[mdlug] Is MS bribing bloggers?

[Robert G. Brown]

On Thu, 28 Dec 2006 21:52:12 -0500, Michael Corral <micorral at comcast.net> wrote:
>2006-12-28, Monsieur Michael Rudas (computer) a ecrit:
>> Hmmmm... when record companies did this with radio
>> stations in the '50s, it was called "payola".  People
>> lost jobs and went to jail.  Why should it be any
>> different for a convicted monopolist?
>The difference here being that lots of people actually listened
>to the radio stations. :)
Sure.

THe difference is that the songs were played on a federally regulated 
medium (the public airwavess) and the people involved purposefully
did not disclose that they were compensated to provide more frequent
airplay. This had the effect of creating the false impression that
the records were more popular than they actually were.

Without defending Microsoft or the reviewers involved, the legal
conditions are different enough so that the term "payola" doesn't
really apply, and its probably (although IAMAL) much harder to
make a case out of all this, true that it may be. I would agree
that in many ways, the intent seems to be similar.

						Regards,
						---> RGB <---