
Gail, not Gmail - rcach001
https://gail.com/
======
tyingq
Also interesting in this space....

Microsoft vs a High School Kid:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_vs._MikeRoweSoft)

Google fails to win dispute for oogle.com:
[http://blog.dnattorney.com/2012/07/google-loses-ooglecom-
dom...](http://blog.dnattorney.com/2012/07/google-loses-ooglecom-domain-
name.html)

Julia Roberts gets control of her namesake domain, but Bruce Springsteen does
not:
[http://www.ivanhoffman.com/bruce.html](http://www.ivanhoffman.com/bruce.html)

~~~
mrstone
Uhh... so don't even try going to oogle.com

It just takes over your browser and makes it impossible to close without
killing the PID.

~~~
NoahTheDuke
In Chrome, I clicked the "Prevent page from creating additional pop-ups."
checkbox, and then closed the page normally. What browser are you using that
doesn't have such an option?

~~~
mulletbum
Chrome. Mine did not have that experience.

------
irfanka
Someone from Bosnia registered [http://microsoft.ba/](http://microsoft.ba/) \-
and is showing Linux logos there! He's been holding onto the domain for years,
now.

~~~
nojvek
That's funny. I guess if they try to make their site look like a legit
Microsoft site then they'll be in a lot of trouble.

------
dvirsky
I once worked with a guy who had a domain that is the name of a major bank in
my country (i.e. he owned {bank_name}.xyz and the bank's domain is
{bank_name}-bank.xyz). Somehow he managed to hold on to it over the years.

Anyway, he had a catch-all email account for the domain, an sometimes
interesting stuff would arrive. One day he showed me an email he had just
received from a major investment firm that read more or less like this:

> Hey Jane, what's up?

> So I need to transfer those $50M we talked about over the phone the other
> day, just wanted to confirm the account. It's 123456789, right? If not, do
> send me the account number. Thanks!

Of course he didn't even reply, but he said these things happened pretty
often.

~~~
erelde
Smells like phishing to me :)

An email trying to pass as a normal workplace email.

~~~
roninb
I'm sure a vast majority of it was phishing, but you may be surprised to know
how many and how often people send info like that over unencrypted email.

~~~
erelde
Oh yes I agree, that's why phishing exists in the first place. Because people
do it, so someone can take advantage of those people's (bad) habits.

------
burntsushi
The FAQ links to an account of an attempted takeover of the domain that I
found fascinating to read:
[http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2006/d2006...](http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2006/d2006-0655.html)

Some interesting excerpts:

> vii) it is unlikely that the Respondent was unaware of the Complainant’s
> trademark considering the fame and tradition of the trademark GAIL

I have personally never heard of GAIL and found it funny that this was part of
the complaint. They even move on from "unlikely" to "fact" when accusing the
owners of gail.com that they were acting in bad faith:

> Furthermore, because the Respondent registered the domain name exactly when
> the Complainant increased its sales of GAIL products to the United States,
> this should be identified as an abusive practice. Lastly, the Respondent
> knew about the existence of the Complainant and of its GAIL trademark and
> nevertheless proceeded with the registration of the domain name.

The owners of gail made a counter-claim:

> (d) Reverse Domain Name Hijacking

> The Respondent alleges that the Complainant is using the Policy in bad faith
> for reverse domain name hijacking.

The arbiters ended up deciding that the owners of gail.com had a "legitimate
interest" in operating the domain name, so they didn't comment on GAIL's
accusation of bad faith.

(As someone who really detests IP law in its various forms, I've always found
it unnerving that domain names can be seized simply based on whether a third
party thinks your use is "legitimate" or not.)

~~~
zymhan
It is weird how DNS names can be legally reassigned. It's like being forced to
move to a different street or something. Or to give up a neat phone number
because another company has the same phoneword.

~~~
KanyeBest
How else would you deal with cybersquatters?

------
Aissen
> Q: I think you're infringing on my trademark...

> A: If you consult with someone well versed in trademark law, they will tell
> you that you can't have an exclusive trademark on a common word or name. My
> husband and I successfully defended ourselves against an attempted domain
> takeover in 2006; see WIPO Case D2006-0655 for more information.

Well, it depends on the jurisdiction. In France, in the infamous "Milka" case,
the opposite happened:
[https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka_contre_Kraft_Foods](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milka_contre_Kraft_Foods)
(french)

~~~
byroot
Even in France that wouldn't fly. Milka lost this case because besides having
the milka.fr domains, her webdesign was using a color close to the brand one.

As a result the judges ruled that she was piggybacking on the established
brand.

If her design was say green instead of purple, she would likely have won the
trial.

~~~
Aissen
Yes, this is one of the reasons cited in the Wikipedia article I linked.
Another might be not having the legal resources of a US$ 20-40B company.

~~~
byroot
> Yes, this is one of the reasons cited in the Wikipedia article I linked.

