December 23, 2002
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thing.net assistance page:
secure.thing.net/backbone/
Contact: thing-group@rtmark.com
ACTIVIST NETWORK IN NY EVICTED FROM INTERNET BY
DOW,
VERIO
Bowing to pressure from the Dow Chemical Corporation, the internet
company Verio has
booted
the activist-oriented Thing.net from the Web.
Internet service provider Thing.net has been the primary service
provider for activist and artist organizations in the New York area
for 10 years.
On December 3, activists used a server housed by Thing.net to post a
parody Dow press release on the eighteenth anniversary of the disaster
in which 20,000 people died as a result of an accident at a Union
Carbide plant in Bhopal, India. (Union Carbide is now owned by Dow.)
The deadpan statement, which many people took as real, explained that
Dow could not accept responsibility for the disaster due to its
primary allegiance to its shareholders and to its bottom line.
Dow was not amused, and sent a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)
complaint to Verio, which immediately cut Thing.net off the internet
for fifteen hours. A few days later, Verio announced that Thing.net
had 60 days to move to another provider before being shut down
permanently, unilaterally terminating Thing.net's 7-year-old contract.
Affected organizations include PS1/MOMA, Artforum, Nettime, Tenant.net
(which assists renters facing eviction), and hundreds more.
"Verio's actions are nothing short of outrageous," said Wolfgang
Staehle, Thing.net Executive Director. "They could have resolved the
matter with the Dow parodists directly; instead they chose to shut
down our entire network. This self-appointed enforcement of the DMCA
could have a serious chilling effect on free speech, and has already
damaged our business."
RTMark, which publicizes corporate abuses of democracy, is housed on
Thing.net. Please visit secure.thing.net/backbone/ to help
Thing.net survive Dow's and Verio's actions, and to develop a plan to
avoid such problems in the future.