> Opponents mock WTO Web site with their
> version
>
> Tuesday, November 30, 1999
>
> By DAN RICHMAN
> SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
>
> The World Trade Organization is opening some of its Seattle
> proceedings to Internet visitors and hosting a cyberspace chat room,
> while criticizing as deceptive and illegal an anti-WTO Web site that
> closely mimics its own.
>
> "It's ironic that while the WTO is accused of lacking transparency,
> some critics who put out misleading or false information are
> camouflaging their identities," Mike Moore, the WTO's director
> general, wrote in a press release.
>
> The phony site, http://www.gatt.org, replicates the
> WTO's own site, www.wto.org, down to the
> logo, typeface, colors and layout. It even
> carries a 1999 WTO copyright notice at the
> bottom of the page.
>
> But on the fake site's "Director-General's
> Home Page" -- complete with a picture of
> Moore -- the message reads, "The WTO's
> purpose is to broaden and enforce global free
> trade. Global free trade already gives
> multinational corporations vast powers to
> enforce their will against democratic
> governments."
>
> Similar language appears throughout the phony site, which also
> contains about two dozen links to sites maintained by organizations
> opposing the WTO. A site called rtmark.com claims credit for the
> "gatt" site.