While you embrace the powers of social networking for your commercial exploitation you seem to lack the deeper knowledge about what actually drives them.

Now when someone actually uses just one of the many apps that exist in this web 2.0 world to create something most likely intended to have a laugh you run to the teacher and shout faul play.

Even contemplating a law suite is best proof how disconnected you are.

So cheer up and see the bright side. Someone actually took the time to take your picture and run in trough a celebrity look alike o meter. One step up from simply tagging your name in a “stupid smiley” picture and a step below in creating a nice photoshop.

Only thing gained by this blog post was to actually alienate yourself from a big group of readers, many of whom might actually be active social network users, the target of your profession.

@3d mark:
Clevery analysed the plot. Wish Bruce would give in and reveal his plot in the comments. So far he sticks to the “victim of the internet” character.

And you are getting away from what I was trying to say and that is that there are three ways to react to inevitable online defamation of your company and its products. The whole Richard Kirby thing is just window dressing to make it more interesting.

I’ve been a long-time reader of your blog and enjoy it greatly, but you do sometimes have a tendency to make statements _which_can_be_interpreted_ in such a way as to make you come across less ‘freedom fighter’ and more ‘silly man’. For someone who (rightly) criticises, for example, Sony’s more outlandish PR bloopers, I think you need sometimes to step back and have a think about how what you post will be interpreted by the wider world. Not a personal attack, just friendly advice.

You’re a smart guy and write a generally great blog. If you put your head above the parapet like this some people will take pot shots… you are best advised to ignore it and move on. Getting defensive on here when people upset you hugely detracts from the credibility of your blog generally, and steers you from ‘serious analyst’ territory towards that of David Iyke. I don’t see Paxman writing a blog rebuffing all those nasty people who are unkind to him. You really don’t want to become a laughing stock on the internet, because there’s no way back from that.

Secondly I did not compare myself to Nelson Mandela or Mother Theresa. I just used them to demonstrate that everyone in the public eye, no matter how high their esteem, gets attacked on the internet.

Harley Davidson, saying that you think that I am starting to lose it is exactly the sort of personal attack this article is about. You make my point for me.

And MC is right. Pete Townsend may not be as charitable as me at being associated with such unsavoury characters. He has good grounds for an action for defamation here.

That’s clearly not libel, and you know full well that if you saw someone else blogging comparisons between themselves and Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela, even in jest, you’d conclude they were a loon. You’re not doing yourself any favours here.

Someone posts an image showing how much Bruce looks like people who have (or may have, in some cases) committed crimes. Not, you might notice, “how much Bruce ACTS LIKE xxx”, but how much Bruce LOOKS LIKE them. Last I heard, that wasn’t anywhere near libelous.

Bruce responds by posting this person’s name and enough information for them to be found, in real life. Why? What possible purpose does this serve? does Bruce believe that he has “fans” who will go round and “sort him out”? Post dogshit through his letterbox for the heinous crime of “taking the piss out of Bruce a bit”? Maybe someone could go round and take a photo of this person, and then do a “how much he looks like famous libellers” mashup, but I’m a bit stumped as to who those famous libellers might actually be.

And yes, Bruce, you *do* look like Jonathan King. And quite a bit like Paul Gadd, for that matter. That’s pretty tough, maybe you should sue your parents for having passed on pedo-lookalike genes to you.

And, while Bruce is being generous about it, Mr Townsend might not be so happy.

I have to admit I was thoroughly puzzled by your post today. I thought, Bruce is pretty net-savvy. He surely knows that this application has no malicious or mocking intent. But such over the top language, comparing himself to Mother Theresa, yet!

And just to prove it, I wandered over to the MyHeritage.com website to make up my own celebrity photo match. And it was as I was sitting there typing in my registration, that the penny dropped.

So admit it – the goal was to demonstrate some non-traditional marketing to us. I bet I’m not the only one who fell for your faux-rage and then wound up heading right over to the celebrity look-alike site.

Good one, Bruce, good one.