The comments on this submission are pretty strange. What are the chances that a bunch of non-sockpuppet HN type of people are in support of this kind of garbage? Generally with sort of abysmal behaviour like the email communication in the article, there's people going to bat against actually defensible actions purely in the name of civility on HN. These bitvise people seem bad from both angles and yet the of early comments are either ignoring the issue and redirecting (e.g. "who even uses putty") or outright defending their shitty behaviour?
I think if they actually have a problem with it and are not just repeating that to cope they need to start acting like they have a problem with it. Trademarks need defending and you come out the door with the mental model that it's yours, you own it, the other group are in the wrong. If you opened your trademark dispute with "Well our trademark has always been X and people know to find us at X" you're gonna lose your dispute.
It's just hard to argue it's actually a real problem if the individual it's affecting keeps sort of pretending and saying that it's not even if deep down it is.
Trademarks are trademarks, regardless of technology. I can't open a store called McDonald's that isn't a McDonald's but I sell cheeseburgers. Simply... moving this online doesn't magically make laws disappear.
Tech people have a strange misconception that tech overrides laws. No, it doesn't. Calling it "disruption" doesn't count, either.
If bought googlesearch.org but it's my own search engine that's illegal. You can't do that. Even if I did g00glesearch.org that's still illegal.
Even if I don't use the Google name, but I use something similar, maybe with a similar font, that's still illegal. Because, obviously, the intent is to deceive consumers. You can't do that. You can't pretend to be a brand you're not.
This is a great example of what drives people away from providing anything for free.
Unfortunately this is the world we live in where if you don't then someone else will and they'll abuse it so you have to act defensively.
Either you put the time into the project and care about it in which case you should spend the few dollars a year defending it from drama like this, or you don't care even a few dollars worth about the project in which case just let whatever happens happen because you don't care, a .org is the price of a few coffees.
Only a few parts of the world you can leave a bike unlocked on the street, and the internet contains the whole world.
https://putty.app
https://putty.at
https://putty.click
https://putty.cloud
https://putty.codes
https://putty.co.uk
https://putty.com
https://putty.computer
https://putty.dev
https://putty.digital
https://putty.domains
https://putty.engineer
https://putty.host
https://putty.hosting
https://putty.info
https://putty.io
https://putty.media
https://putty.net
https://putty.network
https://putty.online
https://putty.org
https://putty.software
https://putty.solutions
https://putty.tech
https://putty.technology
https://putty.website
i could not tell which one of these should be more legitimate than any other. registering even just a few of those is going to add up to a sizable yearly bill.These three are the only legit looking one in that list, it's absurd to pretend things like https://putty.solutions, https://putty.at, https://putty.click, https://putty.codes, etc are even in the running when they actively look like scams.
You only need one legit looking domain because if it's legit and a domain it will be top of the search anyway.
EDIT: They're not deceiving users though? The first section on the index page links directly to the real putty site. They're very clear about all of it.
EDIT2: Nope. We really don't want DNS "moderators." All of us have seen what happens with forum moderators. Like I said if that were done the internet would not work. It's not about the cost it's about being unable to clearly define what should be banned.
If you want to see a great example of how moderation like that both stops legitimate use and fails to stop malware go look at smartphone app stores. The result is borderline unusable garbage.
Deceiving users? Warning, temporary ban, permanent ban!
Selling mushy stuff for plumbers and kids? No problem!
It takes a simple reporting system, couple moderators costing peanuts compared to what we pay for the names and a clear set of rules forbidding intentionally misleading users.