Microsoft is backing down from a cease-and-desist letter
it sent to Engadget.com, a blog site that Redmond officials say ran stolen
content previewing Windows Mobile 2005.
Peter Rojas, Engadget’s editor and co-founder, confirmed the news Wednesday,
saying only that the issue has been resolved. He would not provide any
further comment on a situation that had Microsoft
sending legal threats to bloggers who ran with information and a screenshot
of an upcoming version of Microsoft’s mobile operating system.
Microsoft officials were not available for comment at press time.
Earlier this month, Neowin.net ran a story and accompanying screenshot of
the new technology on its Web site. The story was wildly distributed and
syndicated by other Windows- and technology-enthusiast sites before
Microsoft was able get the site to shut down the link. The company convinced
many bloggers to immediately remove their stories, claiming the
information was stolen from their servers and hinting
at legal repercussions.
While many
bloggers received e-mail warnings that their site was infringing on
Microsoft’s proprietary knowledge, Engadget’s publisher, Jason Calacanis
of Weblogs, Inc., received a formal letter from the law firm Covington &
Burling on Jan. 18 saying he would be held liable for trademark infringement
unless a screenshot showing the Windows Mobile 2005 UI accompanying the
story wasn’t taken down.
A report by the Industry Standard attributes Calacanis as saying “we
have been talking to the people at Microsoft and we’ve basically worked it
out,” he said. “We’re not making any changes to the article.”
What this means to sites like Neowin.net, the site which originally broke
the news, and the many others bloggers who syndicated Neowin.net’s story and
removed it at Microsoft’s behest, remains to be seen.
All David Ciccone, owner of the Dave’s iPaq blog, knows is that he still
can’t publish the information on his site, despite Engadget’s deal with
Microsoft.
The company also directed him to take down the Windows Mobile 2005 story
and screenshot, but was told that just because Engadget was able to make
arrangements with Microsoft didn’t mean he could replace the story.
He said he called the lawyer who sent him the e-mail notice to take the
story down. He claims the lawyer told him that Engadget.com was able to
broker a deal with Microsoft through Robert Scoble, a Microsoft employee who
authors the popular Scobleizer blog.
Calacanis, in a blog post
last week about the cease-and-desist letter,
appealed to Scoble to intervene. A subsequent post
by Calacanis on Jan. 21 thanked Scoble for introducing him to the people in Microsoft’s mobile group
to work out the issue.
“It sounds to me like selective discrimination, and the main reason I’m
saying that is because certain sites have more leeway than others because
they have relationships with Microsoft,” he said.
Ciccone doesn’t plan on putting his story back on the site, as tempted as he
is by the thought.
“This is something I’ve worked very hard for for the last four years to
establish, and I can’t, obviously, afford to lose it, because Microsoft’s got
the bigger attorneys,” he said.
