The least necessary disclaimer of all time

Reading Patricia Marx's entertaining New Yorker article about buying eyeglasses (Four Eyes, March 29, 2010), I learned that a blob-like Italian conglomerate called Luxottica has bought up much of the American eyewear industry, both manufacturers (Ray-Ban, Persol, Oakley) and retailers (LensCrafters, Pearl Vision, Sunglass Hut, Target Optical, Sears Optical).

Luxottica also creates and distributes frames for many leading fashion houses (Chanel, Ralph Lauren, Prada, Oliver Peoples, Tiffany, Versace, Club Monaco, Anne Klein).

That's a whole lot of influence in the hands of one company, which might start to explain why you and I pay hundreds of dollars for a small piece of plastic with two smaller pieces of plastic in it.

At least that is what the proprietor of suxottica.com would have you believe. It's the brainchild of a New York eyewear professional with very strong negative feelings about Luxottica, as you might infer from the following details:

• The front headline reads "SUXOTTICA: exposing a soul-crushing, wallet-grabbing giant"
• The main page sections include "How LUXOTTICA Hurts Us" and "Three Easy Ways to Beat Them While Our Government Sleeps"
• The tagline on its web window reads "SUXOTTICA | Stop opening your wallet for Luxottica"
• Readers are invited to submit their email addresses to "stay on top of Luxottica's activities" 
• Did I mention the site is called Suxottica?
• In case you didn't get the message yet, there is also a post on the site (awesomely) entitled "Luxottica Suxotticas"

Despite all of the above, the following disclaimer appears in small type:  

"Legal: This site is in no way connected with 

Luxottica Group S.p.A. or any affiliate thereof."

You don't say.