I TOOK  ON RADIOSHACK CORP., AND WON.

Hi, Guys, yes, it's true. Actually RadioShack Corporation of Ft. Worth, Texas, took me on, and lost. Let me explain.

About 14 years ago, I joined a message board system called "RadioShackSucks dot com." At the time. RadioShack was going after the owner and operator of the "sucks" website. I had worked for RadioShack, knew what was going on in the company and loved the idea of running a sucks website. 

I got the keys to the business; and let the former owner go about his business without the company going after him. I became the target. One of the things that I learned was that not everyone was in love with the United States. Not every country subscribed to United States' laws or its legal system. They thought that the United States was the bully of the sandbox. 

I thought that RadioShack Corporation was the bully of my sandbox. 

What's funny was that I was still running the original website, based in the U S.  I had made arraignments with an off-shore web hosting and domain registration facilities that was outside of U S laws. I received a "cease and desist" letter from an attorney representing the company. I was expecting something like that since taking over the sucks site. I phoned the attorney, and told him to look at the website. He did, and noticed something different about the site. 

It had a new banner, new artwork; but, everything else from the old site was moved to the new site. "Try to shut me down," I said. The attorney, going through Whois, discovered that the website couldn't be touched. In the meantime, I had registered a dot net and dot org domains.

But, there was an accident, and couldn't get the dot com domain re-registered in time, and the system went down. RadioShack took over the dot com domain and made it into a redirect to RadioShack's main site. Meanwhile, a couple of users of the sucks site registered a dot biz domain; and, thinking they were clever, registered the site in the United Kingdom. Oh Oh; bad move. The U K is in bed with the U S.  It took quite a while; but the company had the dot biz site shut down.

But, here I am, still holding the dot net and dot org domains. Since the dot biz site was doing OK from where I was sitting, I kept my two domains silent and still registered with my off-shore "friends," untouchable from U S laws. The story doesn't end there. 

A few years ago, I received some very legal looking paperwork. It appears that RadioShack Corporation wanted my dot net and dot org domains. They weren't going to buy them, they wanted me to give them the domains.  In a letter sent to the attorneys, I said that RadioShack was in business to make money; I would like to make money from something that RadioShack wanted. I mentioned a number which (I knew) the company rejected. Hey, at least we were talking. 

Basically I told the company and the lawyers to go (bleep) themselves. If they didn't like it, I had an email ready to go with close to 1,000 links to legal websites containing cases of big corporation going after the "little" guy, and losing; just like Davids versus Goliaths and watching the big guys fall. 

So, what did I win? Absolutely nothing. I held on to my domains until RadioShack itself failed. 

The moral to the story is: if you're attacked by a bully, find their soft spot and let fly. Big corporations are vulnerable. The hacking group Anonymous knows this. Do your research and find the big guy's soft spot. That's what I did, and came out of a fight untouched.