[A-List] FW: THING.NET EVICTED FROM INTERNET

[Sabri Oncu <soncu@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Dow Chemical has, it seems, wielded its influence (and lawyers)
in order to get Thing.Net, a small ISP with ties to the NY
activist and artist communicites, kicked off the Internet.

Recommended book: _The Future of Ideas_, by Lawrence Lessig.
Lessig, a Stanford Law professor, is pessimistic about whether
society will be allowed to create new ideas in the face of
increasing legislation and corporate dominance.  Unfortunately,
he's right.

More on Thing.Net, from RTMark, below.

----- Forwarded message -----
Date: Mon, 23 Dec 2002
From: RTMark Press <ann48@xxxxxxxxxx>
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@xxxxxxxxxx

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.


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