HW: Andy Gilham and the domain war nonsense

[Ian Abrahams]

----- Original Message -----
From: Nick Medford <nick at HERMIT0.DEMON.CO.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.SPC.EDU>
Sent: Saturday, October 06, 2001 2:34 PM
Subject: Re: HW: Andy Gilham and the domain war nonsense


> This is all really sad. I've also dealt with Andy and believe him to be a
> thoroughly decent geezer, and a true fan who put tons of work into what
> was an excellent site, not necessarily better or worse than Mission
Control,
> just very good in its own right. It's also true that the band will have
> benefited from this work.

Reading all the posts, particularly those from Dave & Andy I can understand
why Andy feels hurt, but at the same time the band are trying to recover a
valuable marketing tool: not from Andy but from EBS:Doug Smith (as I pointed
out this morning on one of the HW lists, and Dave confirmed this pm, there
are no members of Hawkwind listed as directors of EBS).  As I read the
postings, Welcome to the Future could have continued under another URL as an
unofficial fan site.

The legal representation does read harshly but that's the way of the world
and business is business. We have to accept, I think, that a possible
compromise existed and appears to have been rejected, but at the end of the
day the notice for recovery of the .com name was in essence aimed at the
current owner of the url and not the webmaster.

Yes, I think it is quite right that sympathy for Andy's position is being
expressed. But I think it is very important for the continuation of the band
that it exists on the best possible business footing, and that includes
ownership of this imporant url.

Ian