A lot of these seem like security nightmares. I'm glad someone did the research at this small expense.
These comments are barking up the wrong tree. Nobody here is lambasting these companies for having such horrifying policies that ensure anyone targeting you is basically guaranteed to snatch up your username.
All of that fluff does nothing to cover up what an absolute dick move this was.
If you want to keep your username, the lesson here is to read the T&Cs and comply with them.
And, as I say several times in the blog post, I don't have the right to those combination of letters.
You may not have written the policies, but you can certainly choose when to enforce them. You waited only a week for Soundcloud, even when you knew it was ridiculously short. For linkedin you went and 'politely' asked the active owner to transfer, telling him to his face he didn't have to, and when he refused you still went to check if you could force it by using a ToS.
Don't hide behind the policies, you are making the calls.
And I'm not sure that abusing an unethical system waives you from the morality of your actions.
The only lesson you're giving here is about you. But hey, any publicity is good publicity right? You're enforcing your 'brand' after all. \s
Absolutely. You should never agree to something you haven't read.
I will not believe you if you state that you read the TOS for every site you register on, every program you install.
[2] https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2757465
It’s one thing to say “I’m raising a risk.” It’s another to blame the victim.
These services should publicise their name dispute policies more openly. But, ultimately, they can enforce their private property rights on the usernames they control.
If somebody did that to me, I would be really upset. Therefore, I am not going to do that to somebody else, even if the terms and conditions of the site allow it to happen.
You should listen to your conscience when you "feel guilty" about something.
He was asking for something he was probably not entitled to, was open and honest about that fact and various services turned the usernames over to him.
Imagine what someone with ill intent and using fraudulent means could do.
And because of that you'll use it to acquire even more usernames.
You opened a dispute to take someone's chat/telegram name... Not cool. What if the person was active but just didn't want to reply to you? Why would they, you don't own the rights to that username. What if they were away for personal or health reasons temporarily?
You're not a brand. You're not a product. You're someone who has those letters in your name, just like I'm sure a lot of other people.
What gives you the right to claim those usernames more than anyone else? In some cases it seems what gives you the right is just the fact that you bothered support, or opened disputes, to give you a name on another service then used that fact to get more of them.