CyanogenMod Domain Hijacked 143
An anonymous reader writes "The team behind CyanogenMod, one of the most popular community-driven, Android-based operating systems for phones and tablets, has announced that they're moving to Cyanogenmod.org after their .com domain was held ransom by a community member. He had been in control of the .com domain name for some time, but the team found out he was impersonating Cyanogen to make deals with community sites. When they removed his access to other parts of the CM infrastructure, he demanded $10,000 to relinquish control of the domain and threatened to change the DNS entries. When they refused to pay, he went through with it. The team is now disputing control of the domain with ICANN. They said, 'We will continue to be open about the what, when, how, but unfortunately, we may never know the "why" – though greed comes to mind. The team itself has not made a profit off of CM and that is not our goal. But to have one of our own betray the community like this is beyond our comprehension.'"
Nice guy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Sounds like a real asshole. Enjoy the domain why you can - it'll be taken from you, or it'll be rendered worthless when the responsible adults get their own domain. Either way it's worthless.
It'll be worth rather a lot, actually (Score:5, Interesting)
Even just putting up a standard ad landing page would generate income, there.
We'll see if ICANN just brings down the hammer for powerful corporations here.
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I was think more along the lines of fuckbag, but asshole works, too.
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Re:Nice guy! (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure, he's a jerk. But he cant really hold something he owns hostage.
There's no utility in "owning" a listing in a public directory for an organization that you're not a part of beyond misrepresenting yourself and deceiving the public. If the existing rules don't recognize that, that doesn't that we need to distort reality and pretend that what he's doing is perfectly right and good, it means that means the rules need to be fixed.
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Sure, he's a jerk. But he cant really hold something he owns hostage.
There's no utility in "owning" a listing in a public directory for an organization that you're not a part of beyond misrepresenting yourself and deceiving the public. If the existing rules don't recognize that, that doesn't that we need to distort reality and pretend that what he's doing is perfectly right and good, it means that means the rules need to be fixed.
The rules don't need any fixing. These guys didn't setup their business properly, and this is one of the results. Yes, this guy is being an asshole, but the domain is owned by him and not the group itself, so the "rules" aren't the problem here. It would have been a simple matter to have each member sign a notarized agreement and prevent this entire scenario.
I've seen things like this a lot, it's nothing unique to the technology sector. You could have two guys running a horse and buggy shop, and the guy who
Name and shame again and again. (Score:5, Interesting)
Whenever the subject is brought up, it would be appropriate to NAME the perp and note his background info.
No libel, no slander, just sufficient identification that anyone considering teaming with this fellow can make a fully informed decision.
It's not revenge, just self-defense.
Re:Name and shame again and again. (Score:5, Informative)
The name is Ahmet Deveci. https://plus.google.com/u/0/103583939320326217147/posts/A8mtUUpdEH8 [google.com]
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Ahmet's page is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116028512018932696380
He works for MetServe Enterprises http://www.metserve.com/ whose site is currently down - strangely :)
Which makes this post ironic: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117025707475158348263/posts/W68Z3GyCmce
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Ahmet's page is here: https://plus.google.com/u/0/116028512018932696380 [google.com]
He works for MetServe Enterprises http://www.metserve.com/ [metserve.com] whose site is currently down - strangely :)
Which makes this post ironic: https://plus.google.com/u/0/117025707475158348263/posts/W68Z3GyCmce [google.com]
Wow, a capcha to enter Metserve.com...
From Metserve.com:
Why am I seeing this page?
Your IP address based on the country, region or network has been flagged by the website owner.
What should I do?
Completing the challenge above proves you are a human and gives you temporary access. You can ask the website owner to permanently whitelist you.
Guess he's preparing for a shitstorm... lol
Re:Name and shame again and again. (Score:5, Informative)
He claims that he has transferred it back to CM:
"Ahmet Deveci8:22 PM - Public
For the record, regarding: cyanogenmod.com
Following the saga from : http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org [cyanogenmod.org] it would appear that I have been labelled a 'thief' an 'extortionist' a 'liar' and a bunch of other somewhat degrading comments.
