mostruosit à - horrible!

Mon Feb 12 13:06:14 UTC 2001

This clears up one mystery for me (namely, why so many of the angry
messages on the bonsaikitten.com maildrop are in Italian).

Those of you confused by this message (which, like mine, is of course
wholly inappropriate for this list) should read this Wired article:
"http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,41733,00.html" (of which a
copy is appended).

Saluti pederasti,
Rohan.

   FBI Goes After Bonsaikitten.com
   by Declan McCullagh

   10:10 a.m. Feb. 9, 2001 PST
   WASHINGTON -- A website devoted to squishing kittens into Mason jars
   is one of two things: A trenchant parody designed to provoke, or a
   nefarious kitty-mutilation scheme that must be stopped, and probably
   outlawed.

   Count the FBI among the many visitors to bonsaikitten.com who are
   anything but amused at the descriptions of how to use muscle relaxant,
   feeding tubes and Klein bottles to shape a perfect Bonsai Cat.
   FBI agents in the Boston field office have launched an investigation
   into the site. They also have served MIT with a grand jury subpoena
   asking for "any and all subscriber information" about the site, which
   was initially hosted in a campus dormitory but has since moved to a
   commercial provider.

   MIT said in a letter to bonsaikitten.com's pseudonymous webmaster, a
   graduate student using the alias Dr. Michael Wong Chang, that it will
   wait until Sunday to turn over records that would identify him by
   name.

   "I was surprised," Chang said. "I really thought that the FBI had
   better things to do. That's your tax dollars at work."

   Bonsaikitten.com is, of course, a joke devised by prankster MIT
   students -- who else would talk about "rectilinear kittens?" -- to
   provoke owners of kittens, an adorably fuzzy topic that's usually
   beyond parody.

   Bonsaikitten.com offers to sell visitors a custom-shaped kitten -- the
   site says "typical wait time for a fully shaped Bonsai Kitten is 3 to
   4 months" -- but the site does not list prices or a mailing address
   for where to send money orders. It does, however, occasionally receive
   requests for more information.

   It also has sparked tens of thousands of hate-mail messages,
   anti-Bonsai Kitten groups on Yahoo, and even a blistering denunciation
   from the venerable Humane Society of the United States.

   For the site's fans, watching e-mail nastygrams arrive has become a
   kind of spectator sport: There's even a mailing list that lets
   bonsaikitten.com aficionados view any mail sent to the site's
   webmaster. A typical message: "This site is horrible! You should go in
   a mental hospital! You son of a bitch! I'll do my best to shut down
   this site and your disgusting hobby!"

   A gun-toting investigator from the Massachusetts Society for the
   Prevention of Cruelty to Animals reportedly stopped by campus and
   quizzed MIT network administrators about the intent of the site. Under
   state law, MSPCA investigators are deputized as "special state police
   officers" with investigation and arrest abilities.

   The combined efforts of animal rights proponents, including such
   ardent activists as the closed-subscription "meowmies" group, seem to
   have prompted the FBI to launch its investigation.

   "Why are they doing this?" asks Harvey Silverglate, a prominent Boston
   criminal defense attorney. "I think the answer is that political
   correctness has infected the FBI."

   "The kind of fanatical end of the spectrum animal protection movement
   has affected them," says Silverglate, a partner at Silverglate and
   Good. "They want to be the good guys. They massively run rampant over
   Americans' liberties but they want to be seen as nice fuzzy guys who
   want to protect kittens."

   Silverglate predicts that when the FBI realizes bonsaikitten.com is
   not serious, the bureau will quietly abandon its investigation.

   Ellen Kearns, an FBI agent in the bureau's Lakeville, Massachusetts
   office who is involved in the investigation, could not be reached for
   comment.

   Nadine Pellegrini, the assistant U.S. Attorney who signed the
   subpoena, refused to discuss the investigation. "I'm making no
   comment," Pellegrini said.

   The subpoena does not discuss what law the bonsaikitten.com operators
   allegedly violated. But Pellegrini hinted that it was based on a
   relatively recent federal statute: "I would assume there's a case, if
   there's a law, but I'm not making any comment."

   In December 1999, President Clinton signed a law that makes it a
   federal felony to possess "a depiction of animal cruelty" with the
   intent to distribute across state lines -- such as on the Internet.
   During a floor debate, Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Calif.) claimed that
   "sick criminals are taking advantage of the loopholes in the local law
   and the lack of federal law on animal cruelty videos."

   The law, which observers at the time said probably violated the First
   Amendment, only applies to images, videos, and sound recordings that
   are distributed "for commercial gain" -- and bonsaikitten.com's
   tongue-in-cheek descriptions of mail-order cats in bottles appears to
   have given the FBI sufficient justification for an investigation.

   The national Humane Society, based in Washington, applauded the FBI's
   efforts.

   "If the FBI is looking into this, that's great," said spokeswoman
   Karen Allanach. "Anything to discourage animal cruelty would be very
   helpful.

   Allanach said she's not sure if the site is a parody -- and even if it
   isn't, it should be taken offline because it could encourage people to
   experiment on their own household pets.

   "It's totally promoting animal cruelty," Allanach said. "They consider
   it a sick joke. People will take it seriously. Animal cruelty is not
   funny. Animal torture is not funny. We would like bonsaikitten.com to
   be removed permanently."

   When asked whether someone has the First Amendment right to advocate
   for animal cruelty, Allanach replied: "That's a great question. That's
   at the heart of a lot of debate."

   Jered Floyd, a recent MIT graduate, says animal rights activists --
   who have successfully pressured hosting services to ban
   bonsaikitten.com until rotten.com offered it server space -- don't
   have a sense of humor.

   "The First Amendment protects all speech, no matter how offensive some
   people may find it," Floyd says. "The site is clearly a humorous
   endeavor. The fact that a number of people seem to have very little
   sense of humor isn't relevant."

   A letter dated Feb. 1 from MIT lawyer Jeff Swope says that federal law
   requires the university to notify students when it receives subpoenas
   for information about them. It says that "pursuant to that legal
   process, MIT will produce such information, no earlier than Feb. 11,
   2001."