Well this is kind of weird to see here. Especially since it happened almost 10 years ago. I am Mike Rowe. I can answer any questions if people want. I did an AMA on reddit in 2009 as well <a href="http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ajsih/i_am_the_guy_who_owned_mikerowesoftcom_ama/" rel="nofollow">http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/ajsih/i_am_the_guy_who...</a>.
For those interested in a breadth of interesting domain squatting litigation:<p><i>Panavision Int'l, L.P. v. Toeppen</i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Toeppen" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Toeppen</a> - company Panavision vs. a domain squatter ostensibly showing pictures of Pana, Illinois<p><i>People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals v. Doughney</i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatment_of_Animals_v._Doughney" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/People_for_the_Ethical_Treatmen...</a> - PETA vs a guy who registered peta.org as 'People Eating Tasty Animals'<p><i>Lamaparello v. Falwell</i> <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamparello_v._Falwell" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lamparello_v._Falwell</a> - fallwell.com mistyped domain used to criticize preacher Jerry Falwell
Am I missing something? The wikipedia article claims he intentionally bought the domain because it sounded like Microsoft. The domain very clearly infringed on Microsoft's trademark. Microsoft offered to repay him the cost of buying the domain name (which they are under no legal obligation to do). I don't really get why Microsoft is the bad guy here (and I'm no particular fan of the company).
When checking out the site that was mentioned in the article, I mispelled the URL slightly and ended up at mikerowsoft.com which the AVG virus scanner reported as an "attack" page. Now there is something for the Microsoft legal team to sink there teeth in.