Slashdot Mirror
Domain: gatt.org
Stories and comments across the archive that link to gatt.org.
Comments · 13
-
eToys
It's also an eCommerce site that went out of business when the bubble burst; it doesn't relate to censorship at all.
It went out of business during the bubble burst yes however it's attack of a Swedish arts group who used etoy as their domain name [WTO page with links to news articles] infuriated a lot of activists. If eToys had never attacked the group they may not of survived anyway, however by attacking them and trying to censor their domain name eToys made sure people would oppose them.
Falcon
-
wrong URL
The right one is http://www.gatt.org/
-
Re:Worrying thought...
Simple. The EC declares Microsoft in contempt, leevies a larger fine. Files a complaint with the WTO, files a complaint with the U.S. FTC and SEC. The fine continues to accrue interest.
It's not quite that simple.
What will most likely happen is the EU will come to a negotiated compromise with Microsoft. Microsoft wants to stall, and is apparently willing to pay for it. They will likely propose settlement at a fraction of the amount owed. Alternatively, if Microsoft plays the hard-bargaining positional game, they will likely end up having their accounts frozen, credit rating demerited, and income garnished, in addition to other consequences. If they choose to go down that road, they will probably turn to the USA for a solution. It is possible that they could argue that this judgment is an unfair tarriff on their software importation into the EU in violation of the national treatment aspect of the GATT, but that is a weak argument, in my humble opinion. The reason the EU courts found Microsoft anti-competitive have their own merit, not based upon (at face value anyway) whether Microsoft is domestic or foreign corporation. Again though, it would be effective at stalling.
While not quite technically perfect, I think you are quite on the money in terms of the tone portrayed of stubborn and aloof defiance and stalling by Microsoft. -
The Malaise of the Middle ClassesAmerica's middle classes have never had it so good. Two decades of economic success have brought wealth and happiness to anybody who was prepared to work hard. Americans are now better off in real terms than at any previous time in our history. Indeed, President Clinton himself went as far as to say that we are living in an "era of unprecedented prosperity". But scratch the surface of this glittering facade, and you will find not everything in the garden is rosy.
A certain minority of Americans are inventing new illnesses in order to avoid work.
The economic miracle that was started off by Ronald Reagan in the 80s, and continued through the George Bush Sr and Clinton administrations is one the wonders of the modern world. The solid economic base of Amreica, coupled with the explosion of the American designed world-wide-web and Internet have created opportunities for all regardless of education, race, sex or class. Anyone in America who wants a job will be able to take their pick from a selection of attractive and highly paid positions due to the strength of the American economy.
So why is it then that the middle classes have taken to faking diseases and why are otherwise respectable physicians joining in this collective fraud ?
Dyslexia, M.E., Attention Deficit Disorder, Repetitive Strain Injury, Anorexia. You have probably heard of these diseases before. At least one of your co-workers has probably taken time off work for one of these 'illnesses' in the last month. And yet, up until now no evidence has been produced to support the existence of any these afflictions as actual medical conditions. Let's analyse these 'sicknesses' one by one.
-
Dyslexia. This is the 'diagnosis' given to a middle class child who cannot read owing to low intelligence. It is an attempt to medicalize a problem which in reality is a social one: All men are not created equal. When God gave out the brains, some of us were fortunate enough to be given a shiny new BMW 7-Series sedan, some of us got '97 5.0 Mustang, and some of us (the unfortunate few) got nothing more than an old skateboard.
Dyslexia does not exist. Stupid children who cannot read do exist. -
M.E. (also known as the 'yuppie flu'). Again the middle classes cannot stomach the fact that they are not superhuman beings. Consequently when one of them needs to take a day off work, due to being what normal people would call "tired" they medicalize the problem (by giving it a long medical-sounding name) and hey-presto you can get all the time off work you want. Not bad for simply being tired. I wonder what our forefathers who built America by the sweat of their brows would say to a modern yuppie suffering from M.E. ?
M.E. does not exist. People who need to go to bed a bit earlier do exist. - Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD). This one is quite sinister. For thousands of years, children were allowed to be carefree spirits, wandering wherever the mood took them. Investigating a world which is new and fresh to them, getting distracted when something more interesting came along. This was cal
-
Dyslexia. This is the 'diagnosis' given to a middle class child who cannot read owing to low intelligence. It is an attempt to medicalize a problem which in reality is a social one: All men are not created equal. When God gave out the brains, some of us were fortunate enough to be given a shiny new BMW 7-Series sedan, some of us got '97 5.0 Mustang, and some of us (the unfortunate few) got nothing more than an old skateboard.
-
Re:Do not pass go, do not collect $200
There is a line between parody and fraud. It's obvious that the group in question went out of their way to make their site look as much like an official Dow site as possible in order to defame Dow Chemical. That's not parody. That's intentional misrepresentation.
