David W. Richards

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David Weston Richards is the CEO and Editorial Director of Australian technology publisher 4SquareMedia. He publishes Smarthouse.

Previous career moves have involved creating a PR company, Weston Communications[1], as well as a publishing company DWR Communications, later sold to Penton Media.[2]


[edit] Controversies

Another of Richards' stories to garner worldwide attention was one where he claimed that just months before the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft was having to rewrite "up to 60% of Vista's code". The original article has since been taken down by Richards, however blogger Robert Scoble called for Richards' sacking over the piece. [3] Richards later admitted in an email published by MediaConnect proprietor Phil Sim that he had based the whole story on some comments by an Acer Australia Marketing Manager, Raymond Vardenega.[4] Richards commented to Sim that "I don’t need a bunch of upstart bloggers to tell me how to write a story or how to stand a story up."[5]

Richards was recently profiled by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation Media Watch (TV program) on 3rd March 2008, accused of plagiarism of other journalists' stories. The video is available for viewing on the ABC website. [6]

Several hours before the program went to air, Richards published a story claiming his website had been hacked, and the hacker had been posting stories under his name using plagiarized content for the purpose of discrediting him.[7]

However, numerous content owners stated to Media Watch they had contacted Richards over the years to complain about unauthorized reproduction of their content on 4SquareMedia website, leading ABC Media Watch to awarded him the "Phantom of the Internet" trophy, a new award devised by the ABC for the most inventive excuse for plagiarism.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Why the likes of Edelman don't get tech PR. SmartOffice. David Richards (2006-03-20). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  2. ^ Biggest. Microsoft. Stuff-up. Ever? (And Who the heck is David Richards?). Squash. Phil Sim (2006-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  3. ^ Where the heck is Scoble?. Scobleizer. Robert Scoble (2006-03-24). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  4. ^ Biggest. Microsoft. Stuff-up. Ever? (And Who the heck is David Richards?). Squash. Phil Sim (2006-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  5. ^ Richards Responds. Squash. Phil Sim (2006-03-26). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  6. ^ Media Watch: Phantom of the Internet (3/3/08). Media Watch (TV program). Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2006-03-03). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  7. ^ SmartHouse Hacked. SmartHouse. 4SquareMedia (2006-03-03). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.
  8. ^ Media Watch: Phantom of the Internet (3/3/08). Media Watch (TV program). Australian Broadcasting Corporation (2006-03-03). Retrieved on 2008-03-07.