[Fsf-friends] Other 'freedom' issues... from the GII mailing list

[Frederick Noronha]

Other 'freedom' issues coming up in the world beyond software? Thanks to
Raju Mathur of Delhi for forwarding this. FN

From: Meredith Tupper <meredith@pintsize.com>
To: isp-webhosting@isp-webhosting.com
Subject: [isp-webhosting] thing.net shut down by Verio
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 17:58:48 -0400

December 23, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

       Thing.net assistance page: https://secure.thing.net/backbone/
       Contact: mailto:thing-group@rtmark.com

ACTIVIST NETWORK IN NY EVICTED FROM INTERNET BY DOW, VERIO

Bowing to pressure from the Dow Chemical Corporation, the internet
company Verio has booted the activist-oriented Thing.net from the Web.

Internet service provider Thing.net has been the primary service
provider for activist and artist organizations in the New York area
for 10 years.

On December 3, activists used a server housed by Thing.net to post a
parody Dow press release on the eighteenth anniversary of the disaster
in which 20,000 people died as a result of an accident at a Union
Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. (Union Carbide is now owned by Dow.)
The deadpan statement, which many people took as real, explained that
Dow could not accept responsibility for the disaster due to its
primary allegiance to its shareholders and to its bottom line.

Dow was not amused, and sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
complaint to Verio, which immediately cut Thing.net off the internet
for fifteen hours. A few days later, Verio announced that Thing.net
had 60 days to move to another provider before being shut down
permanently, unilaterally terminating Thing.net's 7-year-old contract.

Affected organizations include PS1/MOMA, Artforum, Nettime, Tenant.net
(which assists renters facing eviction), and hundreds more.

"Verio's actions are nothing short of outrageous," said Wolfgang
Staehle, Thing.net Executive Director. "They could have resolved the
matter with the Dow parodists directly; instead they chose to shut
down our entire network. This self-appointed enforcement of the DMCA
could have a serious chilling effect on free speech, and has already
damaged our business."


RTMark, which publicizes corporate abuses of democracy, is housed on
Thing.net. Please visit https://secure.thing.net/backbone/ to help
Thing.net survive Dow's and Verio's actions, and to develop a plan to
avoid such problems in the future.

                              # 30 #


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

End of this Digest
******************

-- 
Raju Mathur               raju@kandalaya.org      http://kandalaya.org/
                      It is the mind that moves

--__--__--

Message: 2
Date: Tue, 24 Dec 2002 03:59:17 -0800 (PST)
From: sabrina syed <sabrina_syed2002@yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: [india-gii] [OT] (fwd) thing.net shut down by Verio
To: india-gii@lists.cpsr.org

Hi,

In its defense, Dow  is saying,

"...Thing.net have been evicted from the web, we
firmly believe that those who violate the right to
Corporate Free Speech have no place on a commercial
network like the internet. "

http://www.dowethics.com/r/environment/freedom.html

...."commercial network like the internet"???Does it
mean purely commercial? what abt non-commercial
interests?

Can any one throw light on last line of Dow's claims
tht, internet is purely commercial? If this claim goes
unquestionable, then who owns internet? 

Internet has potential to advance commercial
interests. That doesn't mean non-commercial
interests,should  give way to freedom of speech of
those who propagate their commercial interests.

Does this precedent mean organisations running, .orgs
and governments running, .govs and .infos and .nets
have less freedom of speech than those who invest
money in suing others on the claims of image erosion
or defamation?

What happens if thing.net counter sues Dow /Verio for 
defamation and intervention into it's own freedom of
speech?

Can't thing.net get an "asylum" on some other non-us
based server?
What are the stakes involved if it does tht?

Regards,
Sabrina.
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