David Sklar, a PHP programmer/author I respect, has a post on his blog on the Google Toolbar controversy. Sklar joins the voices of reason on this, few and far between though we may be. It’s a good post, worth the read, but I think his opening and closing sentences are the kickers:
Why do folks who want the freedom to remix content as they see fit get their digital dander up when other people remix their own content? …
The most important issue is recognizing that we all have to give up the control over our content that many of us demand of Big Media Corporations.
That’s the key, I think; of all those crying foul over the Toolbar, almost every single one that I’ve read is entirely hypocritical in that they don’t want the Toolbar to change their content even though they themselves engage in exactly this same thing with other people’s content.