I was on your side until you mentioned the domains - bit of a silly thing to have done (both registering and admitting ownership?)?
Yeah I've heard about this. It's basically to prove you had no intent on the domains apart from the extract money from the company. As your on your final warning there, I'd say resign or hand over the domains and continue to work.
yeh, dont offer to sell them to them. especialy if there is no content on them as u cant claim u use them for personal use and so would be losing out. The best thing to do is give them to a friend, that way u still get to piss off o2 and u dont get in trouble.
When does the domain name expire? Cos when it expires one of us could very quickly buy the domain, and you'll be safe, we could return it to you or something at a later date.
I fail to see how registering the name ihateo2 can be considered disrespectfull to his employer, fair enough if he had created a content for the domains that was disrespectfull, but not by registering the domain. Heck he could have been doing the company a favor by preventing anyone with a real grudge against the company from producing a site under those names Actually they might come in handy as a bargaining tool further down the line, esp as his position in the company does not appearto be the most secure anyway, give them up and o2 hold all the cards.
it depends how much the job means to you...... if you can pick up one as good and easily enough, then take them for a ride. If not, then i guess hand them over. However, if youre on your final second warning, maybe not. After admitting ownership to it and everything, its kinda saying in public you hate your employers, which might mean they just want rid of you after youve handed them over anyway... i know what id do in you situation, but im not you, so ill let you do as you think is right
think the union should give you the reasons why they think the domains should be handed over and what your rights are if you don't, after all you pay them to look after your interests.
I don't see how O2 can claim ownership over the domains. It's not like they were bought using O2's money or time. This isn't like writing software on the company's PCs. At least there they can claim you are using the company's facilities and time. This is something entirely private and has nothing to do with the company. If you wrote in a blog "Man I really hate my job, my employers really suck..." then could the company take over your blog account? If you kept a diary about how much you hated your job, could they confiscate that? It looks to me like a violation of freedom of speech so unless there's a clause in your contract saying you can't think negative thoughts about the company or you'll be fired then I don't see how they can rightly take those domains.
I know the CEO of O2, does that help? you should argue that you got those domains to ensure that no-one else did - you have prevented a negative site against them from appearing.
Quickly make a website about hating Oxygen. Maybe base it on euthanasia or something. Could get you off the hook...
The thing is that he has told O2 that he is not willing to get rid of it. Then suddenly he gives the domain to someone else. O2 then may make a case against him or something. Funny thing is, I can't seem to find any whois info on the sites you've mentioned.
I can't help but thinking that there is some "working towards a tragic outcome" script at work here. First you, with your twelve facial piercings, decide to work for a company who have a dress code about piercings. Then you create two domains with a name that expresses a negative attitude toward said company. Then, even though you don't use them and have no intention to use them --in which case, I could ask, why did you spend your good money on buying them in the first place, and hung onto them for nearly two years-- you decide that rather than transfering them, you prefer to go head-to-head with your employer who you already have a rocky past with, "on principle". I think there is much more to this story than you are letting on... So sorry, you don't have my sympathy. @ DeX: yes, they can confiscate your blog --because it is in the public domain. They can't confiscate your diary because that is private. Unless you publish it. Also, people should remember that O2 is a trademark. So they may have more of a claim on the domain names than you think...
Unlike the word Pepsi, o2 has more than one meaning, so ethically they have no claim, legally I don't know.
Go and see a solicitor or someone from the Citizen's Advice Bureau. Take a good long look at your contract of employment and see if there's anything in it that might cover your current situation. If there isn't, then they don't have a leg to stand on. They are just trying to intimidate you. Why not make a complaint to one of the big cheeses? Presumably O2 has a grievance procedure or a harassment policy - surely they're breaching it?
com, net & co.uk show various registrants, but it's odd that O2 haven't snapped up the other 13 TLDs if they're that bothered...very odd. There usually is, under employees biting the hand that feeds them.
Maybe they just want to get rid of Pha3dr0n? Secondly, when O2 came out a few years ago after taking over BT Cellnet, they were involved in a legal battle over the name, there was a small chain of shops called O2 (clothes shop I think) who took the phone company to court over copyright of the name, the phone company won however. I assume this may be because of the fact that O2 is another word, oxygen, thus it cannot be registered as a trademark. Which leads me to think that the site ihateo2.co.uk cannot be claimed by O2 because of trademark infringement, because basically it isn't trademark infringement. You can simply say "I hate oxygen". In fact, why not put on the homepage, "I hate oxygen, I breathe Helium instead" (squeaky voice at the end ) Have you read the O2 contract by any chance? Is there anything in there like "anything related to O2 belongs to O2 yada yada...."?
