Date: Thu, 5 Dec 2002 21:41:09 -0500 From: fluxdepot at yahoo.com To: nettime-l at bbs.thing.net Subject: <nettime> Dow and Verio shut down thing.net, rtmark.com, theyesmen.org, dow-chemical.com, etc. etc. etc.
Howdy there,
This is Andy from The Yes Men (and Dow-Chemical.com, in case you didn't know....).
Some interesting follow-up on that release from the day before yesterday (pasted below)..... It turns out that Dow sent Verio a DMCA notice over Dow-Chemical.com (I can send you a copy if you like), and Verio then proceeded to shut down not only Dow-Chemical.com, but the entire Thing.net network, hosting of course innumerable activist, artist, and other websites and bulletin boards.
[[Update: Thing.net just went back up after a night down. The other sites are still down because the RTMark box (which hosts the other sites) was taken down so as not to endanger Thing.net in a permanent way.... As soon as Dow-Chemical.com is disabled, then the others will be up again.]]
You can reach Thing.net technical support at 1-212-937-0444. I can be reached at 011-33-6-15-81-37-44. Frank from RTMark (an activist service provider, cc'ed) can be reached at 1-917-209-3282.
It is quite dramatic how much more both Dow and Verio esteem Dow's image over the 20,000 people dead from Bhopal over the years, plus the estimated 500,000 suffering permanent damage over the years from the catastrophe--which has STILL not been cleaned up 18 years later! They esteem the Dow image so much, in fact, that they don't mind wiping an entire activist and artistic network right off the face of the internet, indefinitely!
It reminds one of the time that Dow, trying to make a profit, accidentally wiped all those people right off the face of the earth! Hm, real murder has gotten each Bhopal family compensated $300-$500 per victim--guess we couldn't expect very much, even if Dow or Verio felt bad about wiping us out merely virtually and temporarily....
By the way, the same thing happened back in the Toywar, when eToys issued a DMCA to Verio, and Verio shut down (again apparently by accident or disregard) the whole Thing.net network--but only for 3 hours. The WTO also issued a DMCA to Verio regarding GATT.org about a year ago, but Verio did nothing, and stated that the DMCA was not relevant to it, since it was not Verio that was the host, but merely the upstream provider. (Score in the Verio esteem: WTO: 0; eToys: 3 [hours network down]; Dow: 16 [hours network down, and counting])
Best, Di Andy Bichlbaum The Yes Men previously http://theyesmen.org/ now invisible
The release:
December 3, 2002 FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: mailto:press at dow-chemical.com
DOW ADDRESSES BHOPAL OUTRAGE, EXPLAINS POSITION Company responds to activist concerns with concrete action points
In response to growing public outrage over its handling of the Bhopal disaster's legacy, Dow Chemical (http://www.dow-chemical.com) has issued a statement explaining why it is unable to more actively address the problem.
"We are being portrayed as a heartless giant which doesn't care about the 20,000 lives lost due to Bhopal over the years," said Dow President and CEO Michael D. Parker. "But this just isn't true. Many individuals within Dow feel tremendous sorrow about the Bhopal disaster, and many individuals within Dow would like the corporation to admit its responsibility, so that the public can then decide on the best course of action, as is appropriate in any democracy. "Unfortunately, we have responsibilities to our shareholders and our industry colleagues that make action on Bhopal impossible. And being clear about this has been a very big step."
On December 3, 1984, Union Carbide--now part of Dow--accidentally killed 5,000 residents of Bhopal, India, when its pesticide plant sprung a leak. It abandoned the plant without cleaning it up, and since then, an estimated 15,000 more people have died from complications, most resulting from chemicals released into the groundwater.
Although legal investigations have consistently pinpointed Union Carbide as culprit, both Union Carbide and Dow have had to publicly deny these findings. After the accident, Union Carbide compensated victims' families between US$300 and US$500 per victim. "We understand the anger and hurt," said Dow Spokesperson Bob Questra. "But Dow does not and cannot acknowledge responsibility. If we did, not only would we be required to expend many billions of dollars on cleanup and compensation--much worse, the public could then point to Dow as a precedent in other big cases. 'They took responsibility; why can't you?' Amoco, BP, Shell, and Exxon all have ongoing problems that would just get much worse. We are unable to set this precedent for ourselves and the industry, much as we would like to see the issue resolved in a humane and satisfying way."
Shareholders reacted to the Dow statement with enthusiasm. "I'm happy that Dow is being clear about its aims," said Panaline Boneril, who owns 10,000 shares, "because Bhopal is a recurrent problem that's clogging our value chain and ultimately keeping the share price from expressing its full potential. Although a real solution is not immediately possible because of Dow's commitments to the larger industry issues, there is new hope in management's exceptional new clarity on the matter."
"It's a slow process," said Questra. "We must learn bit by bit to meet this challenge head-on. For now, this means acknowledging that much as it pains us, our prime responsibilities are to the people who own Dow shares, and to the industry as a whole. We simply cannot do anything at this moment for the people of Bhopal."
Dow Chemical is a chemical products and services company devoted to bringing its customers a wide range of chemicals. It furnishes solutions for the agriculture, electronics, manufacturing, and oil and gas industries, including well-known products like Styrofoam, DDT, and Agent Orange, as well as lesser-known brands like Inspire, Retain, Eliminator, Quash, and Woodstalk. For more on the Bhopal catastrophe, please visit Dow at http://www.dow-chemical.com/.
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