[wordup] Dow can't stamp out parody websites

[Adam Shand]

Via: Brett Shand <brett at earthlight.co.nz>
From:  <nettime-l at bbs.thing.net>

>---------- Forwarded message ----------
>Date: Fri, 13 Dec 2002 13:19:40 GMT
>From: RTMark Press <ann81 at rtmark.com>
>To: info-world-economic-forum.com <info at world-economic-forum.com>
>Subject: Dow can't stamp out parody websites (or
>info at world-economic-forum.com)
>
><...>
>
>December 13, 2002
>FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
>Contact: Paul Hardwin:  mailto:phardwin at yurt.org
>DowEthics.com: mailto:info at dowethics.com
>
>DOW, BURSON-MARSTELLER CLAMP DOWN ON FAKE WEBSITES
>But companies find it harder to stifle criticism
>
>Two giant companies are struggling to shut down parody websites that
>portray them unfavorably, interrupting internet use for thousands in
>the process, and filing a lawsuit that pits the formidable legal
>department of PR giant Burson-Marsteller against a freshman at
>Hampshire College.
>
>The activists behind the fake corporate websites have fought back, and
>obtained substantial publicity in the process.
>
>Fake websites have been used by activists before, but Dow-Chemical.com
>and BursonMarsteller.com represent the first time that such websites
>have successfully been used to publicize abuses by specific
>corporations.
>
>A December 3 press release originating from one of the fake sites,
>Dow-Chemical.com, explained the "real" reasons that Dow could not take
>responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe, which has resulted in an
>estimated 20,000 deaths over the years
>(http://www.theyesmen.org/dow/#release). "Our prime responsibilities
>are to the people who own Dow shares, and to the industry as a whole,"
>the release stated. "We cannot do anything for the people of Bhopal."
>The fake site immediately received thousands of outraged e-mails
>(http://www.dowethics.com/r/about/corp/email.htm).
>
>Within hours, the real Dow sent a legal threat to Dow-Chemical.com's
>upstream provider, Verio, prompting Verio to shut down the fake Dow's
>ISP for nearly a day, closing down hundreds of unrelated websites and
>bulletin boards in the process.
>
>The fake Dow website quickly resurfaced at an ISP in Australia.
>(http://theyesmen.org/dow/#threat)
>
>In a comical anticlimax, Dow then used a little-known domain-name rule
>to take possession of Dow-Chemical.com
>(http://theyesmen.org/dow/#story), another move which backfired when
>amused journalists wrote articles in newspapers from The New York
>Times to The Hindu in India (http://theyesmen.org/dow/#links), and
>sympathetic activists responded by cloning and mirroring the site at
>many locations, including http://www.dowethics.com/,
>http://www.dowindia.com/ and, with a twist,
>http://www.mad-dow-disease.com/. Dow continues to play whack-a-mole
>with these sites (at least one ISP has received veiled threats).
>
>Burson-Marsteller, the public relations company that helped to "spin"
>Bhopal, has meanwhile sued college student Paul Hardwin
>(mailto:phardwin at yurt.org) for putting up a fake Burson-Marsteller
>site, http://www.bursonmarsteller.com/, which recounted how the PR
>giant helped to downplay the Bhopal disaster. Burson-Marsteller's suit
>against Hardwin will be heard next week by the World Intellectual
>Property Organization (http://reamweaver.com/bmwipo/wipo.html).
>
>Hardwin, unable to afford a lawyer, has composed a dryly humorous
>57-page rebuttal to the PR giant's lawsuit
>(http://www.reamweaver.com/bmwipo/response.htm#reality). On page 7,
>for instance, the student notes that Burson-Marsteller's "stated goal
>is 'to ensure that the perceptions which surround our clients and
>influence their stakeholders are consistent with reality.'" Hardwin
>goes on to assert that his satirical domain is doing precisely that,
>by publicizing "academic and journalistic materials about
>Burson-Marsteller's involvement with and relationship to, for example,
>Philip Morris and the National Smoker's Alliance, a consumer front
>group designed to create the appearance of public support for
>big-tobacco policies; Union Carbide and the deaths of 20,000 people
>following the 1984 disaster in Bhopal; and political regimes such as
>that of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and more recently Saudi
>Arabia following the events of September 11; and to properly associate
>them with the relevant Trademark so that they may be understood
>accordingly by Internet users."
>
>In response to the suit's claim that "a substantial degree of goodwill
>is associated with [the Burson-Marstellar Trademark]" Hardwin offers
>much "evidence to the contrary" including "a newspaper headline in
>which the Complainant is characterized as 'the Devil.'"
>
>The primary goal of RTMark (http://rtmark.com/) is to publicize
>corporate subversion of the democratic process. Just like other
>corporations, it achieves its aims by any and all means at its
>disposal. RTMark has previously helped to publicize websites against
>political parties (http://rtmark.com/othersites.html#fpo), political
>figures (http://www.rtmark.com/bush.html), and entities like the World
>Trade Organization (http://www.gatt.org) and the World Economic Forum
>(http://www.world-economic-forum.com).
>
># 30 #
>
><...>
>
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