fun stuff

DOW, BURSON-MARSTELLER CLAMP DOWN ON FAKE WEBSITES
But companies find it harder to stifle criticism

Two giant companies are struggling to shut down parody websites that
portray them unfavorably, interrupting internet use for thousands in the
process, and filing a lawsuit that pits the formidable legal department of
PR giant Burson-Marsteller against a freshman at Hampshire College.

The activists behind the fake corporate websites have fought back, and
obtained substantial publicity in the process.

Fake websites have been used by activists before, but Dow-Chemical.com and
BursonMarsteller.com represent the first time that such websites have
successfully been used to publicize abuses by specific corporations.

A December 3 press release originating from one of the fake sites,
Dow-Chemical.com, explained the "real" reasons that Dow could not take
responsibility for the Bhopal catastrophe, which has resulted in an
estimated 20,000 deaths over the years (www.theyesmen.org/dow/#release).
"Our prime responsibilities are to the people who own Dow shares, and to
the industry as a whole," the release stated. "We cannot do anything for
the people of Bhopal." The fake site immediately received thousands of
outraged e-mails (www.dowethics.com/r/about/corp/email.htm).

Within hours, the real Dow sent a legal threat to Dow-Chemical.com's
upstream provider, Verio, prompting Verio to shut down the fake Dow's ISP
for nearly a day, closing down hundreds of unrelated websites and bulletin
boards in the process.

The fake Dow website quickly resurfaced at an ISP in Australia.
(www.theyesmen.org/dow/#threat)

In a comical anticlimax, Dow then used a little-known domain-name rule to
take possession of Dow-Chemical.com (www.theyesmen.org/dow/#story),
another move which backfired when amused journalists wrote articles in
newspapers from The New York Times to The Hindu in India
(www.theyesmen.org/dow/#links), and sympathetic activists responded by
cloning and mirroring the site at many locations, including
www.dowethics.com, www.dowindia.com and, with a twist,
www.mad-dow-disease.com. Dow continues to play whack-a-mole with these
sites (at least one ISP has received veiled threats).

Burson-Marsteller, the public relations company that helped to "spin"
Bhopal, has meanwhile sued college student Paul Hardwin
(phardwin@...) for putting up a fake Burson-Marsteller site,
www.bursonmarsteller.com, which recounted how the PR giant helped to
downplay the Bhopal disaster. Burson-Marsteller's suit against Hardwin
will be heard next week by the World Intellectual Property Organization
(www.reamweaver.com/bmwipo/wipo.html).

Hardwin, unable to afford a lawyer, has composed a dryly humorous 57-page
rebuttal to the PR giant's lawsuit
(www.reamweaver.com/bmwipo/response.htm). On page 7, for instance, the
student notes that Burson-Marsteller's "stated goal is 'to ensure that the
perceptions which surround our clients and influence their stakeholders
are consistent with reality.'" Hardwin goes on to assert that his
satirical domain is doing precisely that, by publicizing "academic and
journalistic materials about Burson-Marsteller's involvement with and
relationship to, for example, Philip Morris and the National Smoker's
Alliance, a consumer front group designed to create the appearance of
public support for big-tobacco policies; Union Carbide and the deaths of
20,000 people following the 1984 disaster in Bhopal; and political regimes
such as that of Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu and more recently
Saudi Arabia following the events of September 11; and to properly
associate them with the relevant Trademark so that they may be understood
accordingly by Internet users."

In response to the suit's claim that "a substantial degree of goodwill is
associated with [the Burson-Marstellar Trademark]" Hardwin offers much
"evidence to the contrary" including "a newspaper headline in which the
Complainant is characterized as 'the Devil.'"

The primary goal of RTMark (rtmark.com) is to publicize corporate
subversion of the democratic process. Just like other corporations, it
achieves its aims by any and all means at its disposal. RTMark has
previously helped to publicize websites against political parties
(rtmark.com/othersites.html#fpo), political figures
(rtmark.com/bush.html), and entities like the World Trade Organization
(www.gatt.org) and the World Economic Forum
(www.world-economic-forum.com).