As reported in today's New York Times, ISP Verio is threatening to pull the plug on the Thing, a free-speech-friendly ISP. The Thing hosts numerous Internet artists, including Artforum magazine and the P. S. 1 Contemporary Art Center in Long Island City, Queens. It also hosts Net artists and activists RTMark, whose critical parody of the Dow Chemical website apparently provoked Dow into contacting Verio with a demand that the site be shut down. For a time, Verio silenced not only RTMark, but the entire Thing network. Now it's threatening to terminate Thing.net's hosting and the Thing is appealing for donations to help its relocation.

In all this, no court has determined that there was a copyright or trademark infringement. It seems Verio doesn't require proof to make its judgment.