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Delusion_: freelegoporn.com is not cybersquatting. It's parody. The difference is crucial.

Just because a rights-holder says otherwise doesn't make it so.

Seconded. In fact, I remember another case where the court—wrongly—grabbed a domain name simply because of its resemblance to another site: etoy.com vs. etoys.com. etoy came first, but somehow eToys managed to suck up to a judge and lay claim to etoy.com, however temporarily. It may have had something to do with the fact that eToys thought it had a trademark for a vibrant, useful commerce site while that Johnny-come-earlier was pushing that wishy-washy pinko art.

This is the sort of thing the judiciary has to consider carefully when looking at a case where domain names rub a little too close together. And with the press continuing for domain names, the situation will only get worse.

The link to the etoy.CONTAINER is not the best. The link goes to another project by etoy (which is based on the container idea as well). For more information about the containers you better visit this:
http://www.etoy.com/projects/etoy-tanks/

This pretty much, at first glance, reminds me of a similar project by etoy.CORPORATION called "Mission Eternity". A second look, of course, shows a lot of differences, but hey, this is definitely an interesting subject!

Actually, eToys was ruined by etoy. Etoy, a long-existing cyber-art-project staged a massive community-operation to ruin eToys after eToys wanted to take over etoy.com. Details at toywar.etoy.com.

Actually, eToys was ruined by etoy. Etoy, a long-existing cyber-art-project staged a massive community-operation to ruin eToys after eToys wanted to take over etoy.com. Details at toywar.etoy.com.

And after all that fuss, look at what happened:

- eToys blew through $500 million in one year, and imploded under the pressure. Except for their single subsidiary (babycenter.com , which is still around), the eToys assets were sold for about something like $6 million.

- eToy never really did anything signifigant except protest eToys... look at etoy.com-- they have 2 stories about ETOYS which went out of business over two fucking years ago.

Fucking rediculous.

When I attempted to access the Web pages of exile groups opposed to the authoritarian Vientiane regime, I received an error message saying the pages were not accessible. My experience in the Vientiane cafe was a sobering antidote to a pervasive myth: that the Internet is a powerful force for democracy.

Disclaimer: I'm a part of this significant subset of the democratization industry that Kurlantzick mentioned. Kurlantzick is sadden by the inability of the Internet to topple regimes. Note that by Internet he means the World Wide Web and that he seriously anticipated the Internet to empower the meek and downtrodden with the weapons and ammunition needed to stage revolutions that will remove tyrants.

The Internet is a powerful force for democracy because the Internet is an enabler of open communication. It is just like a radio, a television, or a newspaper - all three of which have ignited flames of revolt all throughout history. The ability to voice one's opinion as well as one's oppression is a prerequisite to the democrazation of any social or political system. Now obviously a government can hinder the effectiveness of the Internet. China did this with Google. We did it with Early Bird. Cultures can also handicap the effectiveness of the Internet.

True story. A North African Muslim couple come to the US to study Information Systems. They catch the entrepreneurial spirit and decide to open an ISP in their home country upon returning home. A couple of years later they return to the US, having not started that ISP. Their reason was that their society was very fundamentalist Islamic despite a few liberal pockets. By starting an ISP, they would expose their customers to culturally and religiously offensive material such as WalMart.com women's casualware listings or Saks Fifth Avenue's pantyhose and shoe catalog. The couple feared a death sentence for bringing in what was considered locally, smut and porn.

This is one specific example of how the effectiveness of the Internet can be limited. However, the Internet has had more success in other places such as the former Yugoslavia. IIT's Project Kosovo and Project Bosnia have successfully used the Internet as a way of documenting war crimes and atrocities and getting the word out to the international community. Democratization efforts depend on getting information flowing. We need to get people talking. We need to start hearing more stories first-hand. The Internet hasn't been used seriously as an instrument for social change until the late 1990s, so results will take time. The ultimate goal is for the Internet to serve as conduit that permits a free exchange of ideas, and that through that exchange help can be given and lives can be improved.

