www.minitorque.com

Looks like some of our friends overseas have been a little naughty....

 

Wow.

 

^^^^ What he said...

 

Uh Oh!

 

so china, north korea, and iran were happy with mini torque.... but not uncle sam

but think it worthwhile to spend their effort to shut down a English based go-faster mini internet site

good to see your tax dollars are spent cleaning up the uk.....

 

http://www.minitorque.com/

a link for my american friends

 

Thank god we have americans to protect us all.....

 

I believe that they aren't sure if they will get the domain back. Sad for them, bu if they were doing something illegal then it was bound to happen.

 

From reading the Federal Notice it appears that MT was allegedely either ripping off patented items and/or selling counterfeit goods...either way trade agreements between countries and copyright infringment laws are there to protect every merchant, and every potential customer.

And as with any Federal or State agency, there are sub-divisions within iteself which normally handle specific assigned tasks and often do not share mission statements. That said, you don't have to like it.

 

They used a domain name with mini in the name. My guess would be that BMW/MINI came down on them for using that name.

Just clicked that link. Bingo mini is a copywrited name as well as trademark.... The lawyers have landed.

 

My first reaction was that the site was hacked.

The word on another MINI forum is that it's a hoax while the site is being updated. Knowing MiniTorque, it's probably true.

 

No idea what the details over there are but NAM was once MiniCoopersOnline or MCO and there was a legal go around before we became North American Motoring, so MINI certainly is known for being protective of the brand name and image.

 

This posted on North American Motoring

I'm reading on other sites that this a hoax. And I believe everything on the web!

 

Looks like it might be exactly that. They are revamping the site and it looks like Jove, Ben and crew might have played a little trick.

 

I've read it's a trick also & it's a good trick, but the fact they are using a trademarked name also leads me to believe it may not be just a trick. Time will tell. Stay tuned....

 

I wouldn't be surprised either way. Jove has a wicked sense of humor but at the same time those guys push the limits of more than just MINIs. In fact, that crew already got a thread locked and a few banned from tM... That didn't take long...

 

 

If the domain was seized, they couldn't have put up this page: http://www.minitorque.com/forum2/

 

You mean the one that says opps link broken?

 

It is back and was just all a ruse. They redesigned their site and had a few of us going with the joke.

 

Not surprised....If the Gov had taken it dodn, I bet s simple "not found 404 message" would appear!! Have you ever known our government to give out info or be nice and help out a company and inform customers of an event?!

Was not a bad marketing idea....we got to mention the site name here....and not get points/violations!! I bet they were mentioned and bookmarked on many sites/computers!!

 

Pretty good trick. Like has been said on the forbidden MA site it's a good way to gain publicity.

 

Speak for yourself....I got an infraction for my post. Really can't see why?

 

The respect guideline has been thoroughly explained to you via PM, I suggest you handle it appropriately.

And as MT is back up (and it seems they managed to have a sense of humor about their down time, in a cheeky MINI kind of way) I'll go ahead and close this thread so as not to cause any confusion for people trying to access the site now.