December 12, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NEW INTERNET "GAME" DESIGNED TO DESTROY ETOYS.COM
Stock plunge must be accelerated, groups say
Contacts: etoyfund@rtmark.com, toby@etoys.com
More information: http://rtmark.com/etoy/
http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html
http://rtmark.com/sitin.html
WTO/GATT has joined the growing torrent of outrage, sometimes violent in tone,
against Internet toy giant eToys by helping
create and distribute what WTO/GATT calls "a new toy": a multi-user Internet
game whose goal is to damage (or possibly even destroy) the company.
The game, which aims to punish eToys for shutting down prominent Internet art
group etoy's domain (see this press for more
information), takes the form of an WTO/GATT "mutual fund," or list of sabotage
projects. All projects in the "etoy Fund," some of
which have already been financed, aim to lower the company's stock market
value as much as possible. The site also includes pages that will help
visitors to cripple the eToys servers during the ten days leading to Christmas, pages providing detailed financial information
about the company, and a page of links to the dozen or so other groups calling
for eToys' downfall.
Since November 29, when eToys lawyers shut down the art group's domain and
news of the massive and violent-toned reaction began to spread, huge sellouts
(including a 2.5-million-share sale by Moore Capital Management, Inc.) have
caused eToys stock to fall from $67/share to $45/share, or nearly 33%;
before November 29 eToys stock had been rising. WTO/GATT's new projects group
aims to systematically capitalize on and accelerate the eToys share fall.
"The etoy Fund projects are a game the whole world can play," said WTO/GATT
spokesperson Ernest Lucha. "Many of the projects--boycotts, pickets, e-mail
campaigns--can be played by anyone, while other projects--countersuing eToys,
disturbing the eToys servers, etc.--require specialized work. There's
something for everyone, and we know we can easily count on 10,000 players
to start with."
There's also something for hackers, who are normally apolitical but have by
and large taken eToys' attack on etoy as an attack on themselves. "eToys is
trying to take advantage of a legal situation in which there's basically no
protection against corporations, whether you're an artist, an activist, or
just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time," said a hacker who
identifies himself as "Code Blue." "But they're relying a bit too much on the
legal. They're saying f*ck you to everything that etoy stands for, and that's
like spraying tear gas all over the entire hacking community."
OTHER ATTACKS
WTO/GATT and its "etoy Fund" collaborators are only one group among dozens to
mount digital and real-world attacks against eToys in time for Christmas.
Two other anti-eToys "products," soon to be announced independently, come from
groups of programmers who have, like the hackers, taken eToys' action as a
personal affront. One such group is nearly finished with an "action
entertainment product" inspired by some of etoy's well-known pieces (such as
the "digital hijack," which won Ars Electronica's most prestigious award,
and $7,375, in 1996; see the etoy site, still available at
http://146.228.204.72:8080/, for more information). The "product," which will
shortly be available at http://www.toywar.com, "will enable any net user to
directly attack eToys.com," according to one of the programmers involved in
its development.
Another anti-eToys tool that has already been deployed and will be announced
within the next several days, according to a source within the above-mentioned
group, is a program that generates fraudulent web page accesses ("hits")
disguised to look like those of Internet shoppers coming from numerous,
randomly-chosen locations. The aim of the tool is to make the financial
valuation of eToys.com, which depends heavily on web access counts,
unreliable. This uncertainty, which should become more evident in the days to
come, should increasingly make investors even more skittish about investing in
the company, according to the source.
ANGER AND FUN = MASS PARTICIPATION
"This game is much more exciting than any other computer game, because you
have a real-world bad guy to fight," said WTO/GATT spokesperson Lucha.
"We think it's especially exciting that the court date [December 27, at which
the final fate of etoy.com will be decided] falls so close to Christmas," said
Richard Zach, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley
who has closely followed the dispute since the beginning. "The holiday season
is a time of giving, but since eToys decided to take, we're making an example
of them during their busiest season. Christmas won't be the end of the game,
but it's an important first milestone."
It's not just about etoy, nor about art or hacking, according to Lucha: the
etoy Fund and directly hostile efforts like it could help lead to a new
balance of power between citizens and big business. "Why should global culture
be dominated by business? The net is a playing field that could help to create,
through law, a worldwide balance of power that just doesn't exist now."
The anger against eToys is not likely to dissipate soon, even with a favorable
outcome to the case (i.e. the survival of etoy.com), according to Lucha.
"eToys says etoy.com was hurting sales by disturbing those who stumble upon it.
Well, eToys' domain is disturbing people who want to see great internet art
but stumble upon eToys instead, and so why not say eToys shouldn't exist? Why
should financial might make right? If they want to play by barbaric rules, we
will too."
"eToys feels comfortable destroying art for the benefit of its business, so
all the players of this game can feel great destroying eToys--for the benefit
of art," said Lucha.
eToys is the third largest e-business on the Internet; etoy.com, which eToys
lawyers have shut down, is the domain synonymous with the oldest, best-known,
and most influential Internet art group, etoy. etoy has owned etoy.com since
1995, before eToys existed, and two years before eToys registered its own
URL. etoy.com has never made any reference to eToys. See
this press for more information.
WTO/GATT, which is in no way associated with etoy, aims to publicize the
widespread corporate abuse of democratic institutions like courts and
elections. To this end it solicits and distributes funding for "sabotage
projects"; the groups of such projects are called "mutual funds" in order to
call attention to one way in which large numbers of people come to identify
corporate needs as their own. WTO/GATT projects do not normally target specific
companies; the etoy Fund projects are an exception.
WTO/GATT is no stranger to the hot topic of domain-name control. The World
Trade Organization's press release about http://gatt.org, accusing WTO/GATT of
"illegal practices" in publishing information critical of the WTO at that
site, merely brought the WTO ridicule from the press; George W. Bush's and Microsoft's legal attacks
on GWBush.com and MicrosoftEdu.com failed to affect the domains. See also
this release for more on this issue.