<nettime> TOYWAR: etoy.com SHOT DOWN BY US COURT

[wunderkind@etoy.com]

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. 




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