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Top hackers kept on News Corp unit payroll 'for years'
,----[ Quote ]
| Tarnovsky was paid by News Corp publishing house Harper Collins and made
| $128,000 in 2000. At the end of the year, he received a $5,000 bonus "because
| he must have made a very good technical contribution," Peled testified.
|
| An earlier trial exhibit showed that the DISH code appeared on the internet
| the same month Tarnovsky received his bonus.
`----
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10508624
Microsoft too had some shills exposed recently.
Recent:
Hacker testifies News Corp unit hired him
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| The trial could result in hundreds of millions of dollars in damage awards.
|
| NDS, which provides security technology to a global satellite network that
| includes satellite TV service DirecTV, denies the claims, saying it was only
| engaged in reverse engineering -- looking at a technology product to
| determine how it works, a standard in the electronics industry.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSN2334980420080424?feedType=RSS&feedName=technologyNews&rpc=22&sp=true
http://tinyurl.com/4lyhpc
Times Online denies knowledge of link spam campaign
,----[ Quote ]
| Piotr Wyspianski, a manager at Sitelynx, was revealed on the Waxy.org blog to
| have waged a one-man campaign to game web aggregation communities such as
| Digg, Metafilter and StumbleUpon with over a thousand links to Times Online
| stories. Before working for Sitelynx, he had form for a similar astroturfing
| effort for his own online jewellery store.
|
| Predictably, the Waxy.org story has hit the front page of Digg and some
| Diggers have piled in to condemn Times Online, blaming a conspiracy by the
| original Digger himself. "I haven't respected The Times since Murdoch bought
| it, since that effectively means I can no longer trust its content. Fuck you
| old man!" wrote one.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/01/31/times_online_link_spam/
Related:
Bribing Bloggers
,----[ Quote ]
| This is the most frustrating thing about the practice of giving
| bloggers free stuff: it pisses in the well, reducing the credibility
| of all blogs. I'm upset that people trust me less because of the
| behavior of other bloggers. Don't even get me started about PayPerPost.
|
| [...]
|
| Do not, under any circumstances, consider upgrading an XP system to
| Vista... even if it's fairly new and even if it's Vista Supremo
| Premium Ultra-Capable.
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http://www.joelonsoftware.com/items/2006/12/28.html
Bribing Bloggers
,----[ Quote ]
| It's a bribe. Period. You say nice things about us, you get nice
| things from us. Heck, just say neutral things about us-we'll give
| you a killer new laptop and we know that you'll be inclined to say
| better things about us.
`----
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,2077596,00.asp?kc=EWRSS03129TX1K0000616
EU cracks down on fake blogger astroturfing
,----[ Quote ]
| But back to the web, and with sneaky marketing campaigns likely to be more
| effective than upfront marketing campaigns, what is stopping companies from
| simply risking it and continuing existing practices?
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http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/11/03/eu_flogging_ban/
Microsoft pays star writers to recite slogan
,----[ Quote ]
| The stodgy old media industry has a rule that newspaper reporters, and TV
| news hosts, shouldn't trade on their public trust to endorse products.
`----
http://valleywag.com/tech/federated-media/microsoft-pays-star-writers-to-recite-slogan-271485.php
Malik, Arrington and Battelle: X-22, come in [to Microsoft]
,----[ Quote ]
| What would possess a collection of online publishers and venture capitalists
| to pimp a Microsoft advertising slogan?
|
| Valleywag today reported about a site tied to a Microsoft ad campaign
| where the likes of Michael Arrington, Om Malik and others seemingly
| lend their support to the "people-ready" catchphrase.
|
| I sent e-mails both to Arrington and Malik and--surprise,
| surprise--heard nothing back. (Obviously, they are not yet
| sufficiently "Coop-ready.") Microsoft was still checking for me into
| whether money exchanged hands. But even if not a single shekel exchanged
| hands, I must wonder about the absence of common sense. Why would
| ostensibly independent voices come across as Microsoft shills? If
| they were hoping for a free dinner with Bill Gates, there are
| smarter ways to go about it.
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http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9733995-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
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