Do what businesses traditionally do when faced with this sort of thing:

Slightly change it, by adding a freckle to the figure's face or something; then rename it (I suggest something like "Zark Muckerberg, - billionaire superhero/supervillan extreme," then use the controversy for marketing..... "MARKeting," get it? {rimshot}!

"Plenty of people" do it is the WORST justification ever.

Plenty of people do all kinds of stupid shit. Look at our political leaders. Plenty of people like that show "2 and a half men," Plenty of people smoke crack daily.

This guy should get back to drawing Dilbert.

I hate to jump right to litigiousness, but it seems like the only thing a company like this will respect...

Sure, they may listen to the users if there is a big enough outcry and it starts to affect their sales - but how long would that take?

Totally agree - what does this guy think that everything is flowers and puppies and then one day all at once the fascism starts?

No, it happpens incrementally, just as it is happening here, just as it happened in the Weimar Republic transition to fascist Germany, just as it happened in Italy and Spain, (though in addition to economic crisises there was post war faction/partisan street violence at times which helped stoke a lot of public fear and a desire for strength and stability in government) - now days we have the ever present "terrorism," fear mongering, economic crisises, war, government corruption etc - we are still headed down the same path.

Hitler made gradual changes early on, and there were a lot of people worried and criticizing him, explaining where the country was headed. They were derided by national socialist press and others as being alarmist - guess where they ended up shortly there after? Among the first to be put in camps. As is oft quoted, Everything Hitler did was legal - he made it that way.

I wonder how many of those who reported this obtained and/or installed pirated software. I am guessing that a lot of the time when businesses are reported, it is revenge motivated.

Even if the person reporting the piracy wasn't the one who actually pirated the software, I hardly find reporting businesses to the BSA to be admirable behavior.

There are valid reasons not to want to get vaccinated, and people have the right to decide for themselves and their children. Am I saying it's the right decision not to vaccinate yourself or kids? No, not generally - but there are times where it may be, and people need to make that decision for themselves.

Vaccines have also been used to spread disease. Is it common - I doubt it, but it has been done and who knows.

Corporations lie, they do things to make money, not to save lives. They skimp on safety, they falsify data (the antivax people aren't the only ones), some of the vaccines given to soldiers may be the cause of or play a part in Gulf War sickness.

If people don't want to vaccinate, then leave them the fuck alone - this talk of laws and forcing people is ridiculous.

I agree - that was extremely sad..

It's not like that situation happened all at once, bad decisions aren't the excluive domain of morons. In survival situations most of the time it's small trivial decisions that then exponentially compound each other down the line that get you into very dangerous situations.

This could be a trial balloon to see what the public response is.

You know, get the headline without actually censoring their regular results, see what happens. I hope that any public outcry/criticism reminds them of their old corporate tagline "don't be evil," and reinforces that censorship is ridiculous and wrong, and that it could hurt their reputation, especially among the sort of people who are active on slashdot (geeks/IT workers/generally above average intelligence).

It's not a matter of whether you support piracy (and of course, all of these technologies have other, what society would consider "legitiate" uses as well) - it's that censorship is unacceptable, especially from such a dominant and important tool.

There's more to a job than salary.

I am Director of Information Technology for a small biotech start up; I have had the job for 7 years. I get paid approximately half what most people in this position make and have only had a raise once - but I live above the office and have no commute - they buy me lunch every day, and I can come and go as I please, with no asshole boss watching my back and can pick my days off.

So - most people in this position with my experience are making $130k - $180k annually.

Could I get one of those jobs? Probably, but then I'd have to commute and would have to put up with all that corporate shit.

While I believe that Wikileaks is likely some form of an intel operation/possible manipulation in and of itself to some degree, I still support the concept behind Wikileaks.

Unfortunately I think that this statement by his lawyers may be correct. It's sad, but America is no longer the beacon of hope and freedom for the world that it once was - it's a bloated, corrupted, fading superpower. In a way we're the world's largest banana republic. It makes me very sad, because I love my country - but loving your country doesn't mean shying away from criticizing the government or exposing it's misdeeds - in fact, it means the opposite. This nation was supposedly founded on dissent and the rights of man, and to hear those in power try spin the law (including the Constitution) to suit their twisted needs is sickening.

WIth an analysis that insightful in it's ability to see through a false, consensus reality, allow me to introduce you to the American political system!

"The justice system is not a joke."

Maybe you haven't had much firsthand experience with it, because I can assure you, it most certainly IS a joke.

The system does not work how we learned it is supposed to work in school, nor does it work the way you see on TV.

I went through a year long legal process over custody of my child, and I had seen friends and family have to deal with various aspects of the system. It's completely ridiculous, unfair, and not at all what the law specifies it is supposed to be.

I agree; entirely.

I agree. The UK seems to almost be at that point

No, actually it doesn't exist, according to many researchers, according to the BBC not in the way you're referring to - though certainly there are plenty of people who say that it does.

This is not the only source by far, but it gets to the point (BBC documentary):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mztfFdpd1Rk

My understanding is that the word means "the base," and according to some the true meaning of that term comes from a database of foreign fighters (EG mujahadeen) that the CIA used and trained in the proxy war against the soviets in Afghaistan in the 80s - some of whom later became the Taliban.