It's against Adwords guidelines, so the case is pretty much closed. It's inappropriate.
That being said, it seems like a perfectly acceptable method of marketing to me -- what's wrong with directing people to positive press about your product in the first place? Loads of products do this, from movies and bestselling books to startups and universities. Is this just another round of demonizing companies that give people cash for gold?
This article is excellent! And thank you, chaosmachine, for providing instructions for replication.
It's my strong opinion that everything here is ethically sound. This sort of "hacker" culture is the meat and potatoes of what drives innovation in the United States today, and whether this specific incident results in a new product or simply higher security by cable providers, progress has been made.
This seems like a great community and venture -- though I doubt an online community to develop skills, knowledge, and projects will ever compare to a brick and mortar one.
Developers who are really serious about these goals should join a real community where they can sit in a room and collaborate -- like Noisebridge in San Francisco or Hacker Dojo in the Valley. That said, obviously these institutions don't exist everywhere, so this is a great "next-best" option!
That being said, it seems like a perfectly acceptable method of marketing to me -- what's wrong with directing people to positive press about your product in the first place? Loads of products do this, from movies and bestselling books to startups and universities. Is this just another round of demonizing companies that give people cash for gold?