Richard Fateman <fateman at eecs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
On Sat, Jul 2, 2011 at 17:08, Richard Fateman <fateman at eecs.berkeley.edu> wrote:
I just visited
http://www.macsyma.com/
there is a note on the bottom that this domain may be for sale.
Of course, but this doesn't mean what you think.
It is common practice by the scummier animals of the internet when a
longstanding domain name expires, to squat on that name by various means
for some redicuously miniscule cost. (I forget the details.) Most
expired domain names expired because the nae was no longer "in
business", but sometimes a valuable, active nae isn't renewed because of
the client's administrative screwup. The squatters try to make money by
selling the name back to the original owner, or someone else who has
legitimate use for that name.
If you visit the www.macsyma.com site, you will see that it is nothing
more than an automatic advertising squatting site. It has nothing to do
with Macsyma, and clicking on the single Macsyma link just brings you to
more scam links. After you do this, remember to close all the hidden
pop-up windows. You might also want to restart your browser, and run a
virus scan of your machine.
This has little to do with the trademark status, although once some
living people can claim the trademark, that might have bearing on
reclaiming the url.
Free online trademark search tells me that Macsyma is still a
trademark (from 1984) and so is Macsyma Newsletter, owned by Macsyma
Inc. (no address?)
Owned, I believe, by Ira Topping. But he's dead. "So it goes."
(Vonnegut) So until that trademark expires (when will it?) his estate
(which, last I heard, lives on in a cardboard box in some lawyer's
office) will continue to own it. Richard and I know someone who might
know how to find this lawyer, in case anyone wants to make an offer.
The name isn't worth very much -- although not so much that the maxima
community couldn't collect that much. But this would not be enough for
the estate (aka the lawyer) to want to bother doing business.
Macsyma CD-ROM appears to be for sale at Amazon for $61.05. go figure.
Does it come with a license?