THE INSTITUTE OF
SOCIOMETRY: The Institute of Sociometry,
or is, represents a world wide syndicate of special agents involved
in the practice and promotion of "guerrilla" sociometry. As the term
implies, guerrilla sociometry is similar in focus to text book sociometry,
yet in no way conforms to the rigorous demands of science or
mathematics!
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THIS JUST
IN!
Included on the reverse of a post card from the US
Postal Service:
What should make me suspect a piece of
mail?
* It's unexpected or from someone you
don't know
* It's addressed to someone no longer at your address.
*
It's handwritten and has no return address or bears one that you can't
confirm is legitimate.
* It's lopsided or lumpy in appearance.
*
It's sealed with excessive amounts of tape.
* It's marked with
restrictive endorsements such as "Personal" or "Confidential."
* It has
excessive postage.
The is representative that retreived this card
from the post office was unintentionally carrying packages and letters to
be mailed that violated five of theese seven guidelines. is was disturbed
to find that it's standard mailing practices happen to violate 70% of the
USPS's suspicion flags. Though is does not plan on
significantly altering its standard mailing practices, it has taken
several measures to avoid a visit from the Office of Homeland Security -
most notibly the discontinuation of mailing itching powder, fake beer
powder, and bomb bags to field agents for their birthday presents.
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Subject:
Site-stealing program answers WTO crackdown on
miles@sociometry.com
Date: Thu, 15 Nov 2001 13:27:05 GMT
From: RTMark Bulletin (ann0069@rtmark.com)
November
15, 2001
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE WTO ATTACKS WEBSITE, REAPS HUNDREDS OF
OTHERS As it meets in Qatar, WTO attempts to shut down critical website;
group counters with site-stealing software
Contacts:
Jonathan
Prince (mailto:jonathan@killyourtv.com)
Jean-Guy Carrier (mailto:jean-guy.carrier@wto.org)
Verio (mailto:copyright@verio.net)
The
Yes Men (mailto:info@theyesmen.org)
Software:
http://www.theyesmen.org/yesiwill/
http://yesiwill.plagiarist.org/
http://detritus.net/projects/yesiwill/
Last Friday, Jonathan Prince, who owns the Gatt.org domain,
received a call from Verio, Gatt.org's upstream provider. The World Trade
Organization had just asked Verio to shut down the domain for copyright
violations, and Verio told Prince that it would do just that if nothing
was changed by November 13--the last day of the Doha Ministerial, as it
would happen. An official email followed (http://rtmark.com/verio.html).
(Last-minute update: Verio's shutdown is currently expected
sometime after noon EST today--watch software sites above for updates.)
"It's the war," says Prince. "Bush has popularized zero-tolerance,
and it's open season on dissent of any kind. So just when they're meeting
in Doha, the WTO has decided to divert attention from its problems by
attacking a website."
"Or maybe they really do want to make it so
that protest has as little place on the web as it does in Qatar," adds
Prince.
Oddly enough, the WTO has been aware of the parody website
since before the 1999 Ministerial in Seattle, when it issued a public
statement claiming the site misled visitors (http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres99_e/pr151_e.htm).
Two weeks ago, the WTO issued another release (http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news01_e/gattdotorg_e.htm),
this one claiming that Gatt.org was harvesting e-mails, an allegation
reprinted as fact in some newspaper articles (http://rtmark.com/pressgat.html).
While it may be puzzling why the WTO chose to issue a second press
release about Gatt.org two years later, it is even more surprising that
they are now taking concrete steps to stop the critical site. In
statements made just last week to the French daily newspaper Liberation
and to others, WTO spokesperson Jean-Guy Carrier stated that "It's not our
job to use legal means against people. We appreciate dissidence and honest
criticism."
Why the sudden change of attitude?
"They got
nervous, it's only human," said Elaine Peabody, a spokesperson for The Yes
Men (http://www.theyesmen.org), the group that maintains the Gatt.org
website. "The WTO remembers what happened the last time they had one of
these meetings [in Seattle]. They felt like tackling something they knew
they could handle--and a satirical website fit the bill."
BATTLE
HEATS UP
But the WTO could well have stepped on a hornets' nest.
To counter the attack, the Yes Men have are releasing today a piece of
open-source "parodyware" (http://theyesmen.org/yesiwill/)
that will "forever make this kind of censorship obsolete," according to
Peabody.
"Using this software, it takes five minutes to set up a
convincing, personalized, evolving parody of the WTO.org website, or any
other website of your choice," said Peabody, who helped to develop the
program. "All you need is a place to put it--say, WTOO.org,
WorldTradeOrg.com, whatever."
