<nettime> etoy (x4)

["nettime's_digestive_system" <nettime@bbs.thing.net>]

wunderkind@etoy.com
          TOYWAR: etoy.com SHOT DOWN BY US COURT
Josephine Bosma <jesis@xs4all.nl>
          etoy
Nino Rodriguez <nino@pobox.com>
          Re: RHIZOME_RAW: a new toy for you
Reinhold Grether <Reinhold.Grether@uni-konstanz.de>
          a new toy for you

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Date: Fri, 3 Dec 1999 03:01:55 +0100
From: wunderkind@etoy.com
Subject: TOYWAR: etoy.com SHOT DOWN BY US COURT

SHOCKING NEWS: the preliminary injunction 
blocking the www.etoy.com domain was accepted 
by the californian state court yesterday.
this is not totally surprising but it is still
hardcore. the etoy.ATTORNEYS didn't expect that
this could be practiced. its far away from being
clean.

the judge john p. shook listened to the attorneys,
nodded and then took out the following prepared
text and signed it:

***********
defendant etoy corporation d/b/a etoy ("etoy"), and
any and all persons acting on behalf or in concern
with etoy, are hereby enjoined from doing any of the
following pending final adjudication of this action:

1. operating a website with the domain name of
www.etoy.com
2. using, displaying or otherwise exploiting in any
way the domain name www.etoy.com in connection with
the digital hijack.
3. selling, offering to sell, soliciting offers to
purchase shares of unregistered shares "etoy stock"
to any person in the united states or in california.

signed november 29, 1999: john p. shook, judge, los
angeles county superior court.

***********

this was it. NO CHANCE. NOT AT ALL. NO REAL DISCUSSION.
NO INTEREST IN THE DETAILS AND HIDDEN MOTIVES  FOR THIS
COMPLAINT (which is MONEY and nothing else!).

"with this decision we are literally knocked out and had
to shut down our apache web server a few hours later.
one of the hardest moments in our successful history.
the etoy.BOMB has detonated !"


ONE SINGLE ("F*CKING FLASH PLUGIN") displayed for a few
weeks on the etoy site was judged sufficient to shoot
down the etoy.DOMAIN because - according to eToys Inc. -
it disturbs the eToys business and confuses customers
about the eToys trademark.

furthermore eToys claims that etoy wants to piggy back
on increased holiday shopping traffic. eToys (online since
october 97) must have known of etoy before they built their
business  but  decided to use the name anyway despite
the potential for confusion. now they seek to hold etoy
(online since october1995) responsible for that very
confusion, even though there is no business overlap.

according to advising attorneys who observed the trial
"the suit would not pass the giggle test" (village voice,
new york 1.12.99:
http://www.villagevoice.com/issues/9948/barliant.shtml ).


now the etoy.CORPORATION will strike back to the
maximum extent under american and european law.

etoy now prepares for the battle against one of the
biggest and most unscrupulous e-commerce companies
in the world, a company which seeks to maximise
profit with the take over of the domain etoy.com
ostensibly in the name of family values. using their
deep pockets and lobbying power to curb choice,
dissent and free speech and make the internet a more
colorless and less exciting place.


you can find the etoy corporation under the ip address
http://146.228.204.72:8080 till this corporate battle is won.
the etoy.BOARD decided not to move to a temporary
domain name. etoy WANTS ITS DOMAIN BACK!


www.toywar.com is an action supported by various
organizations like rtmark.com, the thing new york,
ninfomaina, detritus.net, illegal art, plagiarist.org,
namespace, negativeland, evolution control commitee
styro2000, boombox.net, personal records, and others.



it is not an official etoy.PRODUCT. the etoy.BOARD
cannot control or stop the tremendous resistance
community from acting. it does not know the people
involved in this action at this moment and it does
not know what the future of toywar.com and other
unauthorized mirrors may be.

our material is not protected by copyright so anyone
can use it at his/her own risk.

"the only thing we know is that anonymous users
infiltrated the etoy.SERVERS before the court decision
was handed out to the board and downloaded the latest
etoy products...and that some of the material is now
displayed on toywar.com".


disclaimer: etoy.SHARE is an illegal ART PRODUCT in
the USA since november 28, 1999. do not try to purchase
etoy.SHARES if you are located in america or if you 
are an american citizen. use this email address to get
information about our bank accounts in europe to
transfer money to support the etoy.CRISIS BOARD!
just hit the reply button. thank you for your investment in
a better future without corporations destroying freedom
on the net. at least one of them will face a hard time.

