"I read about your domain problem on The Register, and just wanted to offer a little moral support. Don't let them bully you into anything - you registered it first, you were trading first, and you have a legitimate reason for using this domain name. It's not your fault they decided to change their name over, and now want to use your initials. Two words for them:- "Tough sh*t!". :-)"
From John based at a communications solution based company in Somerset"I have to keep this short because pages of four letter words quickly become boring..... YOU and your company are are right....THE "QUANGO" is wrong... I sincerely wish everyone at Findlay Steele Associates the very best of fortune in this dispute. "
From Tony, Proprietor of a business providing interfaces to building control systems, based in Crawley, West Sussex,
"I really sympathise with your situation. Many small businesses such as my
own may find ourselves in this situation in the future. My own domain name
"I've read your about your domain dispute on the Register then visited your site. Its a very sad to see that someone with money and power can go after the "little guy" It seems to be an all too familiar theme these days. There was a similar dispute awhile back with some guy whose name is NISSAN and has been fighting with the Nissan Car company name for sometime now. Don't where it's going(he hasn't updated anything in a month) but you might be able to get some assitance there. Good Luck"
From Ronald, working for a well known plastic food storage container company"Very interesting... I don't have much to say and hope you win... Ever think of attacking them with the same thing? I mean you did have the name first :) Good Luck,"
From Mike at Blue Yonder"No, you don't know me. I just read the news on TheRegister.co.uk about your domain dispute and was shocked! This typical bully attitude has always been around, and they think that just because they have the money that they CAN take what they like, even though they have no right to it. Way to go you guys! This kind of thing is rife in the world, and smaller people who simply can't afford to even try and battle against them are force to hand over whatever they want. This is a terrible injustice! I find it particularly amusing that they claim you are pretending to be them, even though the name was registered before they came into being! The next trick is they will trademark "fsa" to force you to hand it over (since you can't own the trademark - like "StarWars" was done to another fan). Perhaps you could do this first? At any rate, I wish you all the best, and hope you (not to be too rude) STUFF EM!"
From David also at Blue Yonder"I have just read of your plight at www.theregister.co.uk and would like to urge you to not give up your web site, If a company who registered there domain name, are using there site, and have clients such as yours, is forced to hand over there site just because the FSA or any other body wish to use it, then what hope is there for the rest of us. Stick to your guns, don't let them have there way, tell them to use . org or something. One to many domain names have been taken away from the small independent web user of late, but where as cyber squatting and such like has been claimed, the FSA can hardly claim this is the case here. When a spotty nosed 16 year old, is trying to make a fast buck out of ICI or someone, then fair enough, but in this case I say first come first served, it works for company names, so should it for domain names. I would like to offer you my moral support on this matter, and hope you are triumphant in the end. Best of luck"
From Craig at a UK consulting firm"Hello, Clearly a blatant attempt at bullying you into handing the domain name over. Scandelous! Good luck in your battle."
From Dr. Adrian of Exeter:" Some pillock will have got stuck into not losing (face) and rather an doing his job will be devoting his expensive energies to causing you trouble. Simples thing, if they are worried about confusion, would be for them to change their name. A company doing its due diligence work before launching would have chose a different name, and a 'Net aware person would have simply made a deal with you to handle each other's mail (if there is confusion, then surely it must be going each way - have they forwarded the emails that were intended for _you_ on to you?. Good luck."
From Alun of a UK service company"Hopefully Nominet will make the right decision and dismiss the claim by the FSA. If they don't please let me know and I'll certainly raise issue about this on the Nominet members mailing list. I heard about this on theregister.co.uk, I suggest you try to get as much publicity about this through the mainstream press to embarass the bullies. "
From Lorraine, Hamburg, Germany "Don't get to down by it all, we all wish you the best on this one." From Matthew, a worker in the IT industry " I have been very interested to read of your dispute (in www.theregister.co.uk) - and thought you might be keen to hear of a similar problem. I work in the IT training industry and one of my associates worked for Prince Training. They registered the name www.prince.com and soon afterwards the (American) Prince company wanted the same name... As I understand it, the initial ruling was that a US company was *more entitled* to a .com name than a UK company even if the name had already been registered! Luckily this was corrected on appeal and the British company won in the end! I thought it might also help to mention that some individuals with a .org address have had complaints similar to the (other) FSA's one with you. However a .org address was intended only for non profit organisations and such cases cannot be won by a business. In your own case, a .co.uk address is clearly one intended for a UK company. The Finacial services Authority has a regulatory role and is therefore not a typical 'company'. I would suggest that for them to have a .co.uk address would be to misrepresent their role and that their existing .gov.uk classification is more appropriate. They ought to educate their users rather than hope that a guessed address will link to their site. I hope this helps, and that you win the case!" From Steve, at a company offering webservices to Norfolk and the UK I read today of your dispute with the FSA on The Register's website (www.theregister.co.uk) and subsequently read through your account. Very entertaining - nice to see that you've retained a sense of humour through all this - but obviously worrying for yourselves. I wondered if the