Closed Bug 460905 Opened 16 years ago Closed 15 years ago

Need to obtain GeckoIsGecko.org domain

Categories

(Tech Evangelism Graveyard :: English US, defect)

Product:
Tech Evangelism Graveyard
Component:
English US
Type:
defect
Priority:
Not set
Severity:
normal

Tracking

(Not tracked)

Status:
RESOLVED FIXED

People

(Reporter: bugzilla-graveyard, Assigned: reed)

References

(
URL
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Details

The guy who had registered/hosted geckoisgecko.org let it expire because he was no longer interested in maintaining it. It was a very valuable TE resource that we ought to bring under the control of the Foundation, but unfortunately that's going to require money now, as a squatter has grabbed it. Bob, is there a process by which we would need to put forth a formal proposal to get MoFo to sponsor the acquisition of this domain name? I'd suggest we just pick a new domain, but the old one was catchy, summed up the problem nicely, and most importantly, was fairly well-known and widely used amongst TE folks, and it totally sucks that it goes to an ad site now.
Domain expired, GoDaddy auctioned it off, and now this other company (LeaseDomains.com, Inc.) wants $$$ for it. I've asked the company how much it wants, and I got back: "You can just send us your ABSOLUTE BEST AND HIGHEST offer in this email, and we will then either accept it or reject it from there." I'm willing to put some money towards this and/or host the site myself, but if MoFo wishes to help out here, that would be appreciated.
Well, the right people are cc'd here, but I am inclined not to have to pay more than a token amount for the domain. It is sad that it was just left to expire. Personally, I think I would prefer the resources be recreated on devmo.
(In reply to comment #2) > Well, the right people are cc'd here, but I am inclined not to have to pay more > than a token amount for the domain. It is sad that it was just left to expire. > Personally, I think I would prefer the resources be recreated on devmo. What is "a token amount"?
From their wording and use of caps in "ABSOLUTE BEST AND HIGHEST", I'm pretty sure any reasonable amount would be rejected. The more I think about it, the less I like the situation. Let's just won't fix this and move on.
I now own http://www.geckoisgecko.info/ and have moved the old website (obtained through archive.org) to it. I wanted to get .org, but the squatters were asking a minimum of US$480 for it. I thought dropping a Hamilton for 2 years of the .info was a better deal. I'm quite happy to host the website and receive any suggestions for the content of it, but if MoFo wants to take ownership of it I'm fine with that too.
My apologies for not commenting before now. One issue with using geckoisgecko.* (or similarly named domains) as an official Mozilla Foundation site is that we don't actually own the Gecko trademark. Both the word mark "Gecko" and the Gecko logo are trademarks of Netscape/AOL/Time Warner. If we're going to invest significant Mozilla Foundation time/money into this, it might be better spent on promoting our own brands (e.g., Mozilla, XUL, etc.). However I see no reason why people couldn't run independent Gecko sites, and we could link to them from official Mozilla sites, as long as Netscape's trademarks get properly acknowledged. (Note in this regard that actually using the Gecko logo on such a site would require Netscape/AOL/TW permission.)
Frank, thanks for the clarification. I thought Gecko was part of the trademark transfers when the foundation was started, but it is good to know the real case. Thanks Chris H., I suppose we could change all links we have from .org to .info, but think the best approach is to just host this type of content on mozilla.{com,org} and be done with the issue for all time. I think Chris L. should make the final call on this bug's resolution.
Frank, is there a reason why Gecko wasn't also transferred to MoFo? Any chance what's left of AOL wants to do that now? I'm OK with hosting it at *.m.o/*.m.c but it needs a HIGHLY visible and memorable URL.
(In reply to comment #8) > Frank, is there a reason why Gecko wasn't also transferred to MoFo? Any chance > what's left of AOL wants to do that now? I don't know the history behind the Gecko trademark and why it stayed with Netscape. However Gerv reminded me via email that we apparently do have some sort of license to use the mark(s), though neither he nor I know the exact details. I think there are two questions here: First, what are our exact rights with respect to the Gecko mark(s)? This is something I can and will research. Second, to what extent do we want to invest resources into promoting Gecko as a brand? This is really a broader discussion that should involve MoFo, MoCo, MoMo, and the community at large. With respect to that, we're currently proposing to build an active "Powered by Mozilla" program that would presumably be directed at (among other things) people doing embedding of Gecko into their own products. We also have, e.g., developer.mozilla.org to promote Mozilla technologies, including Gecko, to potential embedders. Do we want/need additional specialized sites and promotion for Gecko by itself? (That's not a rhetorical question, I'm asking for people's views on this.)
A "Powered by Mozilla" program would, IMO, be a very acceptable alternative to promoting the concept of Gecko being the same in all browsers. As far as the general public is concerned, "Mozilla" probably has much better name recognition than "Gecko" does anyway. (I know that's how I describe Camino to folks who aren't familiar with it -- as a Mozilla browser for the Mac.)
It may be worth setting up a Powered by Mozilla site at some point to highlight apps running on our platform. Worth noting someone grabbed it this summer: Registrant: Liquid Orb Media, Inc. 9728 3rd ave #339 Brooklyn, New York 11209 United States Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com) Domain Name: POWEREDBYMOZILLA.COM Created on: 15-Jul-08 Expires on: 15-Jul-09 Last Updated on: 12-Oct-08 Frank: worth alerting our trademark lawyers to this? Or simply asking these folks about their plans?
(In reply to comment #11) > It may be worth setting up a Powered by Mozilla site at some point to highlight > apps running on our platform. Worth noting someone grabbed it this summer: <snip> > Frank: worth alerting our trademark lawyers to this? Or simply asking these > folks about their plans? Both I think. We have a requirement that people sign a domain name agreement form requesting permission from us to use Mozilla trademarks as part of their domain name. I'll confer with Harvey and Catherine on this, and decide how to proceed.
Right now we are building out the Powered by Mozilla content on mozilla.org and I'm happy to look into adding additional pages (such as recreating the information that was on geckoisgecko.org). If anyone is interested in this, let me know and we'll put something together for review. I will also contact the owner of poweredbymozilla.com, but there are other URL options to consider. Initially I've set up www.mozilla.org/poweredby but we could also do poweredby.mozilla.org or something else.
Reed bought geckoisgecko.org, so we can close this bug. Thanks, Reed!
Status: NEW → RESOLVED
Closed: 15 years ago
Resolution: --- → FIXED
Assignee: english-us → reed
Product: Tech Evangelism → Tech Evangelism Graveyard
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