The domain name has since been transferred to the CM Team, but I wanted to make a few things clear.
I purchased the CyanogenMod.com domain name 3 years ago and have been responsible for the renewal fees ever since. This means I (my company) legally owned the domain name. It was fully registered in the United Kingdom. I hear people saying about âtrademarkâ(TM). Yes, CyanogenMod is now a registered trademark in the US. But the domain was registered in the UK well before that trademark. I donâ(TM)t want to get into any legal battles here, but US trademarkâ(TM)s are not valid in the UK unless they are registered here with the IPO.
The term 'hi-jacked' is just wrong, the domain name was always in my control. I didn't hijack anything. I initiated a transfer out process with my registrar today who restored the DNS entries to their own. This in turn deleted all MX entries and other records. The term 'hi-jacked' has just derived from tech blogs creating stories for link bait.
The term 'extortion' is also wrong. If I was out for the money, why an earth would I have transferred the domain to the CM Team for free?"
https://plus.google.com/116028512018932696380/posts [google.com]
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He is forgetting that, it is a .COM domain, which is controlled by a US company. I am sure cynogenmod folks can get a US court to order the domain registrar to hand over the domain to cynogenmod.
The post was hardly an apology. If he has any honor, he would have apologized for the saga. I bet he is hoping that the cynogenmod team would let this go, and not take any legal action after this.
Re:Name and shame again and again. (Score:4, Informative)
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Well, except of course for the whole impersonating Cyanogen and making deals with sites without the authorization of Cyanogen. I guess it could still be argued as a grey zone, but if you only own a domain name, I don't think that gives you ownership or business-decision-making abilities regarding the data that's on there unless you have actual authority to do that. I'm guessing that this person does not. And since the domain name and actual data are entirely separate (hammered in by the fact that he swit
Re:Name and shame again and again. (Score:4, Interesting)
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The term 'hi-jacked' is just wrong
I agree. The correct term is not hyphenated.
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He's just blocking people on Twitter now (myself included.) I usually find 'you don't understand what's going on' with no attempt to educate to be an excuse used by the guilty party. The fact that he later said on said twitter feed that 'he owns the domain name' seems to solidly imply that he is guilty of this dick move, and he thought he's morally in the right to do what he did because of it.
Actually when I read his post I thought he was just claiming to be legally right, not morally.
His basic premise seemed to be that since what he was doing was legal, morals did not come into (believe me I certainly don't agree with this). The domain name was his, so he could do what he liked with it. The fact that he registered it on behalf of a community didn't come into it as there was no legally enforceable contract between them.
My personal opinion is that he is clearly a devout capitalist who felt he sho
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I'd love to hear both sides, but if one side just says "The other side is wrong" without telling me what happened in their view, I kinda doubt said side.
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Did you not read the summary or did you recently get a lobotomy? The summary clearly lays out the dick moves he pulled. Nothing in his lame excuse drivel clears any of that shit up other than saying other people are wrong.
Re:Name and shame again and again. (Score:5, Insightful)
Did you not read the summary or did you recently get a lobotomy? The summary clearly lays out the dick moves he pulled. Nothing in his lame excuse drivel clears any of that shit up other than saying other people are wrong.
And who submitted the entry? An AC. And with the high editorial standards at slashdot, I'm sure they did a thorough investigation and fact-checking before posting.
As to the fact that his excuses were lame - that is exactly what the previous poster said. So congratulations on missing the whole point (while implying he/she is an idiot).
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I'd love to hear both sides, but if one side just says "The other side is wrong" without telling me what happened in their view, I kinda doubt said side.
Here's his side:
https://plus.google.com/u/0/116028512018932696380/posts [google.com]
It didn't take too long to find once someone named him further up this thread.
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So it was the usual tempest in a teapot to generate clicks?
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Think he'll have a going-out-of-business sale soon?
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Call the name and let the mob, I mean, community sort it out?