e-mails you thought were "trumped-up" had been examined to ascertain where they had been sent from. The "headers" of these mails give clues as to their origin (ie. the servers used to relay the messages). Or did you destroy them before you had a chance to look? Also, is it possible to set up your domain's e-mail facilities so that mailboxes which don't physically exist are rejected automatically and sent back to the originator? In this way, mail sent to real mailboxes at your company (ie. john@, Jane@, software.sales@ ) will still reach you. If this is an appropriate setup for your business, you may wish to consider offering it as a complete solution to the FSA's "problem" (or then again, maybe you wouldn't!) Anyway, good luck in your dispute." From Simon in Leicestershire " I'd like to register my support of your plight (or should that be fight ?). For a government body to be greedy and pick on a private company is appauling. The government should be fighting for peoples rights, not taking them away. you would think that maybe they should have more important things to do ? best wishes" From Mike, a system programmer from Nottinghamshire "I read with interest your story on the negotiations with the FSA and Nominet. Firstly I wish you all the best - I have registered my own domain, and although at the time of writing I doubt any organisation would want it, I would be devastated if a claim for it came out of the blue. I did want to make one point. You mentioned the organisation Freshfields sent you confidential information via email. This will have traversed several servers and networks on its way to you, and it is well known that confidential information like this should not be emailed without some form of security (encryption most likely). Of course your main point is to prove your appropriate handling of the material, but as far as Freshfields is concerned, it should be the least of their worries. Perhaps a point worth making to them. Rest assured, if the other FSA manages to secure your domain, I'll be sure to regularly ask them for consultancy on software engineering, advice on buying and upgrading PCs, secretarial support, genealogical research and corporate catering. Perhaps the readers of The Register should be asked to do the same." From Ali B (location not known) "I just thought I'd write to offer my support for you in this ridiculous matter with the FSA. I hope you win" From Steve, Wellington, New Zealand "Good luck with your domain name saga. Don't let the bastards wear you down." From Terry, a computer professional from Lincolnshire "This is just a quick note to let you know that there are still some people out there who believe that an individual or company is not entitled to all the permutations of their name + TLD. If people cannot remember to mail .gov.uk instead of .co.uk then that is not your problem. I would expect that Nominet would rule in your favour, simply because of the amount of time you have had the domain, plus most of the guys/gals there have some common sense unlike their WIPO equivalents. The only advice I can offer is that you could also use Nominet's 'likely to cause confusion to an Internet user' rule to your own advantage. Claim that the fsa.gov.uk domain is likely to cause confusion with your own. As this could potentially be a 'test case' for ISPs throughout the United Kingdom, you could always e-mail Nominet members directly and ask them to voice their opinions directly to Nominet. You may not have any influence over Nominet, but letters of support from leading ISPs in the United Kingdom would only serve to strengthen your case if it ever went to court. UK Online (http://www.ukonline.co.uk/) would almost certainly like to hear from you as it was not that long ago that the Government registered ukonline.gov.uk and they were faced by the same problem you are having. They are also a Nominet member and may be able to help you with your case. Anyway, I wish you luck with your dispute!" From Beny, Los Angeles, California "My interest in this case is solely curiosity, as I picked up the story on The Register and decided to read through your well written pages. If the facts are as presented, this is easy. You are right. They are wrong. And if you do succeed as you ought to, and this goes one further step, there will never have been a better case for a lawsuit, in my mind, against them for harassment. Bringing you to court is a waste of your time and your money and the obvious purpose is because they have more money than you to succeed. The money they will have spent on their errant cause probably will be more, when the thing is over, than they could have just paid you for it. Don't give in. Right-minded individuals are behind you and hope not only to see you succeed, but to actually prosper as a result of this. Make the bastards pay for this intentional infliction of harm." From Maarten, location not known "I have no interest in your company BUT to wish you very good luck in your (legal) battle against the FSA.gov.uk people. In a normal world you would not be in any problem at all, but having seen what happened to madonna.com makes you wonder sometimes what kinda world this is. Good luck, and hopefully I will be able to congratulate you on your victory, on the same email address. Maarten ps. I send a letter to your countries DNS regulator to support your case" From Adam at The Bowery (where ever that may be) "Just a message of support against the fsa.gov.uk w*nkers! I hope they loose big time as they have shown they don't have a clue about how the net works, anyway they hardly sound like a real force that would get confused with you. Tell them about the new .info domains, tell them to f*ck off and get hold of fsa.info or something. Sorry for the swearing" From Kev K "Damn I hope u kick their butts. It is not fair and again I hope you win .. add a guest book and lets us poor net users say what we think about the Gov't and QUANGO's F*ck em" From Justin in America "I thought that this kind of nonsense only occurred here in the United States. The implications of a larger company having the power to forcibly take a smaller company's assets simply because of their relative size are unthinkable. These bullying tactics are unforgiveable and I hope will be given the full (lack of) attention they deserve. Good luck, and please fight the good fight!" From David in Reading, Berkshire "You have my complete support in this matter. If the Nominet exec rules in the favour of the FSA then their dispute resolution system is seriously flawed. Intimidation