The Cleansing of the Internet: 0100101110101101.ORG loses "vaticano.org"
For a whole year "vaticano.org" was one of the (un)official organs of information of the Holy See. A huge site, aesthetically identical to the "real" one but with slightly modified contents, it was the result of a collaboration between 0100101110101101.ORG and Luther Blissett. The detournement of the holy texts involved tens of Blissett from the whole country, who were about to add German, Spanish and English language sections to the main, Italian one. For twelve months thousands of people visited "vaticano.org", and nobody realised that the contents of the site had been "retouched." There were dozens of texts, in which one could find everything: "heretical" proclamations, invented words, unpardonable errors and songs by 883 [an Italian teeny-bopper band], put into perfectly plausible contexts. From the site it was possible to address letters directly to the Pope. Strange instructions "hijacked" pilgrims into the most remote places. All in all, it was a "Free Spirit Jubilee."
At the expiring of the first year of contract, Network Solutions (the company that sells Internet domain names) prevented 0100101110101101.ORG from renewing the contract of "vaticano.org", which had been regularly bought. Network Solutions refused all the attempts of payment and, immediately upon the expiring of the contract, sold the domain name to a Catholic association in Rome.
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At the moment the domain hosts a site under construction that will contain material about the Jubilee. This case of repression is not definitely the first on the Net. For some time many corporations have been trying to preserve their names' "respectability" by taking legal action (e.g. the case "etoys vs etoy"). For the first time, we are witnessing an operation of "cleansing" of the Net, through the monopoly of domain name administration. This is the highest, and perhaps the only, form of centralised control on the Internet. More money means better lawyers, and better lawyers own "truth". As to the horizontality of the Net and freedom of expression, fuck it.
The Vatican owns almost all similar domains (vatican.va, vatican.net, giubileo.va, etc.) and, the only one out of its monopoly was "vaticano.org," an island of free spirit in a sea of shit. Thanks to the indulgence of Network Solutions, the Holy See has laid its hands on "vaticano.org" as well. At the end of the day, "good people" always win.
Despite the loss of the domain name, the web site (unfortunately only in Italian), is still online at the url: www.0100101110101101.ORG/vaticano.org