An executive who claimed to have developed a file-trading service that intentionally flouted copyright protection laws revealed Wednesday that he made the whole thing up for a laugh -- and to sell a book.
The Honest Thief was announced in February as a new service from PGR BV, a Dutch Internet services company. Pieter Plass, founder of PGR BV and president of CBB, a Dutch construction company, said he cooked up the lie as a joke and publicity stunt.
"First of all, I wanted to have some fun with this," he said. "It's part of our culture to do April Fool's jokes. You can't be a prankster without pulling somebody's leg."
The service promised to take advantage of a recent Dutch court decision that "paved the way for the Netherlands to become the world's first legal haven for file-sharing companies," according to a February press release.
Plass said he wanted to hawk his book of management strategies -- also called The Honest Thief -- and promote the philosophy behind it.
"There is an element of honest stealing in everything you do," Plass explained. "That's how we learn, and that's how people reach their goals. Calling it 'honest stealing' is a more catchy way of saying 'all that you learn as you go along in life.'"
Those who were duped by the scheme include The Wall Street Journal, Business Wire, CNET, Wired News and the PR agency that promoted the company, among many others.
"I got fooled along with everyone else, and I'm not particularly thrilled," said Steven Phenix, senior director of the Alliant Group. "He's no longer a client of ours.
"That's not the way PR is done in this country," Phenix said. "I have a long list of people I have to apologize to."
Phenix said he knew about Plass' book, but said, "I wasn't aware that that was the reason we were doing this (publicity)."
Press releases were sent out by Business Wire when the company was first announced.
"We received this release from a PR agency that is an established client of ours," said Phyllis Dantuono, senior vice president for Business Wire. "I think it's unfortunate that their client scammed them. It's more unfortunate that the scam was passed on to all of us.
"When somebody's trying that hard to trick you, that stinks," Dantuono said. "It's like, get a life, guy. I think that's unconscionable."
The Honest Thief also planned to "launch" a legal defense fund for college students, capitalizing on comments by Rep. John Carter (R-Texas). Last month, during a hearing of the Subcommittee on Courts, the Internet and Intellectual Property, Carter said that locking college kids in the federal pen for illegal file trading would help curb piracy.
The Free 2B P2P legal defense fund was to be announced this week.
Paul Grabowicz, director of the New Media program at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, said that this hoax joins a long list of schemes perpetrated on the Net.
"It's common human behavior that's suddenly distributed over a global network," he said. "Instead of a couple of suckers, you could potentially get millions."
In 1998, two "teenagers" who promised to lose their virginity online admitted the plan was a scam. Other tall tales included a woman selling her eggs on the Net and the fake diary of a girl who was dying of leukemia, he said.
The Honest Thief website now includes a diary documenting the scheme, step by step.
"I feel that people still have a sense of humor about it," Plass said. "They can appreciate the effort of it actually being a hoax, and telling that it is a hoax."
Grabowicz sees the incident as an object lesson for journalists and other media professionals.
"I don't care how good a reporter you are or how reputable a media organization, you can get snookered by one of these things," Grabowicz said. "Reporters really need to be on their guard."
