Actually, Mingo already knows why. It's because his site bitterly spoofs and satirizes –- if not downright condemns -– Microsoft's partnerships with colleges and universities.

Oh, and one other thing: Mingo's domain is microsoftedu.com.

The company had asked Mingo to change the domain name and remove images of Bill Gates and the company's logos by early last month.

Mingo did alter the site, but he kept the domain -- and that was enough to satisfy Microsoft. Never mind the fact that Mingo issued a press release on Tuesday, insisting that Microsoft's partnerships with the California State University system "put profit over truth."

"They are giving the impression that they believe in education, but when it comes down to it, they will only support education that would feed back into their bottom line," Mingo said.

Interestingly, Microsoft's cease and desist letter advised Mingo to seek counsel from an attorney competent in domain law, trademark law, right of publicity and copyright law, and the general law of parody and the First Amendment.

Mingo's site still features images of Gates as Adolph Hitler, and in a series of stories and essays, lambastes Microsoft for what Mingo said is a creeping corporate sponsorship of education.

Then what did Mingo change? He won't say, other than that he removed links to pages on Microsoft's Web site.

A Microsoft official agreed that the company's main problem with the site was that it looked too much like the official Microsoft sites.

"Microsoft has no problem with legitimate Web sites that parody us," said spokesman Tom Pilla. "They are protected by the First Amendment and we support that.

"Sometimes, some sites do cross the line between parody and content that is very confusing to users. [This site] included actual links to Microsoft sites and used our trademarks in a way that suggested there was an official position that was the opposite of our position."