Alaska Apple Store Piracy
21 Sep
It appears the Alaska MacStore has hijacked the MacHaus dot com address. The details of this Alaska Apple MacHaus / MacStore feud are unknown. What is obvious, is that in recent days the domain name www.machaus.com has come to life with MacHaus’s competitor, the Alaska MacStore. At the time of writing this article, MacHaus’s website at www.machaus.net was also completely unreachable.
I made a few calls to MacHaus to see what was going on and simply found out they are aware of the situation and taking “appropriate steps” to deal with the situation. Once I get some details from the owner of MacHaus, I’ll update this story.
One thing for certain is that we are witnessing what appears to be a clear violation of ICANN rules and the law. Unless there is a legal debate over the name MacHaus itself, the fact that the Alaska MacStore is using MacHaus.com is a clear ethical and legal step over the line.
It’s also fitting and ironic that MacStore is using a giant pirate symbol on the new MacHaus.com website.
Update:
September 22, 2008
Now, the day after I posted this story, MacHaus.com is redirecting to akmacstore.com. Someone is trying to obscure and redirect traffic. Tsk tsk, naughty.
September 23, 2008
It appears the fault of the Machaus.net disappearance was purely coincidence and more the fault of ACS than anyone else.
I’ll keep digging on this story. More to come…
SCUM. I will never buy from Alaska Mac Store ever again. Not that I ever bought much from them in the first place.
Registrant: Make this info private
long, Raymond
4240 Old Seward Hwy #9
Anchorage, AK 99503
US
Domain Name: MACHAUS.COM
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Administrative Contact , Technical Contact :
long, Raymond
rlong@akmacstore.com
4240 Old Seward Hwy #9
Anchorage, AK 99503
US
Phone: 9072727697
Record expires on 20-Mar-2010
Record created on 26-Aug-2008
Database last updated on 26-Aug-2008
Domain servers in listed order: Manage DNS
NS61.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.190.31
NS62.WORLDNIC.COM 205.178.144.31
Show underlying registry data for this record
Current Registrar: NETWORK SOLUTIONS, LLC.
IP Address: 205.178.189.131 (ARIN & RIPE IP search)
IP Location: US(UNITED STATES)-VIRGINIA-HERNDON
Record Type: Domain Name
Server Type: Indeterminate
Lock Status: clientTransferProhibited
DMOZ no listings
Y! Directory: see listings
Secure: No
E-commerce: No
Traffic Ranking: Not available
Data as of: 14-Jun-2005
WoW, I never realized the ugly underbelly of Alaskan Mac users. I just recently switched from my Vaio PC to a MACBook, and I’ve been going to the Alaska Mac Store just because its on my trip home from work. I saw MACHaus for the first time when going to the gym the other day and wanted to check it out. However, after reading this story it sounds like a lot of people prefer the MacHaus to the Alaska Mac Store (or else why would they be trying to steal their business) so I think I’ll just use them instead.
Adding you to my feeds!
Uhm, does this surprise anybody? Not me. The MacStore has such a bad reputation. They are just displaying their fruit. Bad apples fall to the ground and rot. Thanks, MacHaus for being there. We support you.