The Internet has an even more important role today than envisioned years ago. Many people are frightened of sharing their political and social opinions in public out of fear of retribution by the authorities. The Internet a vital means for learning the issues from multiple perspectives and for engaging in healthy political debate. At this very moment, tech savvy groups like eToy are engaging in electronic hacktivsm, making people aware of issues that they won't hear about on corporate-controlled news channels. Even now in the US, the safest place to protest is not the free speech zones approved by the government but private chatrooms and blogs.

While it's true that the Internet has proved itself able to disseminate pop culture in authoritarian nations--not only Laos, but China, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, and elsewhere--to date, its political impact has been decidedly limited.

This is opinion. I've spoken with many forei

Since 1994 etoy provides modern culture. The have some visionary ideas about art and the net.

... I shall mention etoy, since I remember them to be at least one of the first to manipulate search engine rankings in an amusing manner. Does anyone else remember the "hijackings" they did? You entered a conventional search term, e.g. "cooking chicken", and the n-th link of the results, if you clicked on it, took to to a big ol' page saying "YOU HAVE BEEN HIJACKED" yadda yadda. Entertaining, albeit politically incorrect, especially nowadays.

The neat thing was that they had their rankings down to a fine art - they could say "we want our page to be no. 2 on yahoo, no. 5 on altavista, and no. 1 on webcrawler" ... any hey presto, it was. Neat. The engine guys hated them, of course ... as did etoys.com - the altercation etoy.com had with *them* is probably where most people know them from.

There's an article on wired, but I haven't been able to come up with anything on their internet hijacks.

Oh well. I'm feeling old in Internet years right now.

You can look at a historical graph of their stock price and pinpoint almost the exact moment when people realized that Etoys.com was nothing more than some money-grubbing lawsuit-happy suits who would rather use the courts as a business case than the traditional way (e.g., have a plan on how to make a profit yourself without relying on government handouts).

RIP Etoys; say Hi to Beelzebub for me.

Not only do you reap cultural value for your investment, but etoy also pays tangible dividends. Like the etoy.AGENT-PACKAGE (30 shares). But for the truely paranoied geek, the etoy.PROTECTION-PACKAGE (100 shares), which includes a personal data locker on Sealand , comes in mighty handy.

Remember, nobody invests to lose money...

Interesting to since what was nappening behind the scenes away from the marketroids.

If legitimate but similar names start being subject to this kind of monetary damage ($65M, from the article), I fear for the future. Let's hope this stays well in hand.

--

Now... what medium of mass communication relies on flash and style over substance? Television and advertising. I'm sure you'd be hard-pressed to get your ideals of art and the goals of marketing to line up. If they do...

If I register etoys.com, I should be automatically be given, for free, permenently, etoy.com, because this is likely a typo, and the person obviously wanted to go to etoys.com.

No, no, no. I wanted to go to etoy.com, but accidentally typed etoys.com. Because this is the U.S. and no one is responsible for their mistakes, etoys should be given free to etoy. Besides, they (etoy) were there first. See below:


Registrant:etoy (ETOY-DOM) zwinglistr. 31 Zuerich, zuerich 8004 ch Domain Name: ETOY.COM Administrative Contact, Billing Contact: Michel, Zai (ZM93) etoyzai@AGENT-ZAI.DE etoy Schoenbrunnstr. 88 Vienna 1001 1001 AU +41 79 321 59 40 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: Fabio, Gramazio (GF1088) gramazio@ETOY.COM etoy Zwinglistr. 31 Zuerich 8004 CH +41 1 242 40 81 (FAX) +41 1 241 60 52 Record last updated on 11-Feb-2000. Record expires on 14-Oct-2000. Record created on 13-Oct-1995.

Registrant:etoys (ETOYS3-DOM) 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 300 Santa Monica, CA 90405 US Domain Name: ETOYS.COM Administrative Contact, Billing Contact: Admin, eToys (AE247-ORG) admin@ETOYS.COM eToys, Inc. 3100 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 300 Santa Monica, CA 90405 US (310) 664-8100 Fax- - (310) 664-8101 Technical Contact, Zone Contact: eToys HostMaster (EH139-ORG) hostmaster@ETOYS.COM eToys Inc. 2850 Ocean Park Blvd., Suite 225 Santa Monica, CA 90405 US +1 310 664 8100Fax- +1 310 664 8101 Fax- - +1 310 664 8101 Record last updated on 08-Apr-2000. Record expires on 04-Nov-2009. Record created on 03-Nov-1997.

