Own the Part of Internet Hoax

In 1999 a press release was issued over Business Wire announcing the creation of a new company called Webnode. This company, according to the release, had been granted a government contract to regulate ownership of ’nodes’ on the ’Next Generation Internet.’ Each of these nodes (there were said to be over 50 million of them) represented a route that data could travel. The company was licensed to sell each node for $100. Nodes would increase in value depending on how much traffic they routed, and owners would also receive usage fees based on the amount of data that flowed across their section of the internet. Therefore, bidding for the nodes was expected to become quite intense.
Offers to buy shares in Webnode soon began pouring in, but they all had to be turned down since the company was just a prank. There really was a Next Generation Internet, but there were no nodes on it. And there the saga would have quietly ended — but for one detail: Business Wire was none too happy. Since 1961, the company has been disseminating company press releases to news organizations. The perpetrators of the Webnode hoax had filled in the application, sent in the press release, paid for it and had it sent out on the Business Wire network. They also posted the release at the Webnode site. The pranksters paid Business Wire $260 to distribute the release.
After receiving a phone call warning of the hoax, Business Wire contacted the creators of Webnode. "We asked them to delete the press release and they refused," says Cathy Baron Tamraz, a senior vice-president at Business Wire.
Jeffrey Mitchell, one of the creators of Webnode, says they didn’t refuse, but that it took them a few hours to get around to pulling down the press release. Instead of taking it down altogether, however, Mitchell and his cohorts decided to change the "Business Wire" header to "Bidness Wire." Business Wire didn’t find the prank amusing and filed suit against its perpetrators for fraud, breach of contract, defamation, and conspiracy.
Additional Reading:
http://www.museumofhoaxes.com/hoax/aprilfool/P20/
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/1999/04/28/BU6912.DTL&type=printable
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/1999/05/05/stock_hoax/index.html