No subject

[QUICK NOTE: You can see the site that is discussed here at
www.dowethics.com.  It is surprisingly detailed and has the same "look and
feel" as the Dow Site- www.dow.com.]

Thoughts?

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DOW FIGHTS BACK
Company takes legal action against parody website, gains control

ALEX TULLO

Internet mischief directed at Dow Chemical two weeks ago backfired. On Dec.
3, the 18th anniversary of the Bhopal disaster, an environmental group
issued a phony press release in which Dow Chemical, the acquirer of Union
Carbide, callously distances itself from the incident because taking
responsibility would hurt shareholder value. What’s more, the release
directed readers to a website, dow-chemical.com.

The site was a parody of the Dow website, with logos and text bitten off the
real thing. “Dow is responsible for the modern environmental movement,” said
the page, because DDT inspired Rachel Carson’s “Silent Spring.” There were
links to documents mocking sustainable development and Responsible Care as
well as a phony speech by Dow CEO Michael D. Parker.

The website was the work of The Yes Men—the group responsible for a number
of parody websites, including gatt.org, which spoofs the World Trade
Organization. Dow-chemical.com also reproduced entire pages of the Dow site,
but words like “chemicals” and “epoxy” were replaced with “toxics” and
“bhopoxy.”

Dow’s lawyers weren’t amused and promptly sent a letter to Verio, the
company that hosted the website, warning that it violated the Digital
Millennium Copyright Act, the Anticybersquatting Consumer Protection Act,
and the Lanham Act. Verio took down the site.

A representative from RTMark, which owns the Web server, said The Yes Men
would find server space outside the U.S. “Dow will have to keep bopping it
wherever it pops up,” he said.

But the site’s domain was registered under “James Parker,” the name of the
Dow CEO’s son, and listed his actual home address in Midland, Mich. Site
representatives say it was their idea of a joke.

Not a good idea. Seizing on the site’s registration information, Dow lawyers
claimed it in the name of the real James Parker and transferred ownership to
Dow.

Copies of the site have since sprouted up under new names like Dowethics.com
and dow-chemical.va.com.au. “We respect the rights of groups to express
their opinions,” Dow spokeswoman Leslie Hatfield says, “but we are
disappointed that they would use such tactics.”


Best,
Sandeep

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