# Etoy

Etoy is a European digital art group formed in 1994. It has won several international awards including the Prix Ars Electronica in 1996. Their main slogan is: "leaving reality behind."
Etoy has routinely experimented with the boundaries of art, such as selling shares of "stock" in the etoy.corporation, a registered company in Switzerland and travelling the world as well as living in "etoy.tanks" (cargo containers).

## History

etoy was founded in 1994 by Gino Esposto (etoy.ESPOSTO/CARL), Michel Zai (etoy.ZAI), Daniel Udatny (etoy.UDATNY), Martin Kubli (etoy.KUBLI), Marky Goldstein (etoy.GOLDSTEIN), Fabio Gramazio (etoy.GRAMAZIO) and Hans Bernhard (etoy.BRAINHARD/HANS).
The group first used the name "etoy" in 1994, for performances at raves and techno music events. The group's members, based in various European countries, were referred to as "agents".
etoy reached worldwide fame in 1996 with the digital hijack. In the same year, etoy won the Prix Ars Electronica. The group's work includes numerous digital performances.
Following internal conflicts, only Gramazio, Zai and Kubli were left of the founding members in 1998 after several resignations. New agents supported etoy in 1999/2000 in the battle against the online toy retailer eToys for the internet domain “etoy.com” and American trademark rights, which became known as toywar.
Since 2005, etoy.CORPORATION has been working on Mission Eternity.
In 2007, German and Swiss director Andrea Reiter realised a documentary (produced by Hugofilm) about etoy's "Mission Eternity" project, a "digital cult of the dead". This art project dealt with topics such as death and immortalization. She and her team followed the etoy.CREW and their Mission Eternity sarcophagus to Berlin, Zurich, San Jose and Nevada. The Hugofilm production was released in early 2008.
As of 2015, a history overview on the group's website describes it as entering "hibernation mode" in 2013.
Over one hundred etoy shares are owned by art collectors, museums and others. Each certificate documents an (ownership) share in the overall work and at the same time visually represents an important moment in the company or art history.

## Toywar

The toywar was a legal battle around 1999/2000 between the Internet toy retailer eToys.com and etoy about the domain name etoy.com. Fearing brand dilution and customer confusion about the similar domain names, eToys sued etoy for trademark infringement, and asked etoy to remove graphic images and profane language from their website that were bringing customer complaints. The artists refused to comply, and eToys eventually obtained a preliminary injunction against etoy which shut down their website. etoy fought back with a coordinated public relations campaign and Internet-based denial of service attacks on eToys.com. After several weeks eToys dropped the lawsuit and the etoy website returned to operation.
etoy activists have called it "the most expensive performance in art history". The story is one of the subjects of the documentary film, info wars.
An email campaign was led by Internet activists including etoy agents developing the toywar website.
A book about the story of the etoy corporation, Leaving reality behind, by Regula Bochsler and Adam Wishart was released in 2002.