[Calumny]

It could be both, depending on the personal view as opposed to the legal view. <br /> <br />As to whether the chosen form is desirable, I'm sure this type of protest has an impact on the Starbuck's employees trying to get by on minimum or near minimum wage. Does it impact the intended corporate audience? Who knows? <br /> <br />Without judging Reverend Billy's actions, I have to wonder whether he's ever worked in a retail environment and has full knowledge of the impact, if any, his actions may be having on folks who are just grunts tring to get by.

[Socrates]

Quite true. <br /> <br />I do know that there are a great many Starbucks employees who respect Billy and leak him secret memos, etc. <br /> <br />Likely there are others who hate him. Generally speaking I would think his performances are not too hard on the employees and he makes a point of not in any way attacking them. <br /> <br />As someone who works a great deal on the fair trade struggle Starbucks' hypocrisy and lies really infuriate me. I think it's valuable to draw attention to their practices which people might not be aware of. <br /> <br />The reason why I like this is that it's taking protest in new and more imaginative directions than in the past. Standing outside and screaming at people as they walk in may intimidate them but I doubt it gets the message across. <br /> <br />In this model customers overhear debates between other customers about Starbucks practices which ideally make them think. As the culmination of this it becomes more clearly theatre. <br /> <br />While you could call it disruptive the point is to do everything possible to not piss off either customers or staff.

[Calumny]

As long as the delivery of the message doesn't unitentionally employees who, like most of us, are just trying to get by, it certainly seems like an original way to get the issue into the public consciousness. <br /> <br />However, from a legal perspective this probably will end up being a matter of trespass. Obviously Reverend Billy feels the issue is important enough to risk the consequences, and if there's no harm to anyone's person or psyche, more power to him.