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Pastimes : Business Wire Falls for April Fools Prank, Sues FBNers -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: zonkie who wrote (2694)	5/26/1999 2:49:00 PM
From: zonkie	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 3795

freedomforum.org SAN FRANCISCO — The Business Wire news service has sued three pranksters who posted a phony announcement of a new online investment opportunity that attracted almost 2,000 inquiries. The release said a company named WebNode had won a government contract to raise $4 billion to build a faster Internet by selling "nodes" or pieces of the new Internet to the general public. Business Wire distributed the release to San Francisco Bay area news organizations and investors April 1 and also posted it on its Web site. It retracted the release after getting calls from people who could not get through to WebNode by phone. However, almost 2,000 people went to the site attempting to buy nodes. Jeffrey Mitchell, one of the defendants, said the stunt was an April Fools' Day hoax designed to illustrate the danger of online fraud. The pranksters paid Business Wire $260 to distribute the release. The lawsuit, filed in San Francisco federal court April 26 against Mitchell, William Ulrich and Janice Shell, alleges violations of federal and state trademark laws, fraud, breach of contract, defamation and conspiracy. It seeks unspecified damages and injunctive relief. ________ z.........