In today's highly technological, interconnected world, there are stories that blow up overnight, take over the Technorati "most-searched" list, and become news on their own to the blognoscenti. Sometimes, it happens because it's a funny or odd story, or a viral video, but the most intense blogstorms erupt when a large number of people's sense of justice is outraged. I was alerted to today's blogstorm by an RSS feed from one of my favorites, Miss Snark. Miss Snark is a literary agent writing under a nom de plume, who has an enviable ability to skewer nitwits and snarklings; offers good advice on query letters, writing, publishing deals; and has a poodle named Killer Yapp and a propensity for pointy stiletto-heeled shoes, vodka, and George Clooney. I am not a writer of the kind who seeks to be published, so her blog is not a needed resource for me, as it is for others. But Miss Snark's snarkiliciousness is just so...so...snarky that I keep coming back for more. It seems that Miss Snark is an aficianado of a writers' website called "Absolute Write". It seems that AW had published a list compiled by the Science Fiction Writers of America called The 20 Worst Agents, based on number of complaints. It seems that one of the agents, a person name of Barbara Bauer, called up the ISP for Absolute Write, threatened them with a lawsuit and the DMCA (the copyright law). It seems that the ISP owner caved and yanked the site on one hours' notice. Oops. Bad mistake. Now Barbara Bauer is the third search term on Technorati for the day. Every single one of the posts linked is rehashing the affair, one way or another. Check out Miss Snark is Damn Mad and Hey, Barbara Bauer! Put Up or Shut Up! for details on the story. Yeah, yeah, now I'm a member of the Digital Lynch Mob. But I despise people who use threats to get their way. It's far too much like a toddler; it's something that you're supposed to grow out of when you're, say, five. Okay, six.