Which most readers here can't understand. That's why I though it was important
to stress it here.

~~~
Aissen
Thanks.

------
bronlund
This just made my day. I'm a big believer in karma and you obviously have your
shit together :)

------
a_rahmanshah
Somewhat related: [http://www.purple.com](http://www.purple.com)

~~~
ipsum2
Also in fun domain-related trivia: [http://nissan.com/](http://nissan.com/)

~~~
gravypod
So you can have a last name, use it as your trademark first, file all sorts of
documents, get two domains, and then be put through the hoops by a forign
company?

That's crazy. This guy whould have been awarded damages. He was the first to
use Nissan in America before the auto-company in 1984.

~~~
sbarre
The story of nissan.com has always been a fascinating (and angering) case
study since domains have been a thing and since the UDRP was put in place.

Nissan (the car company) has been predatory and downright evil in their
attempts to wrest nissan.com from Fred.

------
blauditore
I think you couldn't make much money out of this anyway. 5k daily visitors
sounds decent, but they are of low "quality": They quickly leave and would
generate bad click-through rates. It would probably yield less than $100 a
month.

~~~
chrismorgan
How about if you monetised it by phishing, pretending to actually be
gmail.com?

~~~
mfukar
How about punching a policeman, instead, and cut down on the time until you
are transferred to a cell?

~~~
gravypod
There's nothing wrong with receiving emails.

I don't think it's actually illegal to do that. Just a bit morally off.

~~~
detaro
Just receiving e-mails would hardly be a way to "monetize it by phishing".

~~~
Cpoll
You could probably just redirect all emails to @gmail.com, and most users
would be none the wiser. Then you'd be able to trivially do password resets on
any accounts that were created with the typo domain.

~~~
gravypod
Or just sell the emails to unsavory people.

They were sent to you, you have a right to sell them (so long as you're in a
one-party-consent state when it comes to recording). You're up to snuff law-
wise.

Definetly a shady thing to do.

------
erdemozg
I would be tempted to implement a custom SMTP server that accepts every email
as if that target mailbox exists and collect them on a nosql db (just for
curiosity and technical challenge) though I have no idea if I'd face any legal
issues.

~~~
NKCSS
It's called Catch-All; I have it set up for my Google For Work account (e.g. I
have a gmail that receives _@my domain). So, you could use gmail to catch all
e-mails to_ @gail.com; no need for a 'custom SMTP server'.

~~~
throwanem
You can also do this with a real MTA; no need for Google, either.

~~~
NKCSS
I know; was just an example of an available 'Catch-All' solution.

Back in the day™ I wrote a C# dll to add the functionality to my Exchange
server (was not an option back then; don't know if it's possible out of the
box now). There are many solutions once you know what to look for (e.g. the
phrase 'Catch-All')

------
binocarlos
haha amazing - the 'm' key on my keyboard broke a few months ago - I'm fairly
sure I account for at least 2% of the hits that month!

~~~
shilch
So you visited gail.co?

~~~
vmarsy
Only if the parent doesn't know about Ctrl+Enter and still waste time trying
to type ".com"

~~~
magic_beans
What is this shortcut you speak of? And in which browsers is it useful?

------
dfrey
I can understand the desire to not cave to "the man" and keep your domain, but
why not just sell it for $ludicrous_sum and register another domain?

~~~
legohead
Especially considering the enormous amount of TLDs now.

------
tmaly
This is what I loved about the web back in the day. I remember putting up my
first web page and coming across Matt's script archive.

~~~
ourcat
Matt's Script Archive is where it _all_ began for me.

All those years ago a company paid me £15k to build them a website which they
could update themselves.

So I turned WWWBoard into a kind of blog/publishing system for them and they
loved it. Cha-ching! :)

------
HappyTypist
They must get a lot of mistakenly addressed emails.

~~~
_nalply
Perhaps. They are using ProtonMail. (Found out by using dig.)

------
nrki
If Google was worried about mail being siphoned off (via typos), they'd just
have to setup a periodic automatic check.

gail.com don't currently accept email for @gmail.com:

    
    
        $ host -t mx gail.com
        gail.com mail is handled by 10 mail.protonmail.ch.
    
        $ nc -w1 mail.protonmail.ch 25
        220 mail1i.protonmail.ch ESMTP Postfix
        HELO test.com
        250 mail1i.protonmail.ch
        mail from:<test@test.com>
        250 2.1.0 Ok
        rcpt to:<test@gmail.com>
        554 5.7.1 <test@gmail.com>: Relay access denied
        421 4.7.0 mail1i.protonmail.ch Error: too many errors

~~~
peeters
I'm lost, probably because I know nothing about SMTP and mail routing. If you
were worried about typos where they accidentally use @gail.com instead of
@gmail.com, why would it not accepting @gmail.com be relevant?

Or are you talking about a typo in the routing config itself?

------
mungoid
I want more people like this domain owner in the world

------
crooked-v
I wonder how many people have sent angry emails to gail.com for not being
gmail.com.

You may think I'm joking, but think back to that "some random blog post showed
up as the first Google result for 'Facebook'" incident and you'll get what I
mean.

------
petercooper
The husband in question is a very accomplished engineer and owns his own first
name as a domain too :-) [https://kevin.org/](https://kevin.org/) \- not dot
com sadly!