Gives "community service" a whole new meaning.
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Sounds like a real asshole.
Especially because the entire worth of the domain is in its association with the project. It's not like "pets.com" or "sex.com" or something where people will look for the domain's web site because of the domain's name. The domain name "cyanogenmod.com" has no legitimate value at all except as a link to the project. There is no way to get an revenue out of controlling this domain name other than blackmailing the project or deceiving users.
Re:Nice guy! (Score:5, Informative)
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I love how you call people arrogant d bags and get a score 5, and I do the same and get a score 0. Proof that slashdot's mod system is a failure.
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Why do I get the feeling I've been online longer that you've been alive?
Re:Nice guy! (Score:5, Funny)
this is why I use apple - you never know who hijacked a domain and is now serving malicous software packages.
Judging from stories here on /. and elsewhere, indeed apple.com is serving malicious software packages through its app store.
Re:Nice guy! (Score:5, Insightful)
Scumbag (Score:2, Insightful)
A real community member would be proud to shell out the 10 bucks for the domain name nenewal and donate it back to the project.
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Re:Surprised it was available (Score:4)
Yup. I'm 90% positive about who it is, but I'm not going to ask or discuss it with the rest of the team to ensure noninterference with legal proceedings.
I am, however, planning on talking with some lawyer friends on advice for setting up a 501(c)(3) organization.
Re:Surprised it was available (Score:4, Informative)
Whoa... Whoops, turns out I was wrong. https://plus.google.com/u/0/103583939320326217147/posts/A8mtUUpdEH8 [google.com]
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And the response: https://plus.google.com/116028512018932696380/posts/4gDX3HygM3E [google.com]
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Conspiciously missing any discussion of:
His initial attempt to extort $10k from CM. He didn't agree to transfer the domain for free until AFTER he had been outed.
His posing as Steve when contacting N2ACards.
His alteration of the CM website to point to N2ACards without any discussion with anyone else in the organization.
His routing of all money coming from N2ACards to his personal account.
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Oh, duly noted, just posted it without commentary to be as neutral sounding as possible.
He seems completely oblivious to the effects of his behaviour at some level, and I posted as much on my own G+ feed.
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Defamation of trademarks can be a criminal matter (Score:4, Interesting)
Whoever this community member is, he needs to be very very careful about what he's doing. Many countries hold that malicious hijacking of trademarks or implied trademarks to be a criminal rather than merely civil matter. Ie if you go to a company or organization and maliciously register their trademark to fuck them over, you can expect a policeman at your door with a warrant.
This happens quite regularly, and it rarely turns out as happily as the malicious party expected.
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This guy is in England... the country where you get arrested for posting a photo of a burning paper flower on facebook.
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The address for that company looks like the office of their lawyer though. Looks like you need to pay money to get documents with the director and shareholder names. Anyone willing to give a pound to the UK Companies office?
Please out the guy (Score:4, Funny)
Benedict Judas Quisling is unable to take your call at this moment, but if you leave your site name he'll remove it from DNS as soon as possible.
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I'd be an asshole too, with a name like that...
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Judas! (Score:2)
What's in a name...
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The name is trademarked (Score:1)
So they *will* get it back. Eventually.
https://plus.google.com/u/0/103583939320326217147/posts/A8mtUUpdEH8 [google.com]
Already Fixed? (Score:3)
I tried going to cyanogenmod.com and got redirected to cyanogenmod.org. Maybe someone realized that what he was doing wasn't just unethical, but also most likely illegal.
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Re:Already Fixed? (Score:4, Informative)
“Hi, so you think by removing all my access across the infrastructure was going to be a great idea? We had a chat yesterday, you’ve decided to end this bitter. How about I just change the DNS entries right now. CM will practically go down.”
Refusing to be extorted for funds, and then being threatened is “ending it bitter”? Today, it happened: all of our records were deleted, and cyanogenmod.com is slowly expiring out of the Internet and being replaced by blank pages and non-existing sites.
