Monday, September 30, 2002

New Software Quietly Diverts Sales Commissions. Software distributed in packages like Kazaa, LimeWire and Morpheus will divert purchases through the affiliate programs of companies like Amazon so that the affiliate link appears to be coming from someone else. Amazon cut payments to Morpheus last week, as did Tiger Direct; other companies are also considering action.

These people steal from the money from honest affiliates, they steal the trust of their users, and in the end they are stealing a sense of good will and community from all of us, replacing it with the sad and dismal ethic of "all you can grab."