On March 28, Hampton Hampster wrote to jeanne:

Hampton is sad to inform all of our fans that one of our hamsterdance pages has been removed by the web host provider Tilted Media. It has been replaced by a page that has absolutely nothing to do with Hamsterdance. Inner Child Productions Inc. and Hampton have not approved Nuttysites occupying our page in an attempt to promote themselves.

We ask that you officially "boycott" Nutty-sites and all of it's content. If you wish to send an email of protest you can contact Tilted Media at gav@tilted.com

Also please tell your friends to update their bookmarks to http://www.hampsterdance2.com.

If you have a web site that links to us please update the link or if you come across a web site that is still using this old address please take a minute to write to someone at that site and let them know our new address is http://www.hampsterdance2.com.

Hampton and the gang love all their fans and thank you for your support.

Thanks

Hampton Hampster

On Monday morning, March 28, jeanne immediately linked to Hampton's site with the link given above in the e-mail: http://www.hampsterdance2.com

There she was greeted by this link: ORIGINAL HAMPSTERDANCE PAGE TAKEN DOWN! HAMPTON VERY UPSET! (She knew it was a link by the underline!) This link took her to hampstertears.html. DO SLOW DOWN JUST A BIT AND NOTICE HAMPTON'S TEARS!

Having shared Hampton's tears, she linked immediately on http://www.hampsterdance.com/. And there, sure enough, was the perpetrator: NuttySites.com!

jeanne immediately linked onto Tilted Media at gav@tilted.com to protest:

I find your unconsented taking of the Hampster site unethical, structurally violent, and abhorrent. If the Web is meant to remain self-regulating, this kind of piracy is going to be a major problem. Stop being part of the problem.

Jeanne Curran, Ph.D., Esq. (The esquire means Member of the California Bar.)

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Here is some of what jeanne found at http://www.hampsterdance.com/:

Attention Hamster Fans!
The Hamsters are on a little vacation until next week.
In the mean time, enjoy some of our other sites! =)

Our Mission

Some of the most entertaining sites on the net are not created by big companies trying to sell you their products. Most are made by folks like you and me! Because these sites don't have any serious marketing behind them, they often don't draw the crowds they deserve. Furthermore, the "creme of the crop" sites have always been scattered throughout cyberspace, making them difficult to locate. To make matters worse, there was no way to tell the nutty sites apart from the boring sites without visiting each one. This site was created to break down these barriers. It exists to provide a comprehensive collection of the best "nutty" sites on the net. We are dedicated to the promotion and awareness of entertaining, clever, funny, and plain old nutty sites! Please help us get the word out by telling your friends about our site.

Visit Our Nutty Sponsors

Yes, these are the folks that keep NuttySites.com online! If you see an ad that catches your eye, go ahead and visit!

jeanne's comments:

A vacation! You remove someone's site, without consent, and you say they're on a vacation! Then you present, in their URL, not your own URL, your competing site, copied from theirs, complete to the advertising banner layout! Some vacation!

Neither Hampton nor Aggressor Nutty-Site said whether Hampton had any advance notice that this was to happen, or when it happened, or how this confrontation over electronic space took place.

"Big companies trying to sell you their products." That's a capitalist tradition, folks, and interference with same is illegal. How big is Hampton? Inner Child Productions doesn't sound like Mattel to me! Maybe students would like to look for corporate reports. Also, NuttySites might like then to explain: "Yes, these are the folks that keep NuttySites.com online! If you see an ad that catches your eye, go ahead and visit!"

"Serious marketing," "crowds they deserve." If serious marketing matters, why didn't Nutty Sites break into Mattel's URL? And who gets to determine the "deserve" here? When I first visited Hampton, there was no advertising. That came after the "deserve" issue had been settled by user response. "Best nutty sites on the net" According to whom?

How was this take over of an URL accomplished? As near as we can tell from the sites I had time to put up this morning, by code, and by knowing or finding someone who could provide access, through code, to Hampton's URL. Consider this incident in light of Lessig's Code. Does code represent more frightening control with this incident to illustrate it? Consider the social context with which we are dealing.

On March 30, Deidre LaCarte wrote to jeanne:

Jeanne;

Thank you so much for your support, I went to your site and viewed what you had put up. Inner Child Productions Inc. is not a big company. We are two college students at Malaspina University/College in Nanaimo BC, Canada. We are Art Students. One in Fine Arts , one in Graphic Arts. We formed a company because of all the wheeler dealers out there who have no ethics.

I created The Hampster Dance for my inner child, not for others to use and abuse. I did not and do not want violence or adult content associated with the site. We have enough of that in the world and MY inner child does not like it.

Just dance everyone, just Hampster Dance!

Thank you again for your support.
Hampton Hampster's Human
Deidre LaCarte

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