Leaving Reality Behind: Inside the battles for the soul of the internet - Hardcover

Wishart, Adam; Bochsler, Regula

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1841155934 ISBN 13: 9781841155937

Publisher: Fourth Estate, 2002

Synopsis

‘The New New Thing’ meets ‘No Logo’ in the gripping narrative of Truth, Justice and the Speedy Delivery of Toys

In November 1999, at the height of the e-commerce gold rush, an extraordinary hearing took place in a Los Angeles courtroom. On one side, the billion-dollar darling of Wall Street, eToys.com, the brain child of Toby Lenk, one of the hottest entrepreneurs of his generation. On the other side, etoy.com, a group of cutting-edge European artists, hungry for fame, who used the Internet as their canvas. The conflict became known as the Toywar.
Etoys.com accused eToy.com of virtual piracy and demanded that they be shut down. American Big Business was being jeopardised by a European, home-spun web group. The outcry amongst the Internet community was unprecedented. The ensuing battle sharply focused attention on the conflict at the very heart of the Internet: was it for the joy of the many or the exponential profit of the few? Was cyberspace a revolutionary public space or was the new frontier an extension of the shopping mall?
Through the story for the Toywar, Adam Wishart and Regula Bochsler weave the history of the seven years that changed the world forever. ‘Leaving Reality Behind’ is the real life thriller about the virtual struggle between commerce and liberty.
In 2000, as the on-line world went into melt down, what would be more valuable and enduring, a ten billion dollar corporation created by the best American entrepreneurs or a chaotic art project by a group of anarchic European rebels?

About this title

Review:

"An apt summary of the hubristic fantasies of the e-commerce visionaries - tells an important story, and is as absorbing as a well-crafted thriller" -- Financial Times

From the Back Cover:

In November 1999, at the height of the e-commerce gold rush, an extraordinary hearing took place in a Los Angeles courtroom. On one side, the billion-dollar darling of Wall Street, eToys.com, the brain child of Toby Lenk, one of the hottest entrepreneurs of his generation. On the other side, etoy.com, a group of cutting-edge European artists, hungry for fame, who used the Internet as their canvas. The conflict became known as the Toywar.

Etoys.com accused eToy.com of virtual piracy and demanded that they be shut down. American Big Business was being jeopardised by a European, home-spun web group. The outcry amongst the Internet community was unprecedented. The ensuing battle sharply focused attention on the conflict at the very heart of the Internet: was it for the joy of the many or the exponential profit of the few? Was cyberspace a revolutionary public space or was the new frontier an extension of the shopping mall?

Through the story for the Toywar, Adam Wishart and Regula Bochsler weave the history of the seven years that changed the world forever. ‘Leaving Reality Behind’ is the real life thriller about the virtual struggle between commerce and liberty.
In 2000, as the on-line world went into melt down, what would be more valuable and enduring, a ten billion dollar corporation created by the best American entrepreneurs or a chaotic art project by a group of anarchic European rebels?

About this edition

• Publisher: Fourth Estate
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 1841155934
• ISBN 13: 9781841155937
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 368