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Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men
Posted by
kdawson
on Saturday June 30, @06:17PM
from the can't-take-a-joke dept.
from the can't-take-a-joke dept.
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!'"
Exxon's Brute Squad Hacks the Yes Men
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*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....
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:4, Insightful)Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power
(Score:5, Funny)(http://www.dieblinkenlights.com/)
No. wait...
Re:*sigh* Corproations have too much power
(Score:4, Insightful)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: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.
Blame game.
(Score:3, Informative)Cue all the apologists
(Score:5, Insightful)(Sarcasm-impaired mods: This post is a parody, much like the Yes Men's Vivoleum)
~Rebecca
They Have A Right
(Score:4, Funny)(http://www.jointhesolution.com/mdsolar | Last Journal: Friday February 23, @04:53AM)
It is their right to have no sense of humor, especially if the joke is at their expense. Please be more sympathetic.
--
Det solar power are save money too: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
Re:They Have A Right
(Score:5, Interesting)(http://www.wemissjerry.org/)
When the owners sign on the line, begging The People to permit their incorporation, they agree to go by the regulation The People impose.
It is very much like your drivers' license.
You OWN your car, and theoretically, in a Free Nation , that Property Right is absolute, and you may do with your property, your car, whatever you wish.
UNTIL you sign your Drivers' license application. At that moment, when you AGREE to abide by the Regulations for Vehicles and Traffic, that you surrender your Rights.
Exact same thing with the incorporation of ALEs. We *could* make them do whatever we want, and if they don't like it, they can just close up shop, and liquidate their assets back to the shareholders.
But somehow, this idea of them being just as good as a Flesh-and-Blood came about.
Re:They Have A Right
(Score:4, Funny)(http://www.jointhesolution.com/mdsolar | Last Journal: Friday February 23, @04:53AM)
Hardly a "hack"
(Score:2)Re:Hardly a "hack"
(Score:4, Interesting)(http://www.jameshollingshead.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday June 02, @02:40AM)
I'd say this qualifies.
Soylent Green fuel
(Score:4, Funny)Legal matters
(Score:2, Informative)IANAL, though, so I could be wrong.
Re:Legal matters
(Score:5, Interesting)(Last Journal: Friday June 08, @06:20AM)
Vivoleum
(Score:2)(http://www.jointhesolution.com/mdsolar | Last Journal: Friday February 23, @04:53AM)
--
Rent solar power at 2005 electric rates: http://mdsolar.blogspot.com/2007/01/slashdot-user
But is it Green?
(Score:2)Where are the facts
(Score:2)I can imagine that Exxon's logo's are protected by trademark etc, but I think they still can be used for parody.
However, I guess the initial site looked like a real Exxon site, and it wasn't apparent that it was a parody, looks like a legitimate reason for Exxon to complain.
Still what "threats" did they make, I so no copy of an email or letter.
After the Yes men removed the logo's and made it clear it was a parody, the ISP still blocked it.
Has Exxon contacted the Yes men directly? Or vice versa, the article mentions nothing.
Also if you are worried about the 150.000 deaths, don't use oil, except it's used in everything, even lubricant for windmills...
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...
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.
Re:150,000 deaths per year
(Score:5, Informative)Trolling is generally defined as saying something assholish to get replies ("why the fuck would anyone use vi?" or "why the fuck would anyone use emacs" for examples). While flamebait is trying to instigate a flamewar, like: "vi is clearly better than emacs because it has a simpler interface" or "emacs is better because it has more features." Off-topic -- well, if you can't figure that one out, you ought not be moderating, or even on slashdot. The closest to "-1 I disagree" is Overrated.
This works both ways; there are also moderations in the UPWARD direction that make no sense. This article has a few already. Generally, saying bad things about corporations (unless you're twitter) or Bush can get you moderated up unless you have zero tact. (Seriously, we all know Bush is a fucking moron. Just a year and a half left, and he's gone.)
Sometimes saying *good* things about people we *really hate*, like the RIAA, gets you moderated up. I think this is because mods just get so shocked their brains cease to function correctly.
Also, there are six billion people on this planet. 150,000 people die about every twenty-four hours. It's not going to affect us. Human beings like to reproduce. We're in no danger of dying off with such a small number of deaths. You want to impress me? Add three zeroes to that number. Then I'll concede we're in trouble. Maybe I'm just jaded, but people die every day for stupid reasons. People have been dying since there were people. All this hand wringing and fretting isn't doing any good -- either work to solve problems, or shut up. But don't be an asshole about it. Besides, if you want to be really cynical, eventually, the universe will reach maximum entropy (if you believe the Heat Death theory).
Nice headline, guys!