It might be argued that Dow are misrepresenting themselves, and that The Yes-Men are helping Dow to express more truthfully what they stand for. Not that this matters at all. All these pranks are meant to last for some time, then get a lot of attention as the corporation sends their army of lawyers, then closed down. But some still work, like gatt.org, a parody of wto.org. They are so alike that I almost don't see the difference myself. This one's been up for more than a year. -
Re:What does this have to do with My Rights??
Look at the site -- it looks just like the real thing.
Nice try, but it actually looks nothing like the "real thing".I think I could tell the two apart even if I was quite a large distance from my monitor.Perhaps by the "real thing" you meant "a professionally produced website".If so I agree; they've done a good job.
-
Huh?But a reasonable person could glance through the gatt.org site and not realize what was going on.
Random example from the www.gatt.org site:
"Modern" free-market theory, in which goods must be free to travel unhindered, is little changed from the teachings of Adam Smith and David Ricardo, who wrote two hundred years ago, in Britain, under conditions entirely different from those of the present. There is still no statistical reason to believe that this theory works, but corporations have many selfish economic reasons to make it the law.
English is not your first language, then?
-
Re:Support the DDA!
Excuse the bad link above, somehow slashcode messed up my well-formed link to gatt.org (yes! slashcode! not me!)
-
Re:Support the DDA!Have you viewed the site? Were you confused? For how long? If over a minute, where's your reading comprehension?
It was established some time ago that registering a trademark in order to place a site criticizing the trademark's owner is not "bad faith."
The WTO accused these folks of "harvesting" email addresses, but doesn't say what method they used...according to the site, the only method they used to "harvest" addresses was some "mailto:" links. WTO is annoyed by the mockery and is interpreting the facts to suit themselves.
Computerworld ran an article on this following WTO's party line on this issue so slavishly as to stretch anyone's definition of journalistic ethics. Most interesting is this passage:
The fake WTO site changed its look this afternoon so that it no longer exactly resembles the real WTO Web site.
Even so, the phony site contains so many references to the WTO that some search engines are directing people to it instead of to the official site. A search of AltaVista using the keyword WTO returns www.gatt.org in fifth place.
So, according to the WTO and to an incompetent journalist at Computerworld, establishing an anti-WTO site that shows up fifth in search engines is tantamount to site-jacking!!
Is this the type of reasoning that you wish to defend?
-
The offence is NOT about freedom of expression
See that weird red, blue and green globe symbol?
That's trademarked. You can see it on the WTO website, and they have a nice (specific) notice clearly indicating it is theirs.
I'm all for parody. But there is no need for parody to make use of actual trademark symbols, or even trademarked phrases. It is much more funny, and more clever besides. Here's one example, in case you don't already know what I mean.
It's quite clear to me that the Yes Men are more interested in pissing off the WTO than in parody itself. This is not itself a crime, but replicating trademarks like that tends to fool people rather than to get the point across. The WTO has a legitimate complaint here.Trademark law is meant to protect consumers, not businesses, and (for once) the WTO seems to be using it completely legitimately. If the Yes Men aren't deliberately trying to fool the very people they are self-righteously trying to protect from the corporations, they should have no problem with getting off their duffs and altering the trademarked symbols on their website. -
but alas, the WTO
this is one brave and seriously laudable move ob behalf of Brazil, as the WTO could levy massive sanctions against them for this action. for those who don't know what the kids in Seattle were fighting in the streets over, the WTO is a transnational body-- a meta-government, if you will-- that is capable of coercing states (basically by suing them) out of erecting "barriers to free trade." a "barrier to free trade" is essentially any national law which presents any sort of a hindrance to international commerce. disregarding international patent conventions falls under this category (as does elements of Amercia's Endangered Species Act and our ban against importing British beef, as the WTO has taught us in the past).
see (R)TMark's http://www.gatt.org, a very honest parody of wto.org, for a more on the WTO.
the political fallout of a WTO action against Brazil on behalf of Roche would probably make Seattle look like a playground skirmish, so maybe the WTO might just back down. not that they've backed down in the name of human life before....
we'll just have to see to that. -
DJ Spooky, robots, and the Frontier FundCheck out their page for The Frontier Fund, managed by DJ Spooky, the Subliminal Kid.
From the description of one of the holdings (VRWR):
"Develop a 'virtual worker' system that allows populations normally engaged in migrant labor to work over the web instead. For example, develop a telepresent robot that picks oranges or strawberries while being controlled through the internet. Then, unionize both the robots and the telepresent workers."
Not hijacking. Clever prank. -
negativland's new gig
check out http://www.gatt.org/fundintel.html
C'mon... when you see the words "Intellectual Property Fund" and Negativland together, how can you take it seriously?