(emphasis mine)
Not fixed, just hasn't been broken yet for a steadily decreasing number of people.
Re:Already Fixed? (Score:5, Informative)
Confirmed: http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved [cyanogenmod.org]
I ran the WHOIS... (Score:1)
Worthless Internet Asshat
Kemp House
City Road
London, London EC1V 2NX
GB
They saw it coming (Score:3)
Domain Name:CYANOGENMOD.ORG
Created On:21-Oct-2010 18:09:32 UTC
It's the responsibility of any person responsible for a project to ensure a backup domain(s) is available in the case the domain owner become estranged from the project.
A good example of proper planning.
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This would seem to be the guy (Score:5, Informative)
This is the first whois data from that domain 3 years ago:
Administrative Contact:
Deveci, Ahmet webmaster@metserve.com
Third Floor
152-156 Lower Clapton Road
Clapton, London E5 0QJ
GB
+442081232629
Re:This would seem to be the guy (Score:5, Informative)
His Twitter, with relevant comments:
https://twitter.com/MrADeveci
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His ears were burning, he has updated his whois and is now anonymous. Not that it is going to help him now.
Administrative Contact:
Contact Privacy Inc. Customer 0121602432, cyanogenmod.com@contactprivacy.com
96 Mowat Ave
Toronto, ON M6K 3M1
CA
+1.4165385457
[SNIP]
Record last updated on 14-Nov-2012.
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Strange thing is that both domains are anonymized now, makes it hard to tell who's who in this argument:
Domain Name:CYANOGENMOD.ORG
Created On:21-Oct-2010 18:09:32 UTC
Last Updated On:01-Nov-2012 04:14:02 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:eNom, Inc. (R39-LROR)
Registrant Name:WhoisGuard Protected
Registrant Organization:WhoisGuard
Registrant Street1:11400 W. Olympic Blvd. Suite 200
Registrant City:Los Angeles
Registrant State/Province:CA
Registrant Postal Code:90064
Registrant Country:U
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Re:This would seem to be the guy (Score:5, Funny)
Deveci, Ahmet webmaster@metserve.com
Third Floor
152-156 Lower Clapton Road
Clapton, London E5 0QJ
GB
+442081232629
Please do not call that phonenumber now, because it's very late in the evening in the UK, and if you call that number, you could cause serious annoyance to Ahmet.
Especially don't call it repeatedly, and above all, do not make prank calls.
Wait. Oh my god. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Wait. Oh my god. (Score:5, Funny)
That's OK, I was calling those little cups of coffee "Expresso" for something like 3 years, until I realised what an idiot I was...
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Irregardless, I'm sure it didn't change how the coffee tasted.
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Except perhaps when ordering it from a sufficiently snotty employee who spat in it after you mispronounced it :)
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Irregardless
O I C what U did THARR!
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I'm not confident in my pronunciation. I usually slur it all together like when I pronounce worcestershire.
Re:Wait. Oh my god. (Score:4, Informative)
Just wait 'till you find out what Cyanogen actually is: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyanogen [wikipedia.org] :)
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Classic mistake. Now, for something else for you to possibly miss-read:
I got a pet wussy.
(thanks George Takei)
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You'd be better off waiting for selenorhodanemod, azidodithiocarbonatemod or dicobalt-octacarbonylmod, maybe.
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I'd suggest carbonyldiamidemod, but people would think I was taking the piss.
Registrant info (Score:4, Informative)
And this is why you make sure of who's listed as the registrant. Not just the administrative contact, the registrant is the one who owns the domain. You can set the billing, technical and administrative contacts to whoever needs to run things day-to-day, but make sure the registrant contact information's set for the organization, not one single person within it. That way when someone goes rogue you don't need to involve ICANN, you can just contact the registrar as the registrant and get control back. It's still hassle, but much less hassle than a dispute proceeding.
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make sure the registrant contact information's set for the organization, not one single person within it.
That also means when three buddies decide on a lark to start a project and make some free software they first need to spend a few thousand dollars on setting up a company. I know people who don't mind donating some of their free time for public good, but spending some real money on that is probably beyond all of them.