The software, called "Yes I Will!",
automatically duplicates websites as needed, changing words and images as
the user desires--with results that can be very telling. The WTO site can
be made to speak of "consumers" and "companies" rather than "citizens" and
"countries." Unleashed on the CNN.com website, the software can simplify
the reporting even further by referring to Bush as "Leader," and the war
in Afghanistan as one between "Good" and "Evil"; a Time.com article linked
from the site then discusses "The Poor Way of War". The parody site
updates itself automatically as the target website changes.
"The
idea is to insure that even if they shut down our website, hundreds of
others will continue our work of translation," said Peabody. "The more
they try to fight it, the funnier they're going to look."
"Such
heavy-handed tactics work as poorly in cyberspace as they do on the
geopolitical stage," said Cooper Kharms, another Yes Man. "At least
Gatt.org was transparent: you could tell what it was by reading a line or
two. These other sites may not be so obvious."
Prince thinks the
software, while interesting, is not a solution. "With their attack on
Gatt.org, an unelected, unaccountable organization is running roughshod
over the USA Bill of Rights," said Prince. "But every day they violate
people's rights in the Third World, or enable corporations to do so. This
time it's just closer to home."
For more on the legal basis of the
WTO's attack, see also (http://dc.indymedia.org/front.php3?article_id=15296&group=webcast)
RTMark's primary goal is to publicize corporate subversion of the
democratic process. To this end it acts as a clearinghouse for
anti-corporate projects.
----------
Two announcements in
the PO Box from Nexus Press for recently completed artists books
"(Whiskey) Defense" by Clifton Meader and "Last Day in Kas" by Helen
Douglas. Nexus Press is a non-profit fine art printing press in Atlanta
Geogia. If interested in "whats on the press" please reference http://www.nexuspress.org/pages/nexuspress/nexus_whatsonpress.html
----------
Subject: brazil foreign t-shirt and
backpack report
Date: Tue, 30 Oct 2001 08:30:02 -0500
From: "benj smells" njbenj@hotmail.com
It's the
brazil foreign t-shirt and backpack report, straight from a bottomless
fountain of foreignness...enjoy!
Authentic Style Athletic
Performance 88
On-Line Tennis Shoes
American Eagle Force
Team Sprinter Academia
Cyclone Original
Sport? Life
Bad
Boy - Best Equipments for Competition
Culture Skate - Urban Reflex for
Genuine Mark
USA American Special
Developed by...Back Pack Just
for Fun
Mister One Sandwich
Rap Power
Out Gravity
----------
Subject: WTO freaked out by costume
Date: 31 Oct 2001 19:59:47 -0000
From: Yes Yes Yes
yes@theyesmen.org
Hi there!
We run http://www.gatt.org/. Here's what the
WTO--that's the World Trade Organization, of course--has been saying about
us on their front page at http://www.wto.org/:
"Warning: Fake
WTO website - http://www.gatt.org/ - deceitful and a
nuisance to serious users"
They go on to describe how gatt.org
interferes with "serious users" looking for "genuine information" (http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/news01_e/gattdotorg_e.htm):
We think the WTO is acting just a little bit paranoid, don't you?
After all, this is less than TEN DAYS before the start of the WTO's big
hooplah in Doha, Qatar.
Maybe they're nervous--in Qatar, any form
of protest is strictly illegal, and VERY heavily punishable (depending on
the King's mood). How will people react when the first hundred protesters
get their heads chopped clean off? Morocco doesn't like that sort of
extremism, and neither do France or Nepal. Lots of beheaded peaceniks is
likely to annoy almost everyone!
Funny thing, the WTO acted this
way just before Seattle as well http://www.wto.org/english/news_e/pres99_e/pr151_e.htm
. It probably is just a bad case of nerves. See you on the chopping block!
Your friends at
http://theyesmen.org/
p.s. Here is the text of the WTO's
Halloween news item:
WTO NEWS: 2001 NEWS ITEMS
30 October 2001
Warning: fake WTO website A fake
WTO website - http://www.gatt.org/ - has
been created to deceive Internet users by copying the entire official WTO
website. While the design is identical, the texts have been distorted. The
fake site also uses the email address enquiries@gatt.org
The use of
WTO designs, logos and materials is strictly unauthorized. Worse, some
pages on the fake website could cause unsuspecting visitors to reveal
their email addresses and other information to the site's operators. The
fake site could also be picked up by search engines, a nuisance for
serious users looking for genuine information. The only official WTO site
is www.wto.org.
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