Project LOON: Deduce Prozac from the workplace
| Projects / The Mutual Funds / etoy
New multi-user game: make these numbers go down! The aim is total annihilation without bodily harm. On your team, thousands of players. Your opponents: eToys and its shareholders (as long as they still own shares). The stakes: art, free expression and life on the Internet. eToys, the largest online toy retailer (in business since 1996, using eToys.com since 1997), is preventing etoy, an important and pioneering Internet art group (in existence since 1994), from using etoy.com (which is etoy, and which etoy has been using since 1995). (See these articles for full details.) In response to eToys' greedy and unethical (but all-too-typical) conduct, a team of game designers has invented this game, whose fast and furious action and thrilling multi-user gameplay will set your heart pounding as you help lower the value of eToys stock all the way down to $0.00, by any method short of physical harm to humans. The ideas and reference pages below are intended to help in your quest for survival. Be sure to look at the eToys financial and information pages for tools and elixirs, and please visit some other lairs for more ways to win this truly huge game. See you on the battlefield! To discuss or help with a project, click on its NAME button.
NAME | FUNDS | US$ | NEED | DESCRIPTION (click here for help)
| etoy | 0
| workers | "There are numerous investor communities on the web with thousands of forums. Enter a forum and explain to the investors the problems in the eToys/etoy case, strategically releasing information to lower investor confidence. Suggested starting points: MetaMarkets, Motley Fool, Raging Bull, Silicon Investor, VerticalNet. All direct banks have comparable forums."
| etoy corp | 0 | workers | "The attempt by the corporation eToys to forcibly take over the domain name etoy.com is threatening to set a legal precedent whereby it would be easy for corporations or parties with political interest to deprive individuals or art and activist groups of their domain names, if the name is apt to be confused with that of said corporations or parties. Help preserve freedom of expression on the Worldwide Web by investigating the legal issues and lobbying ICANN, Congress, and public-interest groups like the EFF against domain-name censorship and reverse domain name hijacking."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Picket eToys, Inc., headquarters in Santa Monica, California, carrying banners decrying eToy's corporate tactics against etoy, and distributing leaflets to eToys employees and passers-by. Turn away delivery trucks. Ensure coverage in local media."
| etoy net | 0 | workers | "eToys are nothing without their website. Bring down that website periodically by using the Virtual Sit-In tool. eToys shares will fall tremendously. A good time to start might be during the ten days before Christmas. (A good time to start might be now, the period right before Christmas. Watch this page for updates.)"
| etoy corp | 0 | workers funds | "This project is similar to project EDOM, but aims to set a precedent in the Courts rather than in government. Help pursue the etoy case to the Supreme Court, if necessary; bring countersuits against eToys. Funds and legal assistance are needed."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Since the etoy/eToys lawsuit endangers eToys and hence its employees' jobs, and directly endangers the jobs of etoy.AGENTS, secure union backing to fight against the loss of jobs created by the lawsuit."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Start a website 'Parents Against eToys' to communicate widely that the company is proactively anticultural. Do you want your children to live in a world without culture, fun, education, art and irony? The aim of the website should be to make clear that the eToys vs. etoy case is not about art-world solidarity or the international law of domain names, but about the balance of power in the emergent virtual world culture, which will determine the character of the world of our children. If the electronic vandalism of eToys triumphs, the WWW will become a totalitarian consumerist anticulture instead of the powerhouse of ideas it still to some extent is."
| etoy | 0 | workers funds | "This project supports a CD (currently in production) of music about the eToys legal battle with etoy. This disc is for planned release by Christmas. Participants include Negativland and other groups. Funding needed."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Online discussions are filling with hundreds of negative comments, and protests at the eToys website must be well into the thousands by now. Many eToys staff must feel that their superiors have made a mistake by infuriating the net community. To inflame these differences, create an informative flyer appealing to the staff of eToys.com and distribute it before work in front of their headquarters in Santa Monica."
| etoy | 0 | workers funds | "eToys has reserved domain names www.etoys.at, www.etoys.ch, and www.etoys.de; they are interested in expanding into these markets, where they have to hire many new workers. In Germany and other countries, there is a considerable shortage of trained IT professionals. Create an ad campaign in IT journals in these countries not to hire with eToys. This might make it almost impossible for eToys to staff itself when the time comes."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Dec 27 is the date of the court case. Show up, and be inventive in demonstrating your opinion. Remember: eToys is a toy company, so they'll enjoy anything you do with toys. (Here is the court's home page with address, excellent map, etc.)"
| etoy | 0 | workers | "If you have purchased a product from eToys, return it. Buy instead from any of the alternative online stores listed here."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "The aim of this project is to organize a large-scale boycott and grassroots campaign against eToys. As the etoy/eToys fight is driven by corporate greed, eToys should learn that bullying and censorship are not profitable. For those pressing e-shopping needs, any of eToys' large and small competitors can be used instead."
| etoy | 0 | workers funds | "noetoys.com, hetoys.com, shetoys.com, etois.com, etoyss.com and other domains are available. Register them and use them to broaden even further the fight against eToys."
| etoy | 0 | workers | "Assemble as many Santas as you can (or even more) to protest eToys in your home town. Obtain press coverage."
| etoy net | 0 | workers | "Hack into the eToys.com website and place a note prominently on the front page or the check-out page informing shoppers about the censorship in which eToys is engaged. Change toy descriptions to read 'By buying this toy you are also supporting eToys' attack on internet art.' Alternatively, change DNS lookup tables so that both 'etoy.com' and 'etoys.com' will resolve to the address of www.toywar.com. This would be most effective if it was done on the name servers of large ISPs, or at the authoritative nameservers for etoys.com."

- About eToys
- About eToys' financial affairs
- Links to other eToys vs. etoy resources
- Press about eToys vs. etoy
- Online toy stores that are not eToys
- About SLAPP suits

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