I wrote a few weeks back about a Malaysian blogger who’d received a legal notice from Visa International (TM) regarding his domain name.

The company had owned it, and let it lapse so he bought it.
Then they decided (somewhere within the behemoth bowels of the company) that they wanted it back.

He was given seven days.
He did a poll on his blog and got some legal advice.

You know that you know the blogger doesn’t have a hope, that Visa International (TM) decided they wanted what they wanted and he couldn’t win.

What irks me is that he did ask for one thing. The cost of a domain name. I don’t think that’s unrealistic or cyber-squatting.

The legal advisors (yes, I’ve seen more than one of them) have also advised me that the best I could do is to ask for some compensations and give up the domain. So i did. I politely asked for compensation (of course I had to be careful for not falling into a ‘cybersquatting’ trap, if there’s any), but all I asked for is a domain replacement so I can keep blogging and I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. It can also make me feel better for being respected. However, the answer I got was a rude NO. Come on Visa, how much is a domain going to cost you? By the way, I renewed this domain two months ago. In other words, Visa gets to use this domain name for free for the year to come with my hard-earned money. Oh joy.

Anyway, thanks for all the supports you guys have given. It has been fun blogging here. Although it’s not easy to give away your baby just like that, nor I have tried my maximum effort in keeping the domain, I believe I’ve made the best decision by taking all the considerations into account.

I wonder if he’ll find a way to blog again? It seems like he enjoys it.
It’s not hard to get irritated by large company legal department(s).
Sometimes things just are as they seem and there are no extortionists out to milk big companies.
But, yeah, usually corporate Goliaths have an army of lawyers willing to wear people out to get what they want or think they need for their corporation and image.