Etoy's allies aren't playing around

By Janet Kornblum

This is a toy war, and protesters, calling for a ''digital sit-in'' starting today, want to take down Net retailer eToys.com during its busiest season.

Several Net groups have rallied behind 4-year-old European Net artist/activist site etoy.com since a judge sided with eToys Nov. 29 and ordered etoy to close temporarily. Ray Thomas, a San Francisco accountant who runs anti-corporate site RTMark.com, put out a call to arms in a widely distributed e-mail this week. He minces no words: ''EToys is using all the tools at its disposal to hurt etoy, so we're using all the tools at our disposal to damage . . . eToys. They are thumbing their noses at free expression.''

RTMark is calling for the sit-in, in which thousands of people use a Net program to overwhelm a site. Others in the worldwide avant-garde art community have erected protest sites. And some are said to be trying to break into eToys' site. ''It's a huge war,'' says an Austrian etoy member who goes by the name Agent Zai.

The trouble began in September, when 2-year-old eToys.com sued etoy.com, saying shoppers were confused by the similarity in names and offended by some of the links they found. Both claim legal rights to the name. Both also say they're willing to come to an agreement, but they haven't.

EToys says it would love to resolve things amicably. ''Do you think we're a horrible company that gets up every day thinking of ways to go after artists?'' spokesman Ken Ross asks. ''Our only interest in this matter is making certain that there's no confusion in the marketplace. Period.''

If attacks actually occur, eToys says, its network is strong, but Rand think-tank researcher David Ronfeldt says eToys should worry: ''Any denial-of-service attack is going to be disruptive, at least for a little while.''