must be illegal and when you registered your name how on earth could you anticipate a quango coming into existence with initials the same as yours? " From Andy at Hotmail "Just thought that i'd drop you a quick email to say that I fully support you in your stand against the financial services authority. It is all too common that legitimate traders and companies who have registered domains get taken for a ride by the 'big boys', and have to defend themselves when they can ill afford the time and expenses that it entails. I was reading on TheRegister.co.uk (where I found about yourselves) about EasyJet, and how they are also taking anyone to court who has a domain name Easy????????.co.uk. I could understand it if you (or anyone else) were falsely attempting to pass yourselves off as said organisation, but when you have had the domain for longer than they have been in business!?!?! Beggars belief. Have you tried contacting the newspapers? as I know the Mail on Sunday financial pages always love stories like this. I wish you luck in your fight." From Mike at a UK Financial Company "As far as I am aware your use of your domain name is a valid as your use of your companies name. You are being unjustly accused in my opinion by the Financial Services authority who are an organisation and not a company and therefore should be using fsa.org.uk and not fsa.co.uk as they appear to believe. I hope that Nominet finally find in your favour." From Simon based at a well known Swiss banking firm "I was appalled to read your story. The FSA (the other FSA) are way out of order. If Nominet take away your rights then you should sue. Maybe 100,000 small business should email fsa.gov.uk 'innocently' enquiring about Findlay Steele Associates' services?" From David in South Africa (sent using the 'who is fergal george' link) "I have no idea but man I love you site! Good luck to you folks and go easy on that gin!" From Luis in Portugal "I can only recomend something... countersuit... but yes that means lawyers, money and the like... Cheers and good luck with the suits..." From a gentleman who's name is withheld for obvious reasons "I'm on the Nominet Policy Advisory Board and helped develop the dispute resolution service you are currently going through for fsa.co.uk. I think you have a good case for keeping your domain name. If the dispute resolution service finds against you, let me know and I'll bring it up at the next PAB meeting. Unfortunately there's not much you can do about the FSA taking you to court if the DRS finds against them - there is always the right to take your case to court. However that they have lost once already is likely to influence any judge that they're on to a losing battle. And if they win the court case, we have an interesting problem in that the Nominet DRS, a service almost everyone has judged fair and impartial, says something different to a court of law." From Brian - sent via Yahoo mail services "I think its clear that the Financial Services Authority are confused. I hate seeing stupid large organisations using bully boy tactics. Unfortunately for you the entire law is a mess (as well as an arse) in relation to the internet, email etc. I wouldn't trust that firm of Solicitors with any of my legally privilege information. If they had been doing the sensible thing and using encryption then it wouldn't be an issue, I suspect that they were fishing. As to passing off, don't make me laugh, you could equally well claim that the similarity that fsa.gov.uk has to yourselves is causing you ill will because they're such jerks. The email with the incorrect email address suggests that they need better quality control, and to not send email as html which is a despicable practice in any case. I hope you win the dispute, and any (god forbid) subsequent court cases." From another gentleman whose name is withheld for obvious reasons "The company I work for are members of Nominet and I am their representative. I am completely disgusted with the behaviour of the FSA quango. It's probably illegal too. Unfortunately, it's the little companies who suffer nowadays whilst the big boys do what the hell they want. Perhaps appealing to Nominet's sense of what is right is the way to go, as appealing to the legalities of the situation may fall on deaf ears. I'm no lawyer though. Concentrate on the Fergal George email as I reckon this is a fake. The confusion lies with them as does the subterfuge. I found out about this story fromThere then followed lots of wonderful legal advice which I won't print here - just hold it up my sleeve should it be needed in the future!
From Not the FSA! "The very best of luck in your fight from all at www.notthefsa.co.uk - a site that has been not being the FSA since early last year!" From Lee, based in Henly-on-Thames "Good one you, keep up the fight. You have EVERY right to keep the domain.!" From Phil, based in Bolton, Lancashire "Hope you win through. It's just another case of the big boys getting all the best toys." From a barrister called Nick "I assume your counsel has looked clearly at the acquiescence rules as FSA must have known since 1997/8 that you were using the site." From Neil, at an international design consultancy "An interesting analogy that occured to me while reading about your domain dispute, particularly in regards to Freshfields' misdirected email, is that of a mis-dialed fax. If someone at Freshfields had faxed those confidential documents to you in error, the finger of blame would naturally be pointed towards the mis-dialer at Freshfields. I don't see any difference between mis-dialling a fax and mis-typing an email address, and BT would hardly entertain a request to have your fax number pulled as a result of some other party's inability to dial accurately or programme speed-dial. I must also say that I'm very disappointed, though not terribly surprised, that a lawyer is sending confidential documents via plaintext internet email - even leaving aside the possibility for mis-typing the recipient's address, the confidential data will be passing over a public network in a form that can readily be intercepted and read. Were I a client of Freshfields I would be particularly concerned to know this. The Office for the Supervision of Solicitors at the Law Society, who deal with matters of misconduct and unprofessional behaviour by solicitors, may also be interested and can be reached at 0845 608 6565 or on the web at http://www.oss.lawsociety.org.uk/
Copyright 2001 - 2005, Findlay Steele Associates Ltd
Comments to: Webmaster