Here is a quick follow-up on the Michael Crook case. As part of his settlement with 10 Zen Monkeys Crook was required to make a public apology for his misuse of the DMCA ... on video! Some of you may recall that Crook was the one who filed a take-down order against Cristiano Midnight because his image appeared on Snapzilla. The case lacked any merit whatsoever, but because of the flawed nature of the Safe Harbor rules, Cris was forced to comply by his ISP without any due process.

Since Crook's settlement, his image has been restored on Snapzilla and we are treated with the following video of Crooks rather defiant apology.

Michael Crook is the quintessential attention-seeker, hosting sites that deny the holocaust, disown the troops, and publicly expose private photos and e-mails from respondents of his bogus sex ads on Craigslist. Sadly, the troll profession is, in a word, viable. We see this in the Second Life community often in the form of people with little or no real skill launching themselves to fame simply by bashing others and making outrageous remarks. On the other hand, maybe "viable profession" isn't as apt a description as "circus freak-show act." Sure, people are flocking to see what you have to say, but does that really make you important?

(Thanks to David Cassel for bringing this video to our attention!)