With the number of parody sites PETA runs I can't see how they have any room to complain about the tables being turned. Especially when they operate a site like Voguesucks.com

Fight it Peta.org! Appeal. Most important, try to get Etoy.com to help you out!

Here's an article about the whole thing.

the difference is that with the chineese government getting pissed off at it, CFInet loses $1800 and 15 days of revenue. Quick but painful slap on the wrist, and the whole thing is more or less over 15 days later, however long the damage to the psychological state of the employees lasts.

if it had been an american corporation pissed off at a small american website, meanwhile, it would be a lot more drawn out. The small website would have had to deal with either a crippling "settlement", or legal bills costing thousands and thousands of dollars stretching years into the future with no determinate end to the hassle, except that it will more than likely end with the small website running out of money to pay for the legal bills because the corporation is doing nothing but stall tactics for the sole purpose of making the small website run out of money to pay for the legal bills, finally giving up and entering a crippling "settlement", and probably quietly going out of business a month later.

On the other hand, there's a good chance the people running the small american website would become instant celebrities, getting posted on Slashdot [meaning they get some pretty huge exposure from the whole thing, and probably a lot of banner ad hits as they get slashdotted]. If they get lucky, they may even get an offer to have the legal bills handled by the ACLU, and if they get really really lucky (or if the small website is really impressive and the large corporation is really hypocritical) they may even get a benefit album or hundreds of people mirroring their information.
At any rate, unless the small american website slips underneath everyone's radar (which does happen, a LOT, and in which case the small website is simply fucked over) the information the corporation doesn't want to let out will get a LOT of attention that it wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Meanwhile in China if you say something to piss off the government you have nothing protecting you. No one will help you, no one will organize massive campaigns in your name, slashdot will not notice your existence unless there is some kind of major vote in the american congress that day or your company uses linux or something, and you will simply become another victim of the government very, very quietly, with no outcry or notice because, hey, these things happen every day, no one is paying attention, and what's the use of protest anyway? it's not like you're going to change anything.

You decide who's better off.

The last sentence of the article states:

DotTV is backed by the Pasadena Internet business incubator Idealab, the firm behind online retailer eToys and the free Internet service provider NetZero.

Idealab "creates, launches and operates Internet businesses". Unfortunately, they have something to do with etoys which deserves a swift execution for its treatment of etoy.com

The dotTV Terms of Service contract specifically explains the company's nationality:

LIMITED DISTRIBUTION AND TERRITORIAL CONSIDERATIONS Unless otherwise specified, all materials and services in the Site are presented solely for the use in the United States, its territories, possessions and protectorates. This site is controlled and operated by dotTV from its offices within the State of California, U.S.A. dotTV makes no representation that materials in the Site are appropriate or available for use in other locations.

So DotTV is an American (U.S.) company.

Etoy.com of Toywar fame are swiss, like cheese (or whatever)...

Although etoy.com should not have to do this, if they want to, they could. It might pacify the scum-sucking corporate fascists at etoys.com. Etoy could put up a main page, so that when you hit their site for the first time, a very plain and unassuming page pops up and says:

Then you just click on whichever one it is you want.

The porn site "beefcake.com" ("Adult Entertainment") and the Southpark site "beef-cake.com" ("Southpark Archives!") shared similiar URLs this way quite effectively, and I doubt many kids bothered to click on the "Adult Site" link when their favorite SP characters that they wanted to see were only a click away in the other direction.

Of course, the profit mongering, IPO-lusting control freaks at Etoys might still not be happy with this, although I think it pretty much defines "good faith effort". If that's the case, fuck 'em. Etoy has a very strong case in court and can sue the living shit out of Etoys for their stupid, bullying tactics.

-Ben

Read more at nofuncharlie.com and RTMark.