Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men 308
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!'"
*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:2, Insightful)
Not to mention that their ISP couldn't cut their pipe fast enough after Exxon complained. No due process here, just cut it off.... Only in America....
Blame game. (Score:4, Insightful)
Cue all the apologists (Score:5, Insightful)
(Sarcasm-impaired mods: This post is a parody, much like the Yes Men's Vivoleum)
~Rebecca
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:4, Insightful)
Not to mention that their ISP couldn't cut their pipe fast enough after Exxon complained. No due process here, just cut it off.... Only in America....
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:3, Insightful)
Not to mention that their ISP couldn't cut their pipe fast enough after Exxon complained. No due process here, just cut it off.... Only in America....
Unlike, say France, where it is crime to insult various people or groups.
Re:News For Nerds How??!! (Score:2, Insightful)
150,000 deaths per year (Score:2, Insightful)
how about, that even IF climate change is man made (that's a big IF) there is NO CREDIBLE way to link someone dieing in a storm to exxon. The storm could have happened without climate change, the person could have not walked into that torrent of water, there's no way to trace emissions to a specific company as the cause for a storm or any kind of weather.
It just shows the absurd claims global warming cult members will make in order to feel self righteous.
Nice headline, guys! (Score:5, Insightful)
Second, filing a complaint with an ISP is not the sort of action one implied by "Brute Squad".
Third, there was no hacking involved.
You know, the only way to improve this headline would have been to name a group other than the Yes Men as the ones who were cut off.
Re:Nice headline, guys! (Score:5, Insightful)
1) We know the Yes Men have previously masqueraded as ExxonMobil executives.
2) This takedown has generated additional publicity for the Yes Men.
Wouldn't it have been a master stroke by the Yes Men if they had faked their own ISP into taking them down by making the complaint themselves?
because the retaliation was to disconnect them (Score:5, Insightful)
nevertheless, their internet connection was turned off because exxon didnt like what they were saying. it's kind of disconcerting. had this been any group conservative, liberal or otherwise it is troubling that they can be wiped off the face of the internet.
that's why it's news for nerds and why you're flamebait.
Re:News For Nerds How??!! (Score:3, Insightful)
I'd certainly call it funny if they produced the parody and uploaded it, but they didn't. They tricked someone into fronting the expenses for their stage and audience and did "performance art".
Not funny when it costs someone else's money. More like parasitism.
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:5, Insightful)
Ask the people who dared publish cartoons depicting Mohammad. (Meanwhile, in the US, I don't recall violent protests of "Piss Christ" that ended with any buildings being set on fire...)
Yes, there are many examples of freedom of expression being squashed in the US. But to imply "Only in America..." Wait, *seriously*? You *HONESTLY BELIEVE THAT*? C'mon!
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Where are the facts (Score:5, Insightful)
Also if you are worried about the 150.000 deaths, don't use oil, except it's used in everything, even lubricant for windmills...
And how many lives have been saved by oil, might I suggest many of millions each year that rely on the fuel to transport food and drugs...
Re:Cue all the apologists (Score:1, Insightful)
Remember folks, its not censorship when big business does it!
No, it's not censorship when big business does it. It's censorship when big businesses use laws created and enforced by the government to do it. Anything without government involvement is not censorship. If Exxon managed to persuade their ISP to take the site down just by asking nicely, then this isn't censorship, just a shitty ISP. If Exxon threatened the ISP with a lawsuit, it is censorship. The latter is far more likely, but you don't have to be an apologist to distinguish between abuse of state power and agreements between private individuals.
Parody it is. (Score:3, Insightful)
--
Break free of fossil fuels: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Re:They Have A Right (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:News For Nerds How??!! (Score:1, Insightful)
*sigh* Cults have too much power (Score:1, Insightful)
Scientology.
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:because the retaliation was to disconnect them (Score:3, Insightful)
That's purely conjecture at this point.
