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From: Game Players <announce0052@rtmark.com> Save Address Block Sender
To: Game Player <hans_extrem@hotmail.com>
Subject: Help destroy eToys.com! (yes, you, hans_extrem@hotmail.com)
Date: Sun, 12 Dec 1999 05:46:34 -0500

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            This is not a commercial message. Remove by writing
            mailto:remove@rtmark.com?subject=hans_extrem@hotmail.com

    December 12, 1999
    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

    NEW INTERNET "GAME" DESIGNED TO DESTROY ETOYS.COM
    Stock plunge must be accelerated, groups say

        Contacts: mailto:etoyfund@rtmark.com, mailto:toby@etoys.com
        More information: http://rtmark.com/etoy/
                          http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html
                          http://rtmark.com/sitin.html

    RTMark has joined the growing torrent of outrage, sometimes violent in tone,
    against Internet toy giant eToys (http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html) by helping
    create and distribute what RTMark calls "a new toy": a multi-user Internet
    game whose goal is to damage (or possibly even destroy) the company.

    The game, which aims to punish eToys for shutting down prominent Internet art
    group etoy's domain (see http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html for more
    information), takes the form of an RTMark "mutual fund," or list of sabotage
    projects (http://rtmark.com/etoy/). All projects in the "etoy Fund," some of
    which have already been financed, aim to lower the company's stock market
    value as much as possible. The site also includes pages that will help
    visitors to cripple the eToys servers during the ten days leading to Christmas
    (http://rtmark.com/sitin.html), pages providing detailed financial information
    about the company, and a page of links to the dozen or so other groups calling
    for eToys' downfall.

    Since November 29, when eToys lawyers shut down the art group's domain and
    news of the massive and violent-toned reaction began to spread, huge sellouts
    (including a 2.5-million-share sale by Moore Capital Management, Inc.) have
    caused eToys stock to fall from $67/share to $45/share, or nearly 33%;
    before November 29 eToys stock had been rising. RTMark's new projects group
    aims to systematically capitalize on and accelerate the eToys share fall.

    "The etoy Fund projects are a game the whole world can play," said RTMark
    spokesperson Ernest Lucha. "Many of the projects--boycotts, pickets, e-mail
    campaigns--can be played by anyone, while other projects--countersuing eToys,
    disturbing the eToys servers, etc.--require specialized work. There's
    something for everyone, and we know we can easily count on 10,000 players
    to start with."

    There's also something for hackers, who are normally apolitical but have by
    and large taken eToys' attack on etoy as an attack on themselves. "eToys is
    trying to take advantage of a legal situation in which there's basically no
    protection against corporations, whether you're an artist, an activist, or
    just someone in the wrong place at the wrong time," said a hacker who
    identifies himself as "Code Blue." "But they're relying a bit too much on the
    legal. They're saying f*ck you to everything that etoy stands for, and that's
    like spraying tear gas all over the entire hacking community."

    "This game is much more exciting than any other computer game, because you
    have a real-world bad guy to fight," said RTMark spokesperson Lucha.

    "We think it's especially exciting that the court date [December 27, at which
    the final fate of etoy.com will be decided] falls so close to Christmas," said
    Richard Zach, a graduate student at the University of California at Berkeley
    who has closely followed the dispute since the beginning. "The holiday season
    is a time of giving, but since eToys decided to take, we're making an example
    of them during their busiest season. Christmas won't be the end of the game,
    but it's an important first milestone."

    It's not just about etoy, nor about art or hacking, according to Lucha: the
    etoy Fund and directly hostile efforts like it could help lead to a new
    balance of power between citizens and big business. "Why should global culture
    be dominated by business? The net is a playing field that could help to create,
    through law, a worldwide balance of power that just doesn't exist now."

    The anger against eToys is not likely to dissipate soon, even with a favorable
    outcome to the case (i.e. the survival of etoy.com), according to Lucha.
    "eToys says etoy.com was hurting sales by disturbing those who stumble upon it.
    Well, eToys' domain is disturbing people who want to see great internet art
    but stumble upon eToys instead, and so why not say eToys shouldn't exist? Why
    should financial might make right? If they want to play by barbaric rules, we
    will too."

    "eToys feels comfortable destroying art for the benefit of its business, so
    all the players of this game can feel great destroying eToys--for the benefit
    of art," said Lucha.

    OTHER ATTACKS

    RTMark and its "etoy Fund" collaborators are only one group among dozens to
    mount digital and real-world attacks against eToys in time for Christmas.

    Two other anti-eToys "products," soon to be announced independently, come from
    groups of programmers who have, like the hackers, taken eToys' action as a
    personal affront. One such group is nearly finished with an "action
    entertainment product" inspired by some of etoy's well-known pieces (such as
    the "digital hijack," which won Ars Electronica's most prestigious award,
    and $7,375, in 1996; see the etoy site, still available at
    http://146.228.204.72:8080/, for more information). The "product," which will
    shortly be available at http://www.toywar.com, "will enable any net user to
    directly attack eToys.com," according to one of the programmers involved in
    its development.

    Another anti-eToys tool that has already been deployed and will be announced
    within the next several days, according to a source within the above-mentioned
    group, is a program that generates fraudulent web page accesses ("hits")
    disguised to look like those of Internet shoppers coming from numerous,
    randomly-chosen locations. The aim of the tool is to make the financial
    valuation of eToys.com, which depends heavily on web access counts,
    unreliable. This uncertainty, which should become more evident in the days to
    come, should increasingly make investors even more skittish about investing in
    the company, according to the source.

    eToys is the third largest e-business on the Internet; etoy.com, which eToys
    lawyers have shut down, is the domain synonymous with the oldest, best-known,
    and most influential Internet art group, etoy. etoy has owned etoy.com since
    1995, before eToys existed, and two years before eToys registered its own
    URL. etoy.com has never made any reference to eToys. See
    http://rtmark.com/etoypress.html for more information.

    RTMark, which is in no way associated with etoy, aims to publicize the
    widespread corporate abuse of democratic institutions like courts and
    elections. To this end it solicits and distributes funding for "sabotage
    projects"; the groups of such projects are called "mutual funds" in order to
    call attention to one way in which large numbers of people come to identify
    corporate needs as their own. RTMark projects do not normally target specific
    companies; the etoy Fund projects are an exception.

    RTMark is no stranger to the hot topic of domain-name control. The World
    Trade Organization's press release about http://gatt.org, accusing RTMark of
    "illegal practices" in publishing information critical of the WTO at that
    site, merely brought the WTO ridicule from the press
    (http://rtmark.com/gatt.html); George W. Bush's and Microsoft's legal attacks
    on GWBush.com (http://rtmark.com/bush.html) and MicrosoftEdu.com
    (http://rtmark.com/allpress.html#mse) failed to affect the domains. See also
    http://rtmark.com/othersites.html for more on this issue.

                                 # 30 #

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