Anti-Corporate Group Takes on EToys.com
Dec. 15, 1999
By David Noack
LOS ANGELES (APBnews.com) -- With little more than a week left until Christmas, a major seller of toys on the Internet, eToys.com, has been targeted by a vocal group of online activists who are urging hackers and online shoppers to disrupt the popular e-commerce business site.
The call for the hacking campaign and other attempts at cyber-interference is prompted by RTMark. RTMark, pronounced artmark, is a virtual group dedicated to preserving what its members see as the noncommercial nature of the Internet. RTMark hopes to crash eToys.com's Web site and bring down the stock price of the publicly traded company.
The online battle is the outgrowth of a bitter dispute over the look-alike domain name etoy.com, which was registered in 1995 by a European arts group, which used the site as a virtual forum for anti-corporate information. The group set up the site before eToys.com began operations and only became aware of the U.S. company when a battle for the name began.
Sues to get Web address
EToys.com, based in Santa Monica, has been trying to gain possession of etoy.com. The company filed a trademark infringement lawsuit in September in Los Angeles County Superior Court. EToys.com registered its own domain name in 1997.
With online retailers expecting to make a financial windfall during the holiday shopping season, any disruptions to the company's Web site could mean a serious loss of revenue.
"The etoy fund projects are a game the whole world can play," said RTMark spokesman 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."
RTMark is an umbrella Web site for anti-eToys.com activity and other anti-corporate campaigns -- designated "mutual funds" in another job at the business world. The group also created parody Web sites featuring Republican presidential hopeful George W. Bush and Microsoft.
Activists plan disruption campaign
RTMark also says they are using a program that will give a false reading as to how many hits or visits the eToys.com Web site is getting.
"Another anti-eToys tool that has already been deployed and will be announced within the next several days 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," says a press release posted on the RTMark Web site.
EToys.com officials say they are keeping their eye on making sure online shoppers can reach their site and find the merchandise they want.
"We have the capacity to welcome millions and millions of people to our site this holiday season. Traffic during this time of year is very robust, and we are focused 100 percent on our consumers and on delivering the best overall consumer experience. We are not going to take our eye off that mark for one second," said company spokesman Jonathan Cutler.
He declined to discuss any negotiations regarding the domain name dispute. However, the company offered the holders of the domain name etoy.com a little more than $500,000 in cash and stock for the rights to the name, which was turned down.
"As to discussions with etoy.com, we feel that those are best and most productively conducted privately," said Cutler.
Judge shut down artists' site
The domain name controversy heated up Nov. 29, when Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John J. Shook issued a preliminary injunction closing the artists' site down.
But closing the Web site has sparked an online outrage against the electronic toy seller. While the etoy.com Web site is no longer accessible by typing etoy.com, an Internet protocol, http://146.228.204.72:8080/, can be used to reach the site.
"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."
No worries about the law
Ray Thomas, another RTMark spokesman, said the anti-eToys.com campaign is about the abuse of corporate power.
"It is not about dialoguing with eToys. We fully expect the court to judge
in favor of etoy," said Thomas.
He said the group is not concerned about breaking the law.
"The only way this is criminal is if we succeed in damaging eToys, and if we do, it will have been quite worth it because we will have very strongly made the point we're seeking to make," said Thomas.
'A wasteland of commercialism'
RTMark is a hotbed of anti-eToys.com activity including the e-mail addresses of all of the top officers of eToys.com, links to other online toy stores and a discussion list where users can talk about the controversy. There are also links to some of the biggest eToys.com shareholders.
One writer posting to the discussion group called the move by corporations to crack down on Web addresses held by others a disturbing trend.
"This is another attempt of big business to turn the Internet into a wasteland of commercialism, to stifle freedom of speech and expression, through the use of legal maneuvering designed to bankrupt site owners from expressing their opinions. Hasbro and Mattel have used these tactics recently in the case of www.clue.com, which Hasbro lost and is now appealing. Mattel is currently involved in three court actions involving the word 'Barbie'. None of these suits charging 'trademark infringement' have been won in court," said Alan Herrell, a member of an anti-eToys.com coalition.
According to Hoovers, an online business information resource, eToys.com was created in 1996 by former Disney executive Edward "Toby" Lenk and idealab founder Bill Gross. The Web site carries more than 100,000 items and more than 750 brands.
