As others have insightfully pointed out, these antics are exactly the things that will relegate P2P to black market trading.
To prevent this from happening, let's take action:
If you have (had, hopefully by now) one of the offending programs installed and have made an affiliate purchase that you believe to have been diverted, notify the merchant who should have received the commission. Send them the Amazon (or other) order number and sale amount, or as best an estimate as you can make.
The burden of proof the government would have to establish in a criminal case would be much higher than that needed in a civil suit. Let's use the legal system to our advantage and encourage defrauded affiliates to take action against the petty thieves.
This is just another example of someone thinking that a Superman-esque scheme of stealing fractions of pennies doesn't hurt anyone and no one will notice (see also Office Space).
Slashdot Mirror
As others have insightfully pointed out, these antics are exactly the things that will relegate P2P to black market trading.
To prevent this from happening, let's take action:
If you have (had, hopefully by now) one of the offending programs installed and have made an affiliate purchase that you believe to have been diverted, notify the merchant who should have received the commission. Send them the Amazon (or other) order number and sale amount, or as best an estimate as you can make.
The burden of proof the government would have to establish in a criminal case would be much higher than that needed in a civil suit. Let's use the legal system to our advantage and encourage defrauded affiliates to take action against the petty thieves. This is just another example of someone thinking that a Superman-esque scheme of stealing fractions of pennies doesn't hurt anyone and no one will notice (see also Office Space).