[Nettime-bold] [NO PROTEST NO PROFIT] A NetStrike for Bandits!

[The Thing Rome <thingnet@ecn.org>]

The Net.Protest against the multiple censorships of the Rome City Network [see
http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/reviews/press.html] is reaching its acme on Monday
23, when a large coalition of net-based groups, radical associations and digital
hacktivists will perform a NetStrike against the City Council of Rome official
website.
A simple "customized" tool for FloodNet (FloodSpace_1.0) is available for
download at the Thing Rome website
[http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/floodnet/]
The Call for NetStrike follows.

This act of Electronic Civil Disobedience is the last in a series of events
planned by several italian net entities. Few days ago, The Thing Rome and
0100101110101101.ORG released "NO PROTEST NO PROFIT", the First International
Competion of Net.protest, aiming to turn the anti-censorship campaign in a piece
of net.art. All the e-mails of protest sent to the City of Rome, in fact, will
be evaluated and economically estimed by an extraordinary international jury. On
the basis of this estimation, The Thing Rome and 0100101110101101.ORG will make
an offer to the City of Rome, in order to buy the target Inboxes and sell them
to an important cultural institution for a major exhibition.
More info at: http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/projects/noprofit.html

Regards,
The Thing Rome
http://www.ecn.org/thingnet

-------------------------------------------


To all the real bandits
to all those who sense a bounty coming on their heads
to all those who do not want to stay in the new economy saloon anymore
load up your guns
it's time to settle with the sheriff
it's time to take by storm the diligence of institutions
stop censorship now !

A NET STRIKE FOR BANDITS!
Monday 23, October 2000
hours 14.00-17.00 (Greenwich Time)
target: www.comune.roma.it/index.htm


Bandits. Banned.

On October 2 the City of Rome banned the webspace of the Rome City Network
hosting the AvAna.net association. The group was blamed to have published
materials "unfit" to a City Network, following an exposition by Father Fortunato
Di Noto, a known pedophile-hunter priest, who claimed the Luther Blissett's book
"Let the little children..." to be a text fostering pedophilia. Actually, the
book - regularly sold in every bookstore of Italy - is just an inquiry on the
issue of pedophilia and on the judicial mistakes generated by an irational and
spectacular approach to the matter.

Bandits. Banned.

Two days later, the same City of Rome banned from the City Network a page of The
Thing Rome website, showing an interview with australian artist Francesca Da
Rimini (aka Doll Yoko). The group was blamed to have used - as illustration of
the article - images "unfit" to a City Network. The images were taken from Doll
Space, a known web art work, financed by Australia Council, winner of two
international prizes and bought by the University of Westminster. The artist
made these images by using a Dutch print dating back to 1789: one of the first
illustration of Marquis De Sade's books.

Bandits. Banned.

The same day, the City Network banned the web space of Namir, a webzine (issued
by the Raffaello Community Library) blamed to have hosted a provoking e-mail by
"Airone Pazzo", a mentally disturbed person pretending to be a pedophile in
order to outline his troubles as dropout.

Bandits. Banned.

The following days, the City of Rome banned "Let the little children..." again.
It had been published again by The Thing group and by the Agency for the Rights
of Telematic Communication, in order to protest the "censorship policy" of  the
City of Rome.

Bandits. Banned.

Those who are exiled and banned of their civil rights.

Bandits. Banned.

You could be the next one.

By now, the politics of the State Administration is far away from the Network
Society and its forms of communication. The management of italian city networks
is a dramatic example: spectacle and approximation rule. What happened in
Rome,  due to Mrs. Mariella Gramaglia, vicedirector general of the City of Rome,
is the last evidence of it.

Actually, this could be irrelevant, if this political class wouldn't be the same
one who claims the right to regulate the Internet, to make laws about it. If
bans and censorship become the way to manage reality, to state what is visible
and what is not, well, then it's time to show *who* is the real bandit on the
Net.

And it's *them*.

*They* do not  belong to the great civil and horizontal community of the net.

If you are sick and tired of censorship and stupidity, if you are sick and tired
of emergencies and false alarms, if you feel like a bandit, or you fear you
could be, if you think that the time has come to show to the rulers who the real
agents of social communication are...

JOIN US IN THIS PROTEST!

The virtual assault is scheduled for 0ctober 23, 2000, from 14.00 to 17.00
(Greenwich Time), against the City of Rome website www.comune.roma.it/index.htm,

IRC channel on www.ecn.org#hackit99 (or www.ecn.org/irc, java enabled browser).

We reclaim an official apology by the City of Rome Mayor and the immediate
restoration of all the banned pages.


-----------------------------
Related Links:

Anticensorship Campaign:
http://www.forteprenestino.net




Some press:

Telepolis: "Sex, Internet, Zensur und Markenzeichen" (german)
http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/8935/1.html

ExibArt: "The City of Rome censors The Thing and AvANa Net" (italian)
http://www.exibart.com/IDNotizia1451.htm

Punto Informatico: "Blind censorship" (italian)
http://punto-informatico.it/p.asp?i=33519

Brainstorm: "Against the online Holy Inquisition" (italian)
http://www.apogeonline.com/berny/inquisizione.html

Il manifesto: "www.censorship.com" and "The censored artist" (italian)
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art28.htm
http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art29.htm


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