Trying to catch up here....
First, thanks, Psy, for the high praise. I think you're pretty awesome too.
Second, I'm pretty sure we were obliged to follow that order. The situation cited above about the DiBold machines? In all likelihood, a jury would be more sympathetic to the whistle blower than the plaintiff. Therefore, if I were in the shoes of that site's admin I probably would do the same thing and shoot for craps with a legal challenge. This is very very different. I don't think any reasonable jury would have taken our side in this matter--copyright or no.
Third, most importantly, I don't see Ken Huey or most other program operators and staff as evil or as enemies. I have run into some personalities in this industry who are just plain mean spirited and sadistic and fewer still who I think are actually laughing up their sleeves, very consciously and intentionally taking advantage of helpless children under color of authority. But the vast majority are, in my opinion, well intended but misguided. It's not at all unusual. Up until a few years ago, transplant physicians and their entire support staffs along with patient relatives and others used to routinely keep their young patients in total isolation, deprived of the simplest comfort and human touch for fear of exposure to germs. Many of these children went completely and irreversibly feral, which meant they were unable to care for themselves after surgery and eventually died as a result. It took a cold hearted hard ass to carry through with such treatment, and yet these people were just as well intended, if misguided, as anybody.
I do believe Ken Huey is well intended and sincere. For one thing, even though he refers to Fornits as an "attack site" (belieing a definite prejudice) when I spoke with him his main concern in this matter was to protect the privacy of his students. He had no real qualm about the idea of keeping the treatment plans up with the names and faces redacted. I think he honestly believes that his methods and policies are defensible. I disagree with that but that doesn't make him an enemy. Remember that virtually all of the staff and corporate officers in the industry are, themselves, program graduates. They're just a little more brainwashed than those of us who leave it all behind and make our way back into the more commonly accepted reality. And there, but for pure near pathological stubbornness, go I. When I split the program I was on pretraining for staff. If I had stayed on (which was prerequisite for full membership in my family) I might have eventually lost the internal battle and become one of them.
...a long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defence of custom. But tumult soon subsides. Time makes more converts than reason.
If only there were evil people somewhere insidiously committing evil deeds, and it were necessary only to separate them from the rest of us and destroy them. But the line dividing good and evil cuts through the heart of every human being. And who is willing to destroy a piece of his own heart?
