[free-sklyarov] Thing.net evicted from Internet (fwd)

[Martin Baker]

The DMCA is now being used against parody; the charge here would seem to
be trademark infringement, not copyright infringement.

I'm very glad Sklyarov is now totally free, and Elcomsoft off the hook,
but the baddies keep coming....

Martin

--- RTMark Press <ann93 at rtmark.com> wrote:
> Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002 01:14:57 -0500
> From: RTMark Press <ann93 at rtmark.com>
> Subject: THING.NET EVICTED FROM INTERNET
>
> December 23, 2002
> FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>
>       Thing.net assistance page: https://secure.thing.net/backbone/
>       Contact: mailto:thing-group at rtmark.com
>
> ACTIVIST NETWORK IN NY EVICTED FROM INTERNET BY DOW, VERIO
>
> Bowing to pressure from the Dow Chemical Corporation, the internet
> company Verio has booted the activist-oriented Thing.net from the
> Web.
>
> Internet service provider Thing.net has been the primary service
> provider for activist and artist organizations in the New York area
> for 10 years.
>
> On December 3, activists used a server housed by Thing.net to post
> a
> parody Dow press release on the eighteenth anniversary of the
> disaster
> in which 20,000 people died as a result of an accident at a Union
> Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. (Union Carbide is now owned by
> Dow.)
> The deadpan statement, which many people took as real, explained
> that
> Dow could not accept responsibility for the disaster due to its
> primary allegiance to its shareholders and to its bottom line.
>
> Dow was not amused, and sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act
> (DMCA)
> complaint to Verio, which immediately cut Thing.net off the
> internet
> for fifteen hours. A few days later, Verio announced that Thing.net
> had 60 days to move to another provider before being shut down
> permanently, unilaterally terminating Thing.net's 7-year-old
> contract.
>
> Affected organizations include PS1/MOMA, Artforum, Nettime,
> Tenant.net
> (which assists renters facing eviction), and hundreds more.
>
> "Verio's actions are nothing short of outrageous," said Wolfgang
> Staehle, Thing.net Executive Director. "They could have resolved
> the
> matter with the Dow parodists directly; instead they chose to shut
> down our entire network. This self-appointed enforcement of the
> DMCA
> could have a serious chilling effect on free speech, and has
> already
> damaged our business."
>
>
> RTMark, which publicizes corporate abuses of democracy, is housed
> on
> Thing.net. Please visit https://secure.thing.net/backbone/ to help
> Thing.net survive Dow's and Verio's actions, and to develop a plan
> to
> avoid such problems in the future.
>
>                              # 30 #