(Score:5, Insightful)(http://jargon-file.org/)
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, Funny)(http://jargon-file.org/)
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?
nature of satire
(Score:5, Interesting)(Last Journal: Thursday May 03, @12:34PM)
On the other side of the argument there are persons who believe corporations should have no rights at all. These people believe that they can say the Microsoft sponsors the mass killing of anyone who disagrees with them. This is ok a the accusation is so extreme that no one would believe, so it is clearly satire. The problem, of course, is where to draw the line. Is it ok to say that MS regularly sanctions threats of any medium ranking figure who threatens their monopoly? Where does satire end and stock manipulation begin?
Ultimately, I think we get into the nature of satire, and the death of the art form. Traditional satire abstracts some tyranical figure that is simply to dangerous to attack directly, and cleverly illustrates the tyranny and negative impact of the figure. Or satire highlights some social policy, and then proposes a ridiculous solution to it. Satire is useless when launched at figures that can be attacked directly or when is simply attributes characteristics that the figure probably does not possess.
It saddens me that meaningless verbal attack is put forth as satire. In this case the article could have proposed that ExxonMobile convert the people into a product. Such a modest proposal would not be original, but at least would be an attempt at satire, rather than just the ranting of thugs. Or they could have attributed the action to Butthole Petrol Incompentated(BPI), or EXpat Oil Nation MOBlized , or whatever. Just make it interesting satire, not school house insults.
Why This isn't News, but Agitprop
(Score:2)Did the ISP do the right thing
(Score:3, Interesting)Secondly, if they didn't receive a section 512 take down notice, they should have asked for one (thats assuming that the ISP was told to take the content down for copyright reasons, if it was for other reasons, there are other procedures to be followed)
Maybe this had something to do with it...lol
(Score:1)(http://webhome.idirect.com/~kvollick/ | Last Journal: Sunday June 24, @04:02PM)
It is called contractual interference and it time
(Score:1)IANAL and therefore do not deserve to be shot, but here is the wikipedia entry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tortious_interferenc
grass--greener
(Score:3, Informative)expression currently benefits from a friendlier legal climate than in the US,
I think these people are in for a rude awakening. AFAIK, Germany doesn't even have a parody exemption, and mere mention of a corporate trademark on your web site can make you subject to large fines.
If you want to get this kind of message out, don't introduce a single point of failure (web hosting). Instead, make it funny, put it in the form of a press release, make it easy to cut-and-paste, and people will be mailing it around widely. Bonus points if you can get various news wires to pick it up. If you need pictures, make them free of any trademarks, potential copyright issues, or other obstacles and you can host them on Flickr.
Who's their "upstream provider" ?
(Score:2)(http://www.mindonthenet.com/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 27, @08:47AM)
Just an example of the power of lawyers...
(Score:2)If the notice came from a credible lawyer for an individual, it would still have to be honored.
More anti-global warming funding from Exxon
(Score:1)(http://webhome.idirect.com/~kvollick/ | Last Journal: Sunday June 24, @04:02PM)
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:2, Insightful)(http://www.daduh.org/ | Last Journal: Thursday April 26, @05:25PM)
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:4, Interesting)See, that's the funny part.
because the retaliation was to disconnect them
(Score:5, Insightful)(http://slantdrilling.blogspot.com/)
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:because the retaliation was to disconnect them
(Score:5, Interesting)(Last Journal: Friday January 26, @01:35PM)
Conjecture My Ass
(Score:5, Informative)"Broadview did restore both IPs on Wednesday, after the Vivoleum.com
website was completely disabled and all mention of Exxon was removed
from TheYesMen.org."
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:2)(http://www.animal-assist.org/donate.html)
Of course, it would be horribly ironic if they came forward and claimed they did it as retaliation against their ISP.
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:1, Insightful)Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:2)Get this guy: "Exxon=no tech connection". I guess he's using solar power to run his WebTV. He must be so hi-tech he's running his Amigo on Brylcreem.
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:3, Funny)1. Wait about three weeks.
2. The terrorists used low tech non-functioning methods, and were noticeably inept. More of "your government at work" sort of stuff.
Are you ready for a drink from the Firehose?
(Score:2)(Last Journal: Friday January 26, @01:35PM)
The War on Terrorism is a bumpersticker, not because of a lack of very real terrorists, but because the war being fought is only going to generate more terrorists, and many of the Homeland Security measures are doing more damage than the terrorists.
Re:/. fooled by yes men
(Score:1, Interesting)Exxon grosses $360bn per year.
Their (world-wide record) profits are $36bn per year.
What retard thinks that oil companies make only 10% profit? A lemonade stand does better than that.
Exxon is a vertically-integrated company. They pump, refine, and distribute their own oil. If that yields only 10% profit, then screw the oil business. I'm going into foodservice.
Or: clever accounting.
Re:/. fooled by yes men
(Score:2)(http://www.jointhesolution.com/mdsolar | Last Journal: Friday February 23, @04:53AM)
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:3)(http://pietersz.co.uk/ | Last Journal: Wednesday May 04, @06:22AM)
These are my favourite type of terrorists: incompetent ones.
Re:News For Nerds How??!!
(Score:2)