| The Thing Rome on 23 Oct 2000 00:15:50 -0000 |
[Date Prev] [Date Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]
| <nettime> [NO PROTEST NO PROFIT] A NetStrike for Bandits! |
The Net.Protest against the multiple censorships of the Rome City Network [see http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/reviews/press.html] is reaching its acme on Monday 23, when a large coalition of net-based groups, radical associations and digital hacktivists will perform a NetStrike against the City Council of Rome official website. A simple "customized" tool for FloodNet (FloodSpace_1.0) is available for download at the Thing Rome website [http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/floodnet/] The Call for NetStrike follows. This act of Electronic Civil Disobedience is the last in a series of events planned by several italian net entities. Few days ago, The Thing Rome and 0100101110101101.ORG released "NO PROTEST NO PROFIT", the First International Competion of Net.protest, aiming to turn the anti-censorship campaign in a piece of net.art. All the e-mails of protest sent to the City of Rome, in fact, will be evaluated and economically estimed by an extraordinary international jury. On the basis of this estimation, The Thing Rome and 0100101110101101.ORG will make an offer to the City of Rome, in order to buy the target Inboxes and sell them to an important cultural institution for a major exhibition. More info at: http://www.ecn.org/thingnet/projects/noprofit.html Regards, The Thing Rome http://www.ecn.org/thingnet ------------------------------------------- To all the real bandits to all those who sense a bounty coming on their heads to all those who do not want to stay in the new economy saloon anymore load up your guns it's time to settle with the sheriff it's time to take by storm the diligence of institutions stop censorship now ! A NET STRIKE FOR BANDITS! Monday 23, October 2000 hours 14.00-17.00 (Greenwich Time) target: www.comune.roma.it/index.htm Bandits. Banned. On October 2 the City of Rome banned the webspace of the Rome City Network hosting the AvAna.net association. The group was blamed to have published materials "unfit" to a City Network, following an exposition by Father Fortunato Di Noto, a known pedophile-hunter priest, who claimed the Luther Blissett's book "Let the little children..." to be a text fostering pedophilia. Actually, the book - regularly sold in every bookstore of Italy - is just an inquiry on the issue of pedophilia and on the judicial mistakes generated by an irational and spectacular approach to the matter. Bandits. Banned. Two days later, the same City of Rome banned from the City Network a page of The Thing Rome website, showing an interview with australian artist Francesca Da Rimini (aka Doll Yoko). The group was blamed to have used - as illustration of the article - images "unfit" to a City Network. The images were taken from Doll Space, a known web art work, financed by Australia Council, winner of two international prizes and bought by the University of Westminster. The artist made these images by using a Dutch print dating back to 1789: one of the first illustration of Marquis De Sade's books. Bandits. Banned. The same day, the City Network banned the web space of Namir, a webzine (issued by the Raffaello Community Library) blamed to have hosted a provoking e-mail by "Airone Pazzo", a mentally disturbed person pretending to be a pedophile in order to outline his troubles as dropout. Bandits. Banned. The following days, the City of Rome banned "Let the little children..." again. It had been published again by The Thing group and by the Agency for the Rights of Telematic Communication, in order to protest the "censorship policy" of the City of Rome. Bandits. Banned. Those who are exiled and banned of their civil rights. Bandits. Banned. You could be the next one. By now, the politics of the State Administration is far away from the Network Society and its forms of communication. The management of italian city networks is a dramatic example: spectacle and approximation rule. What happened in Rome, due to Mrs. Mariella Gramaglia, vicedirector general of the City of Rome, is the last evidence of it. Actually, this could be irrelevant, if this political class wouldn't be the same one who claims the right to regulate the Internet, to make laws about it. If bans and censorship become the way to manage reality, to state what is visible and what is not, well, then it's time to show *who* is the real bandit on the Net. And it's *them*. *They* do not belong to the great civil and horizontal community of the net. If you are sick and tired of censorship and stupidity, if you are sick and tired of emergencies and false alarms, if you feel like a bandit, or you fear you could be, if you think that the time has come to show to the rulers who the real agents of social communication are... JOIN US IN THIS PROTEST! The virtual assault is scheduled for 0ctober 23, 2000, from 14.00 to 17.00 (Greenwich Time), against the City of Rome website www.comune.roma.it/index.htm, IRC channel on www.ecn.org#hackit99 (or www.ecn.org/irc, java enabled browser). We reclaim an official apology by the City of Rome Mayor and the immediate restoration of all the banned pages. ----------------------------- Related Links: Anticensorship Campaign: http://www.forteprenestino.net Some press: Telepolis: "Sex, Internet, Zensur und Markenzeichen" (german) http://www.heise.de/tp/deutsch/inhalt/co/8935/1.html ExibArt: "The City of Rome censors The Thing and AvANa Net" (italian) http://www.exibart.com/IDNotizia1451.htm Punto Informatico: "Blind censorship" (italian) http://punto-informatico.it/p.asp?i=33519 Brainstorm: "Against the online Holy Inquisition" (italian) http://www.apogeonline.com/berny/inquisizione.html Il manifesto: "www.censorship.com" and "The censored artist" (italian) http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art28.htm http://www.ilmanifesto.it/Quotidiano-archivio/14-Ottobre-2000/art29.htm # distributed via <nettime>: no commercial use without permission # <nettime> is a moderated mailing list for net criticism, # collaborative text filtering and cultural politics of the nets # more info: [email protected] and "info nettime-l" in the msg body # archive: http://www.nettime.org contact: [email protected]