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Sources: Simona Chiose, Wired, Washington Post, Billboard, Toledo Blade, Daily Report.; Compiled by Simona Chiose
Thursday, December 23, 1999

Read the headline above. Now imagine that Toys R Us, the giant toy retailer, sues for trademark infringement. Seems far-fetched -- and yet that's exactly what's happening to an art collective in Zurich.

Called etoy, the group is made up of a band of renegade artists who have been making "anticorporate art" on the Internet since 1994. One of its projects trapped World Wide Web surfers onto its site and won the Austrian Prix Arts Electronica in 1996. Among its advisers is performance artist and musician Laurie Anderson.

Last month, though, the on-line retailer eToys took the group to court after failing to persuade them to sell their domain name, despite an offer of more than $500,000 (U.S.) in cash and stock. However, etoy registered its site in 1996, and eToys got its WWW domain name in 1997. The etoy site has been closed for several weeks, though a copy of it -- complete with highlights from the group's history, such as being investigated by the CIA -- can be found at:
146.228.204.72:8080.

Regardless of the complications of the case, the Zurich artists have gathered a Who's Who of freedom-of-speech advocates, including author Douglas Rushkoff and John Perry Barlow, former Grateful Dead lyricist and co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Earlier this week, they took to the streets of New York. Surrounded by several people in Santa costumes and a marching band, the protesters made their way to the Museum of Modern Art where they paraded a crucified Mickey Mouse made of metal studs. Walt would probably not be amused.

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