this is the toywar resistance network.
mission information
mission: stop the unethical lawsuit brought against etoy.com by eToys.com ACHIEVED
methods: we will use the very system they exploit and turn it against them. support the e-blockade!
statement: "the world needs to know that the corporate giant eToys is engaged in unethical business tactics. eToys shareholders, stockholders, business partners, e-commerce service providers and partners all need to know what kind of company they are involved in. TRN has plans to release media strikes to all major news/media co-ops in america. we will use the very system eToys is exploiting against them. we shall fight in the aether, over the Net, on the Web- we will never surrender." - machyne 12/99
the WAR is over, www.etoy.com is active again!!!
lawsuit information -
OVERVIEW: on September 10, 1999, eToys sued etoy for trademark infringement, dilution, and unfair competition. this stems from an incident in which a child left the "s" off of the eToys.com URL address and was connected to www.etoy.com. at the etoy site, a link that read "travel the old fashioned way (HTML)" was selected by the child and was directed to a page with the caption "we do not support the old fashioned way...get the fucking flash plug-in!" this lead to the child's grandfather sending a complaint to eToys telling them his grandson was toy shopping online and how dare they post this for kids to see blahblah. Apparently, neither the child nor the grandfather knew they did not enter in the right URL. eToys then filed suit against etoy corporation within weeks.
domain name shutdown -
the following is a copy of a prepared statement signed by judge john p shook in an LA county court shortly after hearing the attorneys speak:

defendant etoy corporation d/b/a etoy ("etoy"), and any and all persons acting on behalf or in concern with etoy, are hereby enjoined from doing any of the following pending final adjudication of this action:
1. operating a website with the domain name of www.etoy.com
2. using, displaying or otherwise exploiting in any way the domain name www.etoy.com in connection with the digital hijack.
3. selling, offering to sell, soliciting offers to purchase shares of unregistered shares "etoy stock" to any person in the united states or in california.
signed november 29, 1999: john p. shook, judge, los angeles county superior court.

no further discussion took place.
the facts -
judge for yourself based on the facts:
1- etoy sells no competitive product
2- etoy has been using it's name since 1994 and although it filed for Trademark registration in June 1997 (one month after eToys), it should have been protected by common-law trademark registration.
3- the etoy.com website was domain registered BEFORE (1995) eToys (1997), and furthermore- eToys knew about etoy prior to this, they offered to buy etoy out.
4- eToys lawyers state that etoy does not have the right to a dot com domain because they are european based, even though they (like anyone wishing to OWN such an address) had registered their domain name (www.etoy.com) through network solutions in 1995. further, eToys lawyers state that they have no problem with etoy "...having a European-based site, such as .ch, which is the Switzerland domain." [it should be noted that eToys wants to expand into the global market.
query- will eToys follow their own "guidelines" and register as eToys.co.ch or eToys.co.ir or eToys.co.au, etc? and are any of these sites AVAILABLE FOR PURCHASE?

it can be concluded that because eToys knew of etoy prior to and at the completion of their domain registration that there would be the potential for consumer confusion and trademark issues in the future. these were ignored and eToys proceeded with the registration process. eToys is now seeking to place blame on etoy corporation for that very confusion which they created.
greed, it seems, is also a motivating factor in this case. eToys is also claiming that etoy wants to benefit from increased holiday shopping traffic, even though there is no business overlap.
retaliation -
since etoy shut their Apache servers down, a new crisis site www.toywar.com has arisen. the toywar resistance network has mobilized to act as an information and support bunker. our goal is to provide Net users with the tools to strike back at the e-commerce giant, eToys, using the very system they exploit. tools are assembled here for your use. act now!
machyne@hotmail.com
trn.ARCHIVE - trn.DATA - trn.TOOLS - trn.E-BLOCKADE - trn.SUPPORTERS
trn.HOSTAGE - trn.HONORS - trn.CONSUMER_HELP
top
note: TRN is in no way affiliated with any organization mentioned on this or other pages contained in what is perceived to be "our" website unless otherwise mentioned.
note 2: TRN is in no way responsible for any harm, conceptual, conceived, virtual or "real" and can NOT be held responsible for any acts of crime, vengeance, or revenge committed by any person visiting this site. period. if you are an e-commerce business mentioned on this site and something happens to your e-commerce stock, blame your lawyers.