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It usually is pretty cheap if you do the paperwork yourself. You just need to have a charter/bylaws/etc - which you can usually copy/paste.
Always best to ensure IP is legally owned by a company of some sort - then when somebody wants to run off with things you have legal recourse.
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You can try and setup a Nevada LLC. But unless you are a resident and it is the only state where business is conducted in the US, it is useless.
Oregon and one other state, I forget which, will give you an LLC over the internet. This would be a much cooler comment if I could remember.
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Pardon me, but I don't think I can take legal advice from an anonymous coward.
This all looks to now be resolved (Score:5, Informative)
This all looks to now be resolved - http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/domain-situation-has-been-resolved [cyanogenmod.org]
From the cyanogenmod blog -
(ciwrl wrote this, I’m just posting on his behalf so this is resolved)
So earlier today we put up a post on what prompted us to transition to our new CyanogenMod.org domain. We refrained from identifying the ex-member out of respect for his privacy and career outside of CM. Suffice it to say you guys aren’t slouches, and figured it out on your own.
With that said, the ex-member in question contacted us and has agreed to hand over control of the CyanogenMod.com domain. This was done as amicably as these things can be, and CM did not pay the fee he requested.
We will still be using CyanogenMod.org as our primary domain, and the .com address will simply redirect to this new domain. Ironically enough, ‘.org’ is better than ‘.com’ as we are not a commercial entity, and is far more in line with how CyanogenMod is structured.
We received a common question, that we’d like to take a moment to answer. Some of you contacted us mentioning that you had previously donated to a different address. When the forum began, up until about 3 months ago, the forum utilized this other address as the mechanism for forum donations and establishment of the ‘Donator’ badge. Donations made to this address prior to three months ago were used for the CyanogenMod forum IPB licence and forum related costs and were not misappropriated.
On a side note, we have also gone through internal restructuring to make sure that this sort of thing doesn’t happen again. Nobody has control over everything, and there is no longer such a large single-point of failure. Our lessons have been learned.
We ask that you please not perform any vigilante actions, we do not condone any such thing; just let this fade.
We want to move on, get you the builds you expect from us, and not mess around with distractions.
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Dudes still a shit bag for trying to get the money from a non profit org in the first place.
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Yes, but now he's a shit bag without any power to cause harm, and thus can be ignored.
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I'm not condoning this conduct, but lets be realistic here.
It's over, domain was given to the CM team (Score:2)
For the record, regarding: cyanogenmod.com
Following the saga from : http://www.cyanogenmod.org/blog/psa-transition-to-cyanogenmod-org [cyanogenmod.org] it would appear that I have been labelled a 'thief' an 'extortionist' a 'liar' and a bunch of other somewhat degrading comments.
The domain name has since been transferred to the CM Team, but I wanted to make a few things clear.
I purchased the CyanogenMod.com domain name 3 years ago and have been responsible for the renewal fees ever since. This
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Either CM is making that quote up or he got the negative attention he deserves and is trying to save face.
I'd guess it's the latter.
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Human nature (Score:2)
...But to have one of our own betray the community like this is beyond our comprehension."
I find this quote rather amusing.
Didn't this project start in part because of the carriers denying smartphone owners updated versions of the Android OS to help drive sales of new handsets instead?
And now one of their people is trying to extort $10,000 out of them.
Is greed beyond the comprehension of CM?
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...But to have one of our own betray the community like this is beyond our comprehension."
I find this quote rather amusing.
Didn't this project start in part because of the carriers denying smartphone owners updated versions of the Android OS to help drive sales of new handsets instead?
So? Are you implying CM was started because of greed (greed of the carriers)?
And now one of their people is trying to extort $10,000 out of them.
Is greed beyond the comprehension of CM?
It is more than greed, it is back-stabbing. It is very difficult to comprehend back-stabbing without having experienced it. I would forgive them for not expecting it.
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"lol didn't read"
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