<nettime> Help destroy eToys.com!

[Game Players <announce0028@rtmark.com>]

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December 12, 1999
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NEW INTERNET "GAME" DESIGNED TO DESTROY ETOYS.COM
Stock plunge must be accelerated, groups say

    Contacts: mailto:etoyfund@rtmark.com, mailto:toby@etoys.com
    More information: http://rtmark.com/etoy/
                      http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html
                      http://rtmark.com/sitin.html

RTMark has joined the growing torrent of outrage, sometimes violent in tone, 
against Internet toy giant eToys (http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html) by helping 
create and distribute what RTMark 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 http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html for more 
information), takes the form of an RTMark "mutual fund," or list of sabotage 
projects (http://rtmark.com/etoy/). 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 
(http://rtmark.com/sitin.html), 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. RTMark'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 RTMark 
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."

"This game is much more exciting than any other computer game, because you 
have a real-world bad guy to fight," said RTMark 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.

OTHER ATTACKS

RTMark 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.



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 
http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html for more information.

RTMark, 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. RTMark projects do not normally target specific 
companies; the etoy Fund projects are an exception.

RTMark is no stranger to the hot topic of domain-name control. The World 
Trade Organization's press release about http://gatt.org, accusing RTMark of 
"illegal practices" in publishing information critical of the WTO at that 
site, merely brought the WTO ridicule from the press 
(http://rtmark.com/gatt.html); George W. Bush's and Microsoft's legal attacks 
on GWBush.com (http://rtmark.com/bush.html) and MicrosoftEdu.com 
(http://rtmark.com/allpress.html#mse) failed to affect the domains. See also 
http://rtmark.com/othersites.html for more on this issue.



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