cahoots (ka-hoots) pl.n.
Questionable collaboration; secret partnership.
According to The Inquirer?s July 8th story, the ?BBC and the UK government are in cahoots? due to the fact that the BBC hosts some UK government sites. Ironically, an almost identical relationship appears to exist between chipset designer VIA Technologies, Inc. and UK website publication The Inquirer.
The Proof
To prove the connection between VIA Technologies and The Inquirer, all one needs is the Ping tool, as well as the tools available at www.samspade.org. According to the Sam Spade tool, Theinquirer.net resolves to 217.158.66.148.
A check of The Inquirer?s mail server mail.theinquirer.net reveals that the IP is 217.158.66.147.
Now use the same tool on VIA?s official tech support website, viaarena.com. VIA Arena resolves to 217.158.66.140, in the same IP range as that of The Inquirer. Also, note the company and person who registered the viaarena.com domain: Brayline Ltd/Stuart Brown. This will become important later.
If we check mail.viaarena.com, we find that the IP is 217.158.66.147, the exact same IP as The Inquirer?s mail server.
Why do VIA Arena and The Inquirer share a mail server? The answer lies in a marketing firm based in the UK by the name of Axalia Marketing Ltd. Axalia provides local marketing services for firms like VIA Technologies, Hush Technologies, and Lian Li Industrial Co. Axalia Marketing Ltd is owned and operated by the Brown family, including John Brown and Stuart Brown. Stuart Brown?s brother, Richard Brown, is the vice president of marketing for VIA Technologies, and Stuart Brown has performed various functions for VIA, including registering the viaarena.com domain name.
Plugging axalia.co.uk into Sam Spade reveals that Axalia?s IP address is 217.158.66.148. This is the exact same IP address as The Inquirer. It also tells us Axalia?s domain is registered by the same Brayline Ltd that registered viaarena.com.
Conclusions
Above, we?ve proved that VIA Technologies, through its VP of Marketing Richard Brown and Axalia Marketing Ltd, could have complete control over The Inquirer?s hosting, and may possess the ability to forcibly remove The Inquirer from publication if provoked to do so. This is a completely untenable position for the supposedly independent Inquirer, and provides clear and plain motive for The Inquirer to skew its computer hardware coverage towards VIA Technologies, Inc.
What does this say about VIA? Surely VIA feels it receives some value from the relationship it has with Axalia and The Inquirer. Richard Brown also appears to hire his family members for various services paid for by VIA, and these family members also host other sites that cover VIA Technologies Inc and its products.
Already, another site that covers VIA products has been discovered to be hosted by Axalia: Mini-ITX.com shares the same 217.158.66.148 IP address of Axalia and The Inquirer.
I conclude this with a quote from Axalia?s website, which I feel properly summarizes the relationship between VIA and The Inquirer:
?Good relationships with the media world provides an enhanced, smoother service. Working with them requires an in-depth knowledge of their work ethics and procedures. We use our knowledge and experience to your advantage.?
The Inquirer/Axalia reaction
Since the initial publication of this information, I have received numerous letters Mike Magee of The Inquirer, and lawyers representing Axalia. Both individuals have threatened lawsuits if this information were to be published. Apparently they are very motivated to keep this information from the public?s eye.
Below is one of Mike Magee?s emails.
I've had several copies of an email passed to me by different hardware sites
making allegations about the INQUIRER which are not only wholly untrue but
are quite possibly actionable.
You say that our editorial independence is in question because you falsely
allege Via controls my web site.
Let me tell you that this is absolutely untrue. When I started the INQUIRER
in 2001, it was hosted on a different site. I have paid Brayline, and then
subsequently Axalia, approximately £20,000 for programming and hosting over
the last 18 months or so.
No one tells me what I can write or what I can't write, and frankly I am
astonished that you have chosen to make these allegations without checking
them.
So far my site has taken advertising from Intel, Microsoft, Via, HP, IBM,
Tyan, Google, and many many others.
I will be interested to hear how you propose to remedy this situation, and
for an explanation for your undoubtedly odd actions.
Mike Magee
http://www.theinquirer.net/
In a single breath, Mike Magee claims the expose is completely without merit, and then confirms he is hosted by Stuart Brown and Axalia.
Another interest fact that has come from the initial publication of this information is that Stuart Brown was questioned at the VIA press conference at Cebit 2003. A representative from Tom?s Hardware questioned him about his involvement with The Inquirer, but Stuart Brown denied any involvement with The Inquirer. Stuart Brown?s firm is intimately involved with The Inquirer, as the above proves. Again, what do they have to hide?
I leave it to the reader of this to decide.
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