You can begin with good smart people and an unbound optimism and in no time at all, everything can disintegrate. Threats and blows can fly; men once tame and meek can bloody the faces of friend and stranger. It's pretty fucking cool. -- Mr. Bad
So, if you haven't heard already, there's a big hullabaloo about online toy
retailer Etoys.com. They are the undisputed Kings of SUCKASS! They took the crazy
Krafwerkian eurotrash art group etoy.com to court for having a name SIMILAR
to theirs. Let us punish them with ELECTRONIC FRONTIER JUSTICE!
I pointed out the similarity between their names earlier this
year. The shitty thing is that by all the previous standards, etoy.com
should be able to KEEP their name. They got on the Web in 1995, two years
before the toy company. They BRILLIANTLY decided to get a trademark on their
name. And, they've held onto the name through several InterNIC challenges.
But etoys.com are typical EBUSINESS SHITHEADS who will stop at nothing to
accumulate more USELESS REAL ESTATE for their stupid online toystore. People
like this are the reason the pages of "Upside" should be coated with contact
poison! I'm serious!
Because check this out: etoys.com went to a JUDGE and
said that the art group was abusing the etoy.com brand, and therefore was
hurting the ETOYS.COM brand. And the brain-dead judge bought it! GodDAMN!
What a fucking MORON! I wouldn't let that judge arbitrate my DRY CLEANING
BILL!
Anywho, that's the basics. Just remember: etoys.com is bad. etoy.com is
eurotrash Dieter bald guys, but basically OK. If you want more info, there's
lots of good
stories that go into this deal in a lot of detail, like:
Now, the important thing is this: what are WE, Bad People of the Future, going
to do about it? There's a lot of people that are writing complaining LETTERS
to the etoys.com execs, but I doubt those ultratan LA Lexus folks read their own
email. AND,
most of the letters that I've seen excerpts of say things like, "YOU ARE THE
MOST DUM!!1! STOP IT!!@!" which doesn't really serve to convince a CEO to
retract their lawsuit.
There's other folks who are calling for a BOYCOTT of etoys.com. Again,
that's a good idea in theory, but seriously: when you think about it, the
set {Eurotrash artist etoy.com supporters} and the set {AOL-using grandma
etoys.com customer} have a TEENY WEENY intersection. Etoys.com isn't going
to go out of business from lost sales to artists, Webzinesters, freedom
activists and hacker d00ds. It just isn't going to happen.
And, the thing is for an Internet company, who CARES how much sales you
have? It doesn't matter in the SLIGHTEST if a dot-com makes a SINGLE GODDAMN
DOLLAR or sells a SINGLE "Toy Story 2" collectible figurine! Dot-coms don't
care about money! They throw it away by the bucketload!
BUT, there IS one natural resource that's more precious than gold to a Web
exec, and that's PROGRAMMERS. Web developers, production engineers, software
gurus, system admins are REALLY FUCKING DIFFICULT to find and hire. This is
a GIGANTIC CRISIS for Web dickwads and "Upside" readers that they fret over a
lot. If they
don't have engineers, they can't put up dumb new features on their stupid Web
sites, and if they can't
put up dumb new features they can't get their stock to increase, and if
their stock doesn't increase they all go BROKE and HOMELESS and have to EAT
the BOILED LEATHER UPHOLSTERY of their LEXUS SUVs!! It's HORRIBLE!
So, the BEST THING that YOU can do to convince etoys.com to drop this stupid
lawsuit is to QUIT your SHITTY JOB THERE. Let's just assume that you work
at etoys.com for a second. First, if you've been there for more than 10
minutes, you can TOTALLY find another job with another Web company. It's
SPECTACULARLY EASY to find Web jobs right now. You will PROBABLY get a 25%
increase in salary if you jump to another company. I don't know why! But
that's the way it works! It's really fucking great.
If you quit your job at etoys.com, I, Mr. Bad, will personally
help you find a job. There are BUNCHES of people like me out here who want
you to quit and will get you a good gig somewhere else. DO it, d00d!
Second, it's a chance to show that FUCKER Bob in Marketing that he can't push
tech guys around any more! All those ASSHOLES and SUITS and FAKE
MOTHERFUCKERS who wear polo shirts and act all EFFICIENT and GUNG HO to your
face, but then turn around and CHEAT you on your stock options and DOPE SLAP
the Web community that made you and them what you are -- man, FUCK THEM!
Fuck ALL of them! Fuck them over HARD! Quit your job, let all their dumb
retail ecommerce gar gar gar blaggity-blah programs go CRASHING to the
GROUND because you're not there to fix them. It's EASY. You'll have a BETTER
JOB within a WEEK. HAR!
Third, this is probably your ONLY CHANCE to ever quit a company because of
something you believe in. It's your time to WALK PROUD,
programmer-guy-or-gal! In a grand tradition of protest and freedom, you will
STRIDE with the GIANTS! This is your moment in the sun, the time you'll look
back on and say, "I stood up for something. I made a difference. And it was
really easy and painless!" Won't that be GREAT!? Won't you be just the KING
of your local geek crew!? Your grandchildren will admire you! Slashdot will
PROFILE you. It's just the BEST.
Now, I know what you're saying: "I don't work for etoys.com." Well, fucking DUH.
Go tell a
friend who DOES work there! OR, go to the Jobs@eToys Web page
and APPLY for a job, THEN, when they tell you to come in for an interview,
tell them to go fuck themselves with an ARMY BOOT! Do something TODAY, because
we have to tell
etoys.com and all the other INTERNET ENTREPRENEUR BASTARDOS that they can't
build an
economy based on computer geeks and then BETRAY every principle that those geeks
hold
dear. It just CAN'T HAPPEN. We can't let them DO IT! Use the leverage you
have as a Web genius and DO SOMETHING NOW!
[Also: if anyone knows the real name of the asshole in Marketing -- and I know
there is one -- send it to me so I can add it to this story, eh?]
