Jan. 28, 2002

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Press Release and Annual Report

NEW PROJECTS COMBAT CRIMINALIZATION OF DISSENT

In response to The World Economic Forum Meeting at the Waldorf Astoria

Hotel in New York City (January 30 to February 3), RTMark investors

have sponsored several new projects to fight the corporate takeover of

public space and expression:

* The "reaming" of the WEF's website with automatic parody software

* "Ready-to-revolt" smart clothing

* Tear-gas tennis

* A virtual sit-in of the WEF's website

* Avoidance/destruction of surveillance cameras

* Street-writing bicycles

*****************************************

The World Economic Forum Gets Reamed

The Yes Men have released version 2.0 of Reamweaver, their automatic

website-parody software, and have set it loose on the World Economic

Forum website. "We think http://world-economic-forum.com is more

forthright about the WEF's goals than their real site is," said Andy

Bichlbaum of the Yes Men.

The free, open-source software (http://reamweaver.com) was first

released when the World Trade Organization tried to shut down Gatt.org

in November. "The WTO tried to capitalize on the post-9/11 climate by

attacking any kind of dissent," said Cue P. Doll, one of the

Reamweaver coders. "By automating the parody process, this software

scales web dissent from a small group to a global network, ensuring

the WTO's kind of tactics will never work."

******************************************

The World Economic Forum Gets Sat Upon

The Electronic Disturbance Theater is releasing a virtual sit-in

(denial-of-service) tool specially tailored for the World Economic

Forum website. Users are invited to join the cyber-protest at

http://www.thing.net/~rdom/ecd/fools.html.

*******************************************

New Ways to Avoid or Destroy Video Surveillance

Two new projects help citizens regain some of their privacy by helping

them to avoid surveillance or destroy it. The Institute for Applied

Autonomy's iSee (http://www.appliedautonomy.com/isee/) is an

interactive map that shows walkers the path of least surveillance

between any two points in Manhattan. And for those who want to take

the direct route, an anonymous group explains how to disable

inappropriate cameras (http://rtmark.com/cctv/).

*******************************************

Bikes Paint Messages As You Ride (Project BIKE)

An anonymous investment of $500 has allowed the distribution of a

tool that turns any bicycle into a street-writing device. Bradley

Pitts (mailto:bmpitts9@hotmail.com), a spokesperson for the group

that created the tool, calls it "an efficient way to get a message

out on the street... over and over and over again."

(http://architecture.mit.edu/~atmarcus/bikewriter/writer.html)

********************************************