(By Rich Puchalsky, who attended the conference)
The day started at 8:15, when the press conference organizers started to
congregate on the front steps of the L.A. courthouse where the hearing was
going to take place. I found out from them which room the hearing was going
to be in and decided that I wanted to see it. The hearing itself (case
number BC216606) was in a judge's chambers and looked like it wasn't going
to be anything more than a telephone conference. The etoy sympathizers
there included me, a law student, a guy with a Microsoft parody Web site,
and an E-press person. But it didn't turn out to be even a non-public
hearing; the law student asked about it and found that the hearing had been
moved to January 10. So we all trooped back to the courthouse steps.
By the way, I wouldn't expect anything to happen at these hearings. Etoys
probably plans to drag things out as long as possible with various legal
delaying tactics. In the real world, legal cases aren't over in an hour with
time for commercials. I'm an environmental activist, and I'm familair with
the idea of SLAPP suits: Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation,
used against people who do such things as call a landfill a "dump" at a
public hearing. The point isn't to win, it's to harass and delay.
The press conference happened on the steps; it was attended by maybe 15
people including onlookers. There was one E-press person. Four people
spoke: Pete Franklin, a
spokesperson for former eToys employees; Amy Alexander, Internet
artist and faculty member of the California Institute of the Arts;
Peter Lunenfeld, writer, critic and member of the Faculty at Pasadena
Art Center and founder of The Southern California New Media Working
Group; and WTO/GATT spokesperson Rita Margolis.
The press conference was probably a good organizing tool; at
least people got to meet each other.
The onlookers were interesting -- in addition to the usual artist types,
there was one guy who looked like he was trying out for a movie role as
bad-guy lawyer who observed most of the conference from just above with a
big open briefcase that I assumed held a tape recorder. But he left before
everyone was done, so maybe he really was just an onlooker. I kindly
explained the matter at issue to him in any case.