CES Booths: More victims of the TV-B-Gone

Way, way back in the heady days of 2004, I wrote a post about the TV-B-Gone, a tiny remote control that can turn off virtually any TV screen. The inventor, a bit of a prick who didn't like going to restaurants that had TVs, thought it was great that he could walk into a store, restaurant, pub, or wherever, whip out this little gizmo, and silence the screens. In fact, the front page of their websites advertises that it can be used at, "airports, bars, restaurants, laundromats, etc." Two years later, I wrote about "new media vandalism" when a couple of kids videotaped themselves shutting off bank after bank of TV at a local Best Buy.

While the TV-B-Gone scene remained quiet for a while, this year at CES the guys at Gizmodo, a gadget blog, decided to have some fun and turn off dozens, if not hundreds, of screens at the various booths that were using them (read: damned near all of them). Once again, they videoed their exploits. Admittedly, it was funny -- for an instant -- to see the confused expressions of people as whole walls went dark. But what wasn't funny was watching the hordes of exhibitor staff trying to figure out what had gone wrong, and then work to turn all of the screens back on.

As an innocent bystander, I was pretty angry with what was clearly an act of vandalism. If I were an exhibitor -- you know, somebody paying tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars to showcase my brand -- I'd be furious. And it looks like I'm not the only one. Gizmodo's comment thread on the exploit voices more than a few complaints, and today, marketing guru Seth Godin decided that he needed to comment on the event as well.

At this point, is there any doubt that turning off screens in an out-of-home environment causes damage to the party that owns/rents that space? Do people really believe they have the right to do this? What separates it from or makes it better than any other form of vandalism?

[UPDATE] c|net reports that this prank got the responsible Gizmodo "reporter" banned from CES for life!