark since 1988, NCI has exclusive rights in and to the mark NEXTEL.

It has come to our attention that you have registered the domain name,
http://www.nextelsucks.org/. Your unauthorized registration and use of the
http://www.nextelsucks.org/ domain name infringes our client's valuable trademark
rights and unfairly trades upon NCI's fame and established good-will. The public
is likely to be confused that the goods and services offered on your web site and
other content on your website emanates from, or is sponsored by NCI. Such
confusion dilutes the strength and value of our client's mark(s).

The activity that you are engaging in violates the Anti-Cybersquatting Consumer
Protection Act, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(d); federal anti-dilution laws, 15 U.S.C. §
1125(c); and federal unfair competition laws, 15 U.S.C. § 1125(a).  We therefore
request that you immediately cease and desist from any and all usage of the
http://www.nextelsucks.org/ domain name and transfer ownership of the domain name
to NCI. If you are registered with Verisign, visit

https://www.networksolutions.com/en_US/name-it/rnca-edit-reg.jhtml, otherwise,
contact your applicable Registrar. Then, transfer ownership of the domain name to
"Nextel Communications, Inc., 2001 Edmund Halley Drive Reston, VA, 20191." Please
list "Elaine Chin," at [email-masked] as the New Administrative Contact.
Send a copy of the new ownership (i.e.  Registrant) information to Fitch, Even,
Tabin & Flannery within ten (10) days of your receipt of this letter.
If you believe that you are a Nextel Authorized Representative ("AR"), Associate
Authorized Representative ("AAR") or Independent Sales Professional ("ISP"), you
must still transfer ownership of the domain name or risk termination of the Nextel
Authorized Representative Agreement between you and NCI.

We would like to avoid litigation in this matter if possible, however, our client
has authorized us to take any and all appropriate measures to stop your infringing
use of its mark(s). Your cooperation in completing the transfer of ownership will
resolve this matter. However, should further action become necessary, we are
prepared to seek other legal remedies to obtain ownership of the domain name, an
injunction prohibiting your further misappropriation and use of the NEXTEL mark(s)
and monetary damages. Nothing in this letter shall be construed as a waiver or
relinquishment of any rights or remedies possessed by NCI, all of which we
expressly reserve. Should you have any questions, you may contact me at
202.419.7000.
Sincerely,

FITCH, EVEN, TABIN & FLANNERY

/Sherri N. Blount/
Sherri N. Blount

http://www.nextelsucks.org/

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From: "Mark" <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 16:35:49 -0000

Boy...all I can say is what a site (nextelsuck.org)!  Reading some of 
the posts it seems like the site was taken over by NEXTEL employees 
(some current and some past) along with existing customer service 
reps going head to head with current and past customers.

Some of the posts are quite funny...lol

Mark

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From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 15:18:48 -0400

Yea, Nextel the company with 1000's of stories. The site demonstrates the level of
unhappiness of nextel customers. I must say Sprint is no winner either. I would
think rather than wasting money on frivolous lawsuits that have already been
tested and lost by large corps, Nextel would buddy up with this guy and try to
make him & other posters happy. Then the site could be called
www.nexteldoesgood.com.........

Opppssss ......sorry I was day dreaming on that last sentence.

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