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For Immediate Release: Mail a Virus Project Shut Down by Datagram!
May 27, 2005
On May 19th Los Angeles artist xtine launched Mail A
Virus as
part of Eyebeam's arts and media Internet showdown, "Contagious Media" (May
19th - June 9th, 2005). Created out of nostalgia for computer viruses
now considered "retro" and incorporating email as the apt transmitter
(in this case, of art), Mail A Virus allows viewers to
browse postcards which depict now dated viral memorabilia, like the pervasive Love and
Melissa email viruses. Although the Mail A Virus site
itself is benign, it does test the level of technological hypochondria
in a computer-age society. To the surprise of Eyebeam, artist xtine
and collaborating programmer Vasna Sdoeung, the project was shut down
by ISP Datagram within 72 hours of the project's broadcast due to a "violation" of
the terms of service.
The rules of entry for "Contagious Media" stipulated
that each web submission be a new work, live, and hosted on the official
Contagious Media Server, in compliance with the service provider's
terms of use, with no adds , bots ,
scams or paid works permissible. A portion of Datagram's official
response to queries regarding the said "violation" reads:
"It's not really a question of our opinion of
the site or how or what it is doing, it comes right down to the fact
that these IP addresses can and have already begun to be black listed
because someone may think you are sending viruses - even if you are not
actually doing anything bad, you are setting off way too many alarm bells.
Ironically, this was probably your goal - but unfortunately we can not
have it coming from our net-space. The world is just way too paranoid
about viruses right now..."
If a simulation of a computer virus produces the same results
as an actual violation, how can we be sure that a simulation of other
violations might not set off similar "alarms?" In such cases,
improper punishment or penalties may ensue, all within a free and democratic society.
The removal of the Mail A Virus project from the Contagious
Media server is yet another example of censorship within the arts community
and a result of the paranoid emotional landscape of a post-9/11 America.
To view and participate in Mail A Virus , you
can visit www.mailavirus.net - that is, unless the site is removed.
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