<nettime> EXTRA SHUTDOWN ISSUE (Etoys vs The Thing)

["Lt. Crack" <crack@thing.net>]

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THE THING [newsletter]                            December 21, 1999
Vol.1, Nr.6
http://bbs.thing.net
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EXTRA LATE EDITION
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[news]

[1] thing.net shut down by Verio after complaint by eToys

On Friday, December 17, 1999, from 2 am to 3 pm, 
thing.netīs access to the internet was cut off
by its upstream bandwidth provider, Verio.

According to Verio, their Security in Dallas received 
a complaint from eToys around midnight, claiming that
a "malicious attack" on etoys.com was originating
from one of the servers of thing.net.

As Verio says, they tried to contact thing.net
staff by phone, at 12:30 on a Friday morning.
Neither anyone at thing.net nor any telephone answering
machine there received any calls.  Nor was any e-mail
warning or query received. 

On Friday afternoon, after hours of making inquiries to 
people at Verio, thing.net learned that there was apparently
an "offending site," namly:
     
    www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/eKillerToy/index2.html

This site had been registered as a personal web site.  It was 
owned by Ricardo Dominguez and contained information on how to
conduct a "virtual sit in", to be conducted with "Floodnet," 
a java applet. The applet was designed to send out 
requests to a specific URL and to then load
that page repeatedly, approximately 15- 20 times a minute.

Mr. Dominguez is a member of the Electronic Disturbance 
Theater (EDT).  According to professional coders, the applet
that EDT was using is inefficient and has little or no impact on
a professional server.  The aim of EDT, after all, is limited  
to arousing attention, to prompt second thoughts, without 
actually obstructing or blocking business.  

After discussing the issue with Mr. Dominguez, thing.net decided to
comply with the request--in order to get the network back up.

Service was restored around 3:20 pm.

See related story at CYBERTimes:
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/yr/mo/cyber/articles/18etoy.html

Complete coverage of the etoys vs eToy story as it unfolds:
http://bbs.thing.net [threads]



[2] TT auction news

http://auction.thing.net

As of today bids have been placed on etoy.SHARES and works by
Kiki Smith, Jaqueline Humphries, Lawrence Weiner, Peter Halley,
Peter Fend, Max Schumann and Miltos Manetas.

New additions on the block include works by Matthew McCaslin, 
Daniel Pflumm and Beat Streuli.  The complete archive of the
Electronic Disturbance Theater was donated by Ricardo Dominguez,
following the forced shutdown of his site.

The auction runs through the evening of Thursday, December 23, 1999.

The EDT site will be on auction until December 30, 1999.



[3] RTMark Press Conference about etoy at MOMA

A press conference was held, yesterday, December 20, 1999
at the Museum of Modern Art.  The event included a Marching Band, 
a dozen Santas and the Evangelist preacher Reverend Billy.  
Other speakers included Suzy Meszoly (etoy), Santa Claus (RTMark), 
Mark Tribe (Rhizome), Wolfgang Staehle (THE THING), 
Jeff Gompertz (Fakeshop), Ricardo Dominguez (EDT) and 
Doug Rushkoff, a widely-known media pundit.

http://www.thing.net/~mayr/edt.jpg
http://www.thing.net/~mayr/santa1.jpg
http://www.thing.net/~mayr/rushkoff.jpg


Transcripts of Ms. Meszoly's and Mr. Rushkoff's speeches at
http://bbs.thing.net {threads/news].

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