Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men

tom_evil notes a story up on Infoshop.org about a parody site and the lack of a sense of humor in a large multinational. "One day after the Yes Men made a joke announcement of ExxonMobil's plans to turn billions of climate-change victims into a brand-new fuel called Vivoleum, the Yes Men's upstream internet service provider shut down Vivoleum.com and cut off the Yes Men's email service, in reaction to a complaint whose source they will not identify. 'Since parody is protected under US law, Exxon must think that people seeing the site will think Vivoleum's a real Exxon product, not just a parody,' said Yes Man Mike Bonanno. Exxon's policies do already contribute to 150,000 climate-change related deaths each year,' added Yes Man Andy Bichlbaum. 'So maybe it really is credible. What a resource!'"

Legal matters

[Xiroth]

Uh, usually I wouldn't note problems in the summary, but a missing quote mark at the start of the second last sentence makes it seem like Slashdot is the one claiming (as fact) that Exxon causes 150,000 deaths per year, and could easily be grounds for a libel suit. If an editor reads this comment, they may want to fix that.

IANAL, though, so I could be wrong.

not an apoligist, just the truth

[Anonymous Coward]

See, here is the problem: yes it is censorship, no it is not a violation of U.S. law nor the First Ammendment (as far as I can tell from the article). People often cannot separate the two, including the Yes Men.

"Since parody is protected under US law"

You see, they are in a business relationship with the hosting company. The hosting company can break that relationship for pretty much whatever reason they see fit, including parody -- might not be smart but those are the facts. If the Yes Men put this out using their own resources, etc. and were sued for it, that's where US law would protect them. However, since they are in a business relationship with someone else, you really can't claim protection. Does that mean it's a smart idea / good idea for the hosting company to do this? No. But it's not a violation of someone's rights. That's the truth.

Re:150,000 deaths per year

[Khaed]

yeah, welcome to /. moderators: They think "Troll" is the same as "person who I disagree with."

Trolling is generally defined as saying something assholish to get replies ("why the fuck would anyone use vi?" or "why the fuck would anyone use emacs" for examples). While flamebait is trying to instigate a flamewar, like: "vi is clearly better than emacs because it has a simpler interface" or "emacs is better because it has more features." Off-topic -- well, if you can't figure that one out, you ought not be moderating, or even on slashdot. The closest to "-1 I disagree" is Overrated.

This works both ways; there are also moderations in the UPWARD direction that make no sense. This article has a few already. Generally, saying bad things about corporations (unless you're twitter) or Bush can get you moderated up unless you have zero tact. (Seriously, we all know Bush is a fucking moron. Just a year and a half left, and he's gone.)

Sometimes saying *good* things about people we *really hate*, like the RIAA, gets you moderated up. I think this is because mods just get so shocked their brains cease to function correctly.

Also, there are six billion people on this planet. 150,000 people die about every twenty-four hours. It's not going to affect us. Human beings like to reproduce. We're in no danger of dying off with such a small number of deaths. You want to impress me? Add three zeroes to that number. Then I'll concede we're in trouble. Maybe I'm just jaded, but people die every day for stupid reasons. People have been dying since there were people. All this hand wringing and fretting isn't doing any good -- either work to solve problems, or shut up. But don't be an asshole about it. Besides, if you want to be really cynical, eventually, the universe will reach maximum entropy (if you believe the Heat Death theory).

Re:150,000 deaths per year

[Gord]

Also, there are six billion people on this planet.

6 billion in 1999, 6.7 billion now, scary isn't it.

http://www.ibiblio.org/lunarbin/worldpop [ibiblio.org]

Re:nature of satire

[Anonymous Coward]

So you think Exxon didn't get punished for the Valdez accident? You're a lying sack of shit. It cost them hundreds of millions of dollars in direct costs, and billions (yes, with a "B") in indirect costs; thing about the legislative changes that doubled the cost of production on the north slope. And, by the way, wasn't the accident the fault of the ship's captain, who's responsibility is the ship, crew and cargo? Yes, he was accused of being an alcoholic. Guess what, in the US, you can't fire someone for being accused of having a disease. That's the law. You go shut up and play with your crayons.

Conjecture My Ass

[Anonymous Coward]

That's purely conjecture at this point.

"Broadview did restore both IPs on Wednesday, after the Vivoleum.com
website was completely disabled and all mention of Exxon was removed
from TheYesMen.org."

the more precise term is plutocracy

[sethawoolley]

oligarchy counts, but I like to be a bit more specific.

Re:150,000 deaths per year

[Guuge]

Trolling is generally defined as saying something assholish to get replies ("why the fuck would anyone use vi?" or "why the fuck would anyone use emacs" for examples).

Here's another example: "It just shows the absurd claims emacs cult members will make in order to feel self righteous."

Hmmm... that looks somehow familiar.

grass--greener

[nanosquid]

At the end of July, Thing.net will terminate its contract with Broadview and move its operations to Germany, where internet
expression currently benefits from a friendlier legal climate than in the US,

I think these people are in for a rude awakening. AFAIK, Germany doesn't even have a parody exemption, and mere mention of a corporate trademark on your web site can make you subject to large fines.

If you want to get this kind of message out, don't introduce a single point of failure (web hosting). Instead, make it funny, put it in the form of a press release, make it easy to cut-and-paste, and people will be mailing it around widely. Bonus points if you can get various news wires to pick it up. If you need pictures, make them free of any trademarks, potential copyright issues, or other obstacles and you can host them on Flickr.

Just an example of the power of lawyers...

[rdean400]

The speed of the takedown has more to do with the power of lawyers than the power of corporations. If the ISP wants to take advantage of the "CYA" safe harbor afforded them by the DMCA and other similar laws, they have to comply with takedown notices without delay.

If the notice came from a credible lawyer for an individual, it would still have to be honored.