I guess I object to calling it "mob justice." It seems to me that these movements are a constructive result of the free flow of information. I think the news aggregators have increased the efficiency of the spread of information (and of course misinformation) so greatly that they may actually make up for the decline of authoritative news sources like newspapers. If it's misinformation that's being spread, though, I think the likelihood is high that the natural human desire for truth in such cases will win out. The success of Snopes.com is probably the best evidence of that.

That's in this country, of course; when and where the state controls that flow, mileage will vary considerably.

Actually, the Creative issue is a good example of mob justice with a negative connotation. Even if it's not popular with the customers, Creative has the right to ask the man making this software, if he did indeed infringe on their IP, to stop. The customers may not like it, and Creative could've handled it entirely differently, but the path they chose is certainly open to them.

Yes, sometimes they do. Digg users were able to find this thief in less than a day. They posted his full name, address, youtube, email, facebook, myspace, AIM, Parent's names, girlfriend's name, home phone, cell phone, girlfriend's phone, etc. He was basically harassed non-stop until he returned the stolen items.

That's all well and true, Creative does in fact have the right to distribute purposely sub-par drivers and then threaten anyone who fixes their broken code. That being said I would hardly call calling Creative out on this to be "negative". They distributed bad drivers, a modder fixed them, they threatened, people have boycotted Creative.

They've got the right to their IP, we've got the right to not purchase if they're dicks about it. Simple free market in action.