Re:Legal matters (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:4, Insightful)
Also, my original point wasn't that Exxon kills more or less people, or even to do with terrorism. Just that it's ridiculous to claim the US is the only nation where this sort of thing goes on. Seriously -- try saying anything remotely anti-Islam in Iran. You are very free to criticize Bush, and Exxon, here (other than the pussy ISP in this case), but try badmouthing the Chinese government in China.
I'm not even saying the US is without blame -- just that saying "Only in America" is really very ignorant. I'm sure if I tried I could find examples of worse happening in Europe.
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:3, Insightful)
So a "whites only" sign on the door is ok?
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:4, Insightful)
Then the asshole with said sign will be on display for what he is, the media will come around, and no one will ever go in there for fear of being associated with racism.
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:150,000 deaths per year (Score:2, Insightful)
That's completely false. ExxonMobil and the other Gas/Oil companies are directly in league with the automobile companies. Their chairmen serve on each other boards. They cooperate in the "buying-up" of alternative energy tech, and soaking up federal tax dollars via grant monies and tax breaks. Ie. They do everything they can to perpetuate demand for their product.
Your rational on the use of illicit drugs is also mis-oriented. All of the crime and much of the suffering comes not from the drugs, but from unconscionable laws. These laws hike prices, which empower suppliers, crowd prisons, encourage youth, corrupt law agencies and severely depress accessibility to rehabilitation.
BTW, I don't own a car --refuse to own a petrol powered car, and don't live in a city.
Re:150,000 deaths per year (Score:4, Insightful)
how about, that even IF climate change is man made (that's a big IF) there is NO CREDIBLE way to link someone dieing in a storm to exxon. The storm could have happened without climate change, the person could have not walked into that torrent of water, there's no way to trace emissions to a specific company as the cause for a storm or any kind of weather.
It just shows the absurd claims global warming cult members will make in order to feel self righteous.
You know why people get pissed off with positions such as yours? Because there's a long history of the pro-corporate or pro-money side of the argument being utter bullshit. This can lead to some mistakes of bias such as automatically assuming the government is lying whenever a claim is made. But consider the history of lies we've seen. The air at Ground Zero is perfectly safe...except people are dying now. The Iraq WMD intel was a slam dunk, only we now have 100% proven fact that it was all fabricated in support of a war Bush already planned to fight back when he said he was still gathering evidence. Tobacco companies insisted for years that cigarettes were neither addictive nor harmful. Free markets and deregulation work except for rare instances like Enron and everything else where they don't.
When it comes right down to it, we're not talking about a complicated issue where honest people fall into two different camps and are interested solely in discovering the truth of the matter. Global warming is just another issue where 99.9% of apolitical experts find themselves on one side of the issue and the corporate-sponsored
I have no idea what your opinion on health care is but I bet you hate France and think Michael Moore's SiCKO is just a bunch of hippie propaganda. I'm not going to try and convince you that France's health care system is perfect, I'm sure there are flaws. But is it working better than ours at this point? More importantly, if we're the best fucking country on the planet, shouldn't we be able to provide the best fucking health care on the planet? And don't even try to tell me what we have is good right now, that just means you're divorced from reality. Even the staunchest conservative should be able to agree with that point, "we should be able to do better than France."
Re:Cue all the apologists (Score:3, Insightful)
That may be your own weird little definition of the word, but if you check a reputable dictionary, you'll find that "censorship" does not require that the censoring be performed by a government entity.
Re:News For Nerds How??!! (Score:4, Insightful)
These are my favourite type of terrorists: incompetent ones.
Comment removed (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:nature of satire (Score:5, Insightful)
Corporations (in the US and elsewhere) employ entire squads of lawyers whose sole job it is to navigate the most profitable path through the jungle of laws. That includes demanding to be treated as a "person" whenever it is profitable to do so, and on the other hand demanding to be treated as a purely legal entity whenever that is more profitable.
Re:because the retaliation was to disconnect them (Score:3, Insightful)