------
PopsiclePete
Reminds me of [http://www.nissan.com](http://www.nissan.com).

I get why it's appealing on a "little guy against big nameless corporation"
level, but honestly, it's like an annoying kid who wants attention.

It's not like gail.com or nissan.com are providing any content that
99.999999999% would find remotely interesting or useful, I imagine most are
just annoyed to accidentally stumble on some barely-coherent anti-capitalist
rambling.

But I get it. It's cool to be a rebel.

~~~
vollmond
I mean... if you walk into my storefront and get annoyed I'm not selling what
you expected, because you meant to walk into my neighbor's storefront, why
should I feel bad about that? Why should I change anything? Seems like an odd
perspective.

My domain doesn't have any content most people would find remotely interesting
or useful. If a large corporation names a product similarly to my domain,
should I feel pressured into changing?

Cue Office Space Michael Bolton quote.

------
uptownhr
how do you get an account?

~~~
INTPenis
Invite only.

------
synesso
That is wonderful. If only my common gmail typo (gmamil) was as delightful,
instead of being a vector for evil.

~~~
Beltiras
gmamil.com takes you places.....

------
skaber
So there's really no way for a company to take over a domain if they have a
legitimate reason? My company's dot com shows what looks to be a low value
video. I've reached out to the guy a few years ago and he simply replied that
there were some things that money couldn't buy... Petal.com if you're
interested. I'd love to have that domain, and yeah it's affecting our brand.

~~~
gregshap
There are ways but "I named my company after a common English word, someone
already owns the domain for that word and it would benefit me to own it
instead" is not a legitimate reason.

~~~
nkrisc
Agreed 100%. If your company was founded sometime after 2000 and you picked a
name before registering that domain, you have no one to blame but yourself.
You could say 2003 if you want to be generous.

~~~
feijfe33
I bought my first domain in 1996 for a startup I was doing. I thought I was
late to the domain registration game.

------
SubiculumCode
I wonder if gmail sends him/her a small check to keep gail.com clean and
friendly. No advertising needed.

------
david90
They really need to conserve bandwidth.

~~~
nicky0
I think they host it on their own home server, or at least did at the time of
the WIPO case, since that mentions conserving DSL bandwidth.

------
sebkomianos
And how about this (from the source code):

"<font size="+1" face="ARIAL,HELVETICA">"

------
jug
The HTML is clearly also from 1996. :)

------
diegoperini
The site can maybe be used for presenting easy to understand educational
content about phishing.

~~~
paulcole
The site is already being used. I don't think they're looking for bright
ideas.

------
ankimal
Why not show ads and give the money to a charity or any other foundation of
your choice?

~~~
jordigh
It appears that they object to ads in principle ("if you feel like you need
more ads in your life..."), which is something I respect immensely. I wish
more people made a stand against advertising. It is psychological manipulation
that we are guilted into accepting for the good of capitalism.

~~~
SomeStupidPoint
It's not even for the good of capitalism: it transforms the market in to a
competition to weaponize psychology instead of creating value -- something
most of us would argue is a market inefficiency of the modern system.

Advertisers will eventually strangle capitalism by increasing the
irrationality of market actors until the basic mechanism of effective capital
allocation breaks down.

Some would argue we're toeing or slightly across that line.

------
aakilfernandes
Gail for President

------
kahrkunne
I would plaster that shit with ads, it's free money.

~~~
Quarrelsome
Its free money but it makes the world a sader place. Like how enacted
liability claims forced lawyers to force organisations to get insurance which
forced unprofitable activities that couldn't justify the cost to cease. Like
the egg and spoon race in my local town that used to occur for children every
year. That ceased around the 2000's.

The late 90's/2000's was when the bad "sue for everything" habit came from
over the pond and the thousands of extra lawyers (trained by our desire for
more people to go to university) suddenly needed to find work. Also this is
when driving insurance premiums skyrocketed because suddenly everyone was
claiming for whiplash because it was "free money" that we all have to
collectively pay back. Some things that appear free are not really free, I
guess that's my point.

------
teetermld
Trying way too hard to make people think anyone cares...

------
bridgeplayer12
It really annoys me that they are not monetizing this.

------
nnoitra
Lol. I don't see why you'd do something like this unless you had infinite
money. Put some ads and donate the money to any cause you care about.

There are people starving in this world and I'm gonna go ahead keep my famous
page that gets loads of hits just to prove that I don't have to sell it or put
ads on it. Fuck you, by us!

------
77yy77yy
The UDRP process is a joke and they got lucky with one panelist. Best go with
three and an attorney.

They're easily leaving over US$ 500 a day on the table, for many years. Even
if you hate advertising, take the money and donate to some charity. There are
many who can use that kind of funds.

Wasteful.

~~~
adventured
> Even if you hate advertising, take the money and donate to some charity.
> There are many who can use that kind of funds.

It's terrible, all these people with houses in prominent traffic locations and
people driving vehicles in high density urban environments, who refuse to
place advertising all over their property. So much money being left on the
table - even at low ad rates - they could be helping the less fortunate with
those billions of collective ad dollars.

