Etoy

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For other uses, see Etoy, Switzerland.

The correct title of this article is etoy. The initial letter is shown capitalized due to technical restrictions.

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etoy is a European digital art group known for its MISSION ETERNITY(2006), the digital hijack (1996) and TOYWAR (1999/2000), a major domain name dispute with eToys Inc. in 1999 over the domain etoy.com. The group is famous for questioning and redefining the way media systems work. etoy won several international awards including the Prix Ars Electronica in 1996. Their main slogan is: "leaving reality behind."

etoy routinely experiments with the boundaries of art, such as selling shares of "stock" in the etoy.CORPORATION, a registered company in switzerland (etoy.SHARES) and travelling the world as well as living in etoy.TANKS (cargo containers).

1 History
- 1.1 Toywar
2 etoy.AGENTS
3 External links

[edit] History

etoy was founded 1994 and is owned by hundreds of etoy.SHAREHOLDERS: international art collectors, the etoy.AGENTS and TOYWAR.soldiers (who protected the etoy.BRAND during the TOYWAR). The etoy.INVESTORS own, feed, control and protect the legendary corporate sculpture. The way etoy is organized is very unique for the art world and it is surprising that the group is still around and producing high quality work after such a long time while many early net.art pioneers vanished.

Currently, the German film director Andrea Reiter is working on a documentary film about MISSION ETERNITY. She and her team followed the etoy.CREW since 2005 to Berlin, Zurich, San Jose and Nevada. The HUGO film production will be released in 2007.

[edit] Toywar

Toywar was a legal battle between the Internet toy retailer eToys and etoy for the domain name etoy.com. eToys sued etoy for having a similar domain name to their own etoys.com. They accused etoy of unfair competition, trademark dilution and terrorist activity among other things, eventually getting an injunction temporarily shutting down the etoy website. After several weeks eToys dropped the lawsuit and the etoy website returned to operation[1].

It has been called "the most expensive performance in art history"[2], citing eToys' market capitalization loss of $4.5 billion dollars during the conflict. However most analysts denied^{[citation needed]} that this had been caused by the efforts of etoy and its supporters alone. The story is one of the subjects of the documentary film, info wars.

The fight was led by Internet activists including RTMark.

A book about the story of the etoy corporation, Leaving reality behind, by Regula Bochsler and Adam Wishart was released 2002. It covers the battle of etoy vs. eToys Inc. and whether the Internet was for the profit of the few or the pleasure of the many. The Financial Times described it as, "an important story and as absorbing as a well-crafted thriller."[3] UK (ISBN 1-84115-594-2) and US (ISBN 1-04-429254-4) editions are available. Comment from etoy: etoy does not like the book as it simplifies the story in order to make it easier to read. Many rumors are sold as "facts" and names/places are mixed up. The story is certainly good for promotion but not a very smart book that explains "how it really was."

[edit] etoy.AGENTS

etoy.AGENTS (members of the group) are interchangeable and currently include:

etoy.ZAI — CEO since 1994
etoy.MONOROM — CTO since 1998
etoy.SILVAN — R & D SOFTWARE since 2003
etoy.VINCENT — CHEMISTRY & CODE since 2003
etoy.HAEFLIGER — INVESTOR RELATIONS since 2003
etoy.GRAMAZIO — PRESIDENT since 1994
etoy.KUBLI — LEGAL AFFIARS since 1994
etoy.BALMER — CFO since 2006
etoy.MIR — etoy.TANK-PLANT architect since 1999
etoy.MARCOS — etoy.ART-COLLECTION since 2002
etoy.STAMBERGER — logistics, food & beverage since 2000
etoy.ISA — M∞ SOUNDS since 2006
etoy.REID — M∞ VOICE since 2006
etoy.ROVERO — industrial design since 2005
etoy.SCOTT-DE-MARTINVILLE — industrial design since 2005
etoy.NEWTRON — system operator etoy.com since 1999
etoy.ROCKET — ground control, food & beverage since 2002
etoy.MARLAND — USA press speaker since 2006
etoy.MAX — press archive since 2005
etoy.TINU — SWISS handy man since 2006
etoy.MATHIS — grip since 2003
etoy.POL — etoy.POSTMASTER since 2005
etoy.ROCK — special effects & social engineering since 2003

etoy.FOUNDING-MEMBERS who left the group in early years include etoy.ESPOSTO/CARL, etoy.GOLDSTEIN, etoy.BRAINHARD/HANS and etoy.UDATNY. They don't belong to the group anymore since 1998.