<nettime> [0100101110101101.ORG] The Domain Name Crackdown

[PROPAGANDA@0100101110101101.ORG]

The Domain Name Crackdown: 0100101110101101.ORG loses 'vaticano.org'


For a whole year 'vaticano.org' was one of the (un)official organs
of information of the Holy See. A huge site, aesthetically identical
to the 'real' one but with 'slightly' modified contents, result of
the collaboration between 0100101110101101.ORG and Luther Blissett.
The detournement of the holy texts involved tens of Blissett from the
whole country, who were about to add German, Spanish and English
language sections to the main, Italian one. For 12 months thousands of
people visited 'vaticano.org', and nobody realised that the contents
of the site had been 're-touched '. Dozens of texts in which one
could find everything: 'heretical' proclamations, invented words,
unpardonable errors and songs by 883 [an Italian teeny-bopper band],
perfectly put in a 'plausible' context. From the site it was
possible to address letters directly to the Pope. Strange instructions
'hijacked' pilgrims in the most remote places. A 'Free Spirit
Jubilee'.

At the expiring of the first year of contract , Network Solutions (the
company that sells Internet Domain Names), prevented
0100101110101101.ORG from renewing the contract of "vaticano.org",
which had been regularly bought. Network Solutions refused all the
attempts of payment and, at the expiring of the contract, sold the
domain name to a catholic association in Rome, right away.

> From: Domain Registration Role Account domreg@internic.net
> Subject: Re: MODIFY DOMAIN vaticano.org
>
> Your request for MODIFY DOMAIN vaticano.org. could not be automatically 
> processed.
>
> Your request has been queued for manual processing. This request will be 
> processed in accordance with established procedures.

At the moment the domain hosts a site under construction that will
contain stuff on the Jubilee. This case of repression is not
definitely the first on the Net. For some time many corporations have
been trying to preserve their name's 'respectability' by taking
legal action (e.g. the case 'etoys vs etoy'). For the first time, we
are witnessing an operation of 'cleansing' of the Net, through the
monopoly of domain name administration.  This is the higher, maybe the
only one, form of centralised control on the Internet. More money
means better lawyers, and better lawyers own 'truth'. As to the
horizontality of the Net and freedom of expression, fuck it.

Now the Vatican owns the 90% of similar domains (vatican.va,
vatican.net, giubileo.va...) and, so far, the only one out of its
monopoly was precisely 'vaticano.org', an island of Free Spirit in a
sea of shit. Thanks to the indulgence of Network Solutions the Holy
See has laid its hands on 'vaticano.org'. At the end of the day,
'good people' always win.

Despite the loss of the domain name, the web site (unfortunately only
in Italian), is still on line at the url:
http://www.0100101110101101.ORG/vaticano.org



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