<nettime> [NO PROTEST NO PROFIT] A NetStrike for Bandits!

[The Thing Rome <thingnet@ecn.org>]

The Net.Protest against the multiple censorships of the Rome City Network
[see http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/reviews/press.html] is reaching its acme
on Monday 23, when a large coalition of net-based groups, radical
associations and digital hacktivists will perform a NetStrike against the
City Council of Rome official website. A simple "customized" tool for
FloodNet (FloodSpace_1.0) is available for download at the Thing Rome
website [http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/floodnet/] The Call for NetStrike
follows.

This act of Electronic Civil Disobedience is the last in a series of
events planned by several italian net entities. Few days ago, The Thing
Rome and 0100101110101101.ORG released "NO PROTEST NO PROFIT", the First
International Competion of Net.protest, aiming to turn the anti-censorship
campaign in a piece of net.art. All the e-mails of protest sent to the
City of Rome, in fact, will be evaluated and economically estimed by an
extraordinary international jury. On the basis of this estimation, The
Thing Rome and 0100101110101101.ORG will make an offer to the City of
Rome, in order to buy the target Inboxes and sell them to an important
cultural institution for a major exhibition. More info at:
http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/projects/noprofit.html

Regards,
The Thing Rome
http://www.ecn.org/thingnet

-------------------------------------------


To all the real bandits
to all those who sense a bounty coming on their heads
to all those who do not want to stay in the new economy saloon anymore
load up your guns
it's time to settle with the sheriff
it's time to take by storm the diligence of institutions
stop censorship now !

A NET STRIKE FOR BANDITS!
Monday 23, October 2000
hours 14.00-17.00 (Greenwich Time)
target: www.comune.roma.it/index.htm


Bandits. Banned.

On October 2 the City of Rome banned the webspace of the Rome City Network
hosting the AvAna.net association. The group was blamed to have published
materials "unfit" to a City Network, following an exposition by Father
Fortunato Di Noto, a known pedophile-hunter priest, who claimed the Luther
Blissett's book "Let the little children..." to be a text fostering
pedophilia. Actually, the book - regularly sold in every bookstore of
Italy - is just an inquiry on the issue of pedophilia and on the judicial
mistakes generated by an irational and spectacular approach to the matter.

Bandits. Banned.

Two days later, the same City of Rome banned from the City Network a page
of The Thing Rome website, showing an interview with australian artist
Francesca Da Rimini (aka Doll Yoko). The group was blamed to have used -
as illustration of the article - images "unfit" to a City Network. The
images were taken from Doll Space, a known web art work, financed by
Australia Council, winner of two international prizes and bought by the
University of Westminster. The artist made these images by using a Dutch
print dating back to 1789: one of the first illustration of Marquis De
Sade's books.

Bandits. Banned.

The same day, the City Network banned the web space of Namir, a webzine
(issued by the Raffaello Community Library) blamed to have hosted a
provoking e-mail by "Airone Pazzo", a mentally disturbed person pretending
to be a pedophile in order to outline his troubles as dropout.

Bandits. Banned.

The following days, the City of Rome banned "Let the little children..."
again. It had been published again by The Thing group and by the Agency
for the Rights of Telematic Communication, in order to protest the
"censorship policy" of the City of Rome.

Bandits. Banned.

Those who are exiled and banned of their civil rights.

Bandits. Banned.

You could be the next one.

By now, the politics of the State Administration is far away from the
Network Society and its forms of communication. The management of italian
city networks is a dramatic example: spectacle and approximation rule.
What happened in Rome, due to Mrs. Mariella Gramaglia, vicedirector
general of the City of Rome, is the last evidence of it.

Actually, this could be irrelevant, if this political class wouldn't be
the same one who claims the right to regulate the Internet, to make laws
about it. If bans and censorship become the way to manage reality, to
state what is visible and what is not, well, then it's time to show *who*
is the real bandit on the Net.

And it's *them*.

*They* do not belong to the great civil and horizontal community of the
net.

If you are sick and tired of censorship and stupidity, if you are sick and
tired of emergencies and false alarms, if you feel like a bandit, or you
fear you could be, if you think that the time has come to show to the
rulers who the real agents of social communication are...

JOIN US IN THIS PROTEST!

The virtual assault is scheduled for 0ctober 23, 2000, from 14.00 to 17.00
(Greenwich Time), against the City of Rome website
www.comune.roma.it/index.htm,

IRC channel on www.ecn.org#hackit99 (or www.ecn.org/irc, java enabled
browser).

We reclaim an official apology by the City of Rome Mayor and the immediate
restoration of all the banned pages.


-----------------------------
Related Links:

Anticensorship Campaign:
http://www.forteprenestino.net




Some press:

Telepolis: "Sex, Internet, Zensur und Markenzeichen" (german)
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/8935/1.html

ExibArt: "The City of Rome censors The Thing and AvANa Net" (italian)
http://www.exibart.com/IDNotizia1451.htm

Punto Informatico: "Blind censorship" (italian)
http://punto-informatico.it/p.asp?i=33519

Brainstorm: "Against the online Holy Inquisition" (italian)
http://www.apogeonline.com/berny/inquisizione.html

Il manifesto: "www.censorship.com" and "The censored artist" (italian)
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art28.htm
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art29.htm




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