A Distorted Mirror: Automatic, Real-Time Web Parodies

Citing the DMCA, the World Trade Organization complained to Verio, the upstream provider of parody site gatt.org, a site we've mentioned before which jabs at the aims and methods of GATT and the WTO. Verio notified domain holder Jonathan Prince of the complaint, and asked Prince to remove any copyrighted materials from the site. The site appears intact for now, but read on to learn about the interesting software the complaint has spawned -- perhaps this isn't what the WTO had in mind.

As Andrew Bichlbaum writes: "The WTO could well have stepped on a hornets' nest. To counter the attack, Gatt.org managers The Yes Men have released a piece of open-source 'parodyware' that will 'forever make this kind of censorship obsolete. ... Using this software, it takes five minutes to set up a convincing, personalized, evolving parody of the WTO.org website, or any other website of your choice ... All you need is a place to put it -- say, WTOO.org, WorldTradeOrg.com, whatever.'"

Comments

Slashdot is

[lavaforge]

The WTO's greatest defense. No one will ever see the offending pages at this rate...

Roll-your-own "Parody" site here...

[Robber Baron]

I like this one better!

Re:What does this have to do with My Rights??

[Mojojojo Monkey Inc.]

If a corporation wants to take down trademarked material, they simply submit the site to slashdot, and it's gone 5 minutes later.

Re:Huh?

[-Harlequin-]

English is not your first language, then?

He's probably American :-)

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(The differently-humoured please note: That was a JOKE people, no need to take it personally or flame off about it. As it happens, I also live in the USA. And I feel somewhat depressed that I should feel like I should probably write this kind of disclaimer on /. :-)