This is an excerpt from an article that appeared in The new York Times...

Worthy of our concern is how this conduct was perceived by those engaging in it as "fair play" ... does cause one to specualte on how far gone we are down this road:

"SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 5 — Hewlett-Packard’s chairwoman ordered monitoring of its directors’ phones to determine the source of news leaks, prompting a furor in which one director quit and another rebuffed efforts to oust him, the company said Tuesday.

The dispute is to be laid out in documents that Hewlett-Packard is filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday.

The concern over leaks began in the months preceding Carleton S. Fiorina’s ouster as chief executive last year, the company said. But the confrontation within the board unfolded this year after an internal report identified George A. Keyworth II, the company’s longest-serving director, as a source of disclosures.

[b:de7aa3e3c3] The company said the report was based on monitoring of board members’ calls from home phones and cellphones in January, an effort authorized by Patricia C. Dunn, the chairwoman. " [/b:de7aa3e3c3]

The New York Times has reported an event without precedent in the publishing industry.... what are the implications for... ummmm. a certain UFO relgion and their "factual" accounts ? :

"James Frey, the author who admitted making up portions of his best-selling memoir, “A Million Little Pieces,” and his publisher, Random House, have agreed in principle on a settlement with readers who filed lawsuits claiming they had been defrauded.

Neither Mr. Frey nor Random House are admitting any wrongdoing, but consumers who bought the book on or before Jan. 26 — when both the publisher and author released statements acknowledging that Mr. Frey had altered certain facts — will be eligible for a full refund, said a person familiar with the negotiations, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the settlement still has to be approved by a judge.

The agreement to settle the lawsuits was first reported on Tuesday by Radaronline.com.

[b:3503438cd4] Readers in several states, including New York, California and Illinois, filed lawsuits saying that Mr. Frey and the publisher had defrauded them by selling the book as a memoir rather than as a work of fiction. [/b:3503438cd4]

In June the cases were consolidated to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Under the terms of the agreement, which has been accepted by 10 of the 12 plaintiffs who are part of the consolidated case, both Mr. Frey and Random House will pay out no more than a total of $2.35 million, which includes the cost of refunding customers, lawyers’ fees for both sides and a yet-to-be-specified donation to charity."

Does Mr. Xenu X. Xenu get a cut of this action ?

In a bigger case of someone suing over a fictional book being published as fact, Luigi Cascioli's case against the Catholic Church will be heard by the European Court of Human Rights:
[en.wikipedia.org]
"Cascioli filed a lawsuit against the Catholic Church, and Father Righi in particular, for libel against him, and for promoting fraud by observing that the existence of Christ is historically factual."