---
F R E N D Z of martian
---
A note from kip:
Where the Y2K video came from...
============================================================
From Wired News, available online at:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,32746,00.html
Y2K Spoof Flick Goes Awry
by Craig Bicknell
11:00 a.m. 24.Nov.1999 PST
Mike Zieper wanted to tap into current passions with his video art. To
do it, he made a grainy, gray tape in which a faceless narrator
prepares his soldiers to unleash a government-sponsored riot in Times
Square at midnight 2000.
The plan: to create chaos so federal troops have an excuse to move in.
Read ongoing Y2K coverage
Weird thing was, after Zieper posted the video clip on his Web site,
the troops did move in.
"This FBI agent called," said Zieper. "He said, 'There are a lot of
people planning to vacation in New York this year, a lot of them are
coming to your site and they're getting scared. I want to talk to you
about how we can stop people from coming to this site.'"
Zieper called a lawyer and didn't pull the site. So both the FBI and
the US Attorney's Office went upstream to Zieper's Web hosting
company, BECamation in Michigan, and asked that Zieper's site be
pulled. There was no threat of legal action, but BECamation president
Mark Wieger complied.
"We didn't want to take any chances with our business, so we pulled it
down," Wieger said.
In doing so, Wieger pulled a lever that let loose a virtual riot among
free-speech advocates. After the Village Voice published a piece about
the incident, online message boards erupted in protest. Now the
American Civil Liberties Union is considering a lawsuit on Zieper's
behalf.
"We think, certainly, that it's very improper for the FBI to be
harassing an Internet hosting company to take down content that may be
disturbing, but is certainly protected by the First Amendment," said
ACLU staff attorney Ann Beeson.
The FBI did not respond to a request for comment.
Meanwhile, the video itself has been copied and posted on numerous
mirror sites.
It's a hit beyond anything Zieper could have anticipated. Reality has
woven a fresh, relevant, scene into the video's fiction and given it a
nice buzz. A grand slam for a struggling artist.
"If this gets people to look at all this stuff seriously, that's
fantastic. That's exactly what I wanted to do," Zieper said.
That doesn't mean he's not upset, particularly on behalf of Mark
Wieger, who's been besieged by vicious flame emails decrying his
decision to pull Zieper's site.
"They're saying, 'Why didn't you stand up for the Constitution?'"
Zieper said. "I think that's very easy to say from afar, but when the
knock comes for you it's a terrifying experience. They tried to infer
that he best get out of the way."
That has Zieper wondering what else the FBI is up to. "I hope this is
just an aberration," he said. "I hope that they review the
constitution back at the FBI and don't try to do anything like this
again."
Related Wired Links:
A True Y2K Disaster: the Movie
20.Nov.1999
ACLU to Spy on Echelon
17.Nov.1999
Usenet Ban a Slippery Slope?
16.Nov.1999
The Fed's Deadbeat Database
9.Nov.1999
COPA Goes Before the Bench
4.Nov.1999
'Don't Help the Snoops'
25.Oct.1999
Copyright 1994-99 Wired Digital Inc. All rights reserved.
--
Sent to you via the frendz list at marsbard.com
The archive is at http://www.mail-archive.com/frendz@marsbard.com/
