RSSGoogle restricts Gmail access in Germany
By Ed Oswald | Published June 24, 2008, 5:25 PM
A 2007 court ruling has resulted in some changes to the way the search company provides its services in Germany, and Google's users were unceremoniously treated to some of those changes beginning late last week.
Google was barred from using the name "Gmail" in Germany as a result of a July 2007 court ruling. That decision found that German businessman Daniel Giersch owned the trademark within that country.
Giersch operates a paid e-mail service within the country called "G-mail." The two sides had been tussling over the name for at least three years, with Google actually changing the name of Gmail in the country to Google Mail back in 2005.
Now, when attempting to use the gmail.com domain within Germany, users are greeting with a page saying it cannot use the service's American name within the country.
"We can't provide service under the Gmail name in Germany; we're called Google Mail here instead," the message reads. "If you're traveling in Germany, you can access your mail at http://mail.google.com."
A message in smaller text below states that Google is also barred from hyperlinking the URL, meaning users have to type in the Web address manually after receiving the page.
Google's German representatives say that this most recent action was likely not necessary under the terms of the ruling, but that it was taking every possible step to ensure that the Gmail name is not used anywhere on Google's sites within the country.
Gmail -- or in Germany, Google Mail -- e-mail services are in no way affected by the change. They operate in the same way as for any other country, Google stressed.
such disputes make me sick
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Ridiculous. It's G-Mail, not GMail. :P
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well.. geo blocking is all over the place.. nbc.com doesn't let people watch some shows on the site in canada etc..
Can someone change www to be something other then (World Wide Web (unless your country or company restricts it.. USA Wide Web )
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For most domains if they are listed right with their ISP... the domain names can be reached with-out the www and instead just type http://yourplace.com or cnn.com or betanews.com. The www is not always a must.
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And one can't watch anything from the BBC website if you're from the US. English friend of mine can't even access BBC video content using his own login to the site whilst in the states.
You'd probably have better luck from Canada for obvious reasons...
I suspect any content restriction is enforced for the very same reason DVDs are zoned.
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If you are talking about BBC iPlayer, I believe the Beeb is looking at making it available through its BBC world. At the moment it is only available to .uk domains, i have an english friend who lives in Belgium and wants to be able to saccess it, and that's what he was told.
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The branding was changed in the UK for the same reason in about 2005, but it didn't go to the lengths of the gmail.com domain being disallowed, which is just ridiculous.
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Why? Brand and domain name go hand-in-hand these days. Try (hypothetically since it is already owned by corps of the same name) setting up apple.com or intel.com. Even similar names get sued off the face of the web...
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