Please feel free to use the attached banner to link to our
IP address (http://146.228.204.72:8080) in order to give us
a visible plattform during the struggle.


     [unattached by nettime's_digestive_system...]


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Date: Sat, 4 Dec 1999 08:49:35 +0100 (CET)
From: Josephine Bosma <jesis@xs4all.nl>
Subject: etoy

I have no access to my nettime incoming mail, but:
is anybody interested in trying to do something substantial
to support etoy? How can we stop american judges to take down
european artsites? this should be an important testcase, no?
tell me if I am wrong...


J
*

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Date: Fri, 3 Dec 99 08:25:46 -0500
Subject: Re: RHIZOME_RAW: a new toy for you
From: Nino Rodriguez <nino@pobox.com>

> electronic vandalism

Am I the only one who sees the irony in etoy getting "hijacked" by eToys?

Seems like a fitting act of appropriation to round out the 90's.


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Date: Fri, 03 Dec 1999 11:18:14 +0100
From: Reinhold Grether <Reinhold.Grether@uni-konstanz.de>
Subject: a new toy for you

Here comes a marvelous new toy for you: E*TOY
E*TOY is a toy to destroy etoys.com.

First make this site

http://quotes.nasdaq-amex.com/Quote.dll?page=full&mode=basics&symbol=ETYS`&selected=ETYS

your starting point. Look at Last Sale. There you see a number like
$55, the actual prize of a stock share. All you have to do is
TO BRING THIS NUMBER DOWN.

How to manage this? Have a further look on the site. There are
119,756,000 Shares Outstanding. Multiply Last Sale and Total
Shares Outstanding and you get the Market Cap, something like
$6,586,580,000. Be not impressed by numbers. Their IPO was
thirty times as high and their Earnings Per Share are $-0.85.

Before you take some action explore the site more thoroughly.
Don't miss the feature Open Stock Report at
http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/quotes_reports.asp?symbol=ETYS%60&selected=ETYS%60
(their actual numbers as pdf-file) and in Real-Time Filings
http://www.nasdaq.com/asp/quotes_sec.asp?symbol=ETYS`&selected=ETYS
form Type S-1
http://realtimefilings.nasdaq.com/edgar_conv_html\1999\02\17\08\0001047469-99-006332.html
(their IPO-Prospectus, more than 1MB).

Read their mission statement "Operates online store which focus exclusively
on children's products, including toys, video games, software, videos and
music" over and over again for getting some ideas.

And now take some action and look how the Last Sale number evolves.
There are so many actions imaginable that I can only give you a few hints.

1) Infrastructure measurements
They are nothing without their website. If the united hackers of the
world could bring down their website for ten days before Christmas,
their share will fall tremendously.
Of course they communicate via email, fax, phone. Not so good for
them when their communication system stutters.
There are lots of pakets to deliver before Christmas. Merry Christmas
when the delivery system delivers the false items.

2) Client relations
Start a website "Parents Against Etoys". Communicate widely that
the company is proactively anticultural. Do you want your children to
live in a world without culture, fun, education, art and irony?
Start a pro ToysRUs campaign (their main competitor).
Start a national Boycott Campaign.

3) Investor communities
There are lots of investor communities out there on the web with
thousands of forums. Enter a forum and communicate seriously
or with a clear disinformation strategy. Starting points:
Fool http://www.fool.com/
MetaMarkets http://www.metamarkets.com/
Raging Bull http://www.ragingbull.com/
Silicon Investor http://www.techstocks.com/
VerticalNet http://www.verticalnet.com/
All direct banks have comparable forums.

4) Publicity
Communicate the case etoys vs etoy with all your friends and
acquaintances. Make clear it's not only about artworld
solidarity or the international law of domain names but about
the balance of power in the emergent virtual world culture.
If the electronic vandalism of etoys triumphs, you can forget
about netculture and netart. You will have a totalitarian consumerist
anticulture instead of a protuberant workhouse of ideas.
Inform all peoples of influence, even a Soros, who maybe will
clear the case with his buddy CEO Louis M. Bacon.

Enjoy E*TOY, distribute it widely, make
http://quotes.nasdaq-amex.com/Quote.dll?page=full&mode=basics&symbol=ETYS`&selected=ETYS
your personal portal site for the next few weeks, start
your actions and watch the share falling.

Imagine, it's a multi user game and there are thousands of
players worldwide.



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