Etoy: Don't Forgive, Don't Forget
by Steve Kettmann
3:00 a.m. 15.Jan.2000 PST
BERLIN -- Etoy is likely to have its etoy.com Web site operational again as soon as next week, but the Internet artists want everyone to know they're still taking nothing for granted.
In late December, eToys said it was prepared to drop its domain-name copyright lawsuit and offered to pay the US$25,000 in legal costs incurred by the Zurich-based artists.
See also: Etoy Balks at Olive Branch
Read more in E-Biz
In a letter from eToys attorney Robert Klieger obtained by Wired News, the company also said it wouldn't attempt to place any restrictions on etoy content.
"Based on our telephone conversation yesterday afternoon, I understand that there has been some confusion concerning whether eToys seeks to exercise some degree of content control over the etoy corporation Web site as a condition of our December 29, 1999 settlement proposal...." the letter read. "Our settlement proposal is not contingent upon etoy corporation agreeing to
restrict the content of its web site in any fashion."
Etoy responded to that by taking a couple of weeks away from the public battles to work on the online game it has now posted at toywar.com (eToys
employees not welcome). An etoy spokesman calling himself Zai said on Friday that they were reluctant to consider the fight definitely over until the lawsuit is officially dropped and the Web site etoy.com reactivated.
"We don't trust them at all," he said of the Santa Monica-based toy company. "Our lawyers are talking to them. We had two weeks where we reduced pressure. Many people think it is over and we made a deal, and that's why we haven't been speaking out. But we just had to let room for our attorneys to talk about solutions."
Just what the attorneys are discussing remains somewhat unclear, but it appears to amount to a white flag that eToys will in effect hoist when the two parties reach agreement and the lawsuit is
officially dropped. That will mean that the temporary injunction a Los Angeles Superior Court judge issued two months ago against etoy's use of the domain name will no longer be in effect.
"There are little details that the attorneys are talking about," Zai said. "A big point is how they announce this. We don't want to hear that this was a misunderstanding. They tried to squeeze us and it didn't work out. We all know why it didn't work out, because the community lined up behind us. They can say now it was a misunderstanding, but of course they know better than
anyone that they expected to destroy us."
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