Here's the back story. Apotheker is coming to HP from his job as CEO of SAP, a German software maker that recently admitted liability in a case where it stole a huge amount of intellectual property from Oracle. Apotheker wasn't CEO when this brazen crime was allegedly committed by SAP subsidiary TomorrowNow, but Nocera published a column on October 9 that suggested that "as a member of SAP’s executive board, Mr. Apotheker clearly knew about the theft."

Nocera observed that Hewlett-Packard was engaged in shocking hypocrisy: First they fire CEO Mark Hurd for minor expense account padding and then they turn around to give the same job to someone who may have been involved in one of the biggest ethical transgressions seen in the software business in recent years.

What Nocera didn't reveal when he wrote his column was that his wife is communications director for the law firm that represents Oracle in its suit against SAP. This conflict was the subject of Brisbane's column. But Brisbane writes that he believes Nocera's excuse that he simply didn't know about the role of his wife's firm. Anyone who has ever been in a marriage with two busy people will also be inclined to trust Nocera's version of events.

So what did Nocera do that was terrible enough to be singled out for criticism in a 700-word column? He went on CNBC to talk further about the case. That was a mistake, and Nocera admits to Brisbane that it was "stupid" and he realized that during the show.

When his conflict emerged, Nocera should have gone silent about SAP. No question. On the other hand, a larger good was clearly served when Nocera went on television to draw more attention to this case. If it's true that Apotheker did know about the theft from Oracle, that's important news. Quite apart from HP's hypocrisy here, there is a bigger point at stake: Which is that, far from being held accountable for his alleged actions, Apotheker is getting a promotion that will make him an even richer man than he already is. 

This episode offers a very disturbing window on corporate ethics and the lax punishment for wrongdoing in the private sector. While SAP will probably end up paying a large settlement to Oracle, you can pretty much guarantee that no individual will be held personally liable, for either civil or criminal penalties. As is so often the case with corporate misdeeds, crimes occurred here but apparently no actual people committed them. And now a figure that may well have known about these crimes is moving up the food chain.

Joe Nocera did a service by telling this ignored story. The Times was right to bring his conflict to light and complain about him going on CNBC. But he didn't deserve a public reprimand from the Public Editor. It would have been better to see those column inches used to question the ethics of the real villains in this case.

Two separate but related copyright infringement lawsuits were filed today in the United States District Court for the Central District of California against the members of the Black Eyed Peas and their record labels and publishers, including UMG Recordings and Interscope Records. The songs involved in the suits are two internationally acclaimed hit songs that brought the Black Eyed Peas extraordinary profits and iconic success: "I Gotta Feeling" and "Boom Boom Pow."

Both of the artists in the lawsuits claim that they had submitted their recordings to major record-labels but were subsequently denied any signing offers.

Companies that claim a large percentage of the marketplace will often throw their weight around in order to secure the best deal for themselves. Major music companies receive thousands of recordings on a yearly basis, making it quite easy to pick the best pieces from certain tracks and give them to their more famous signings while refusing to give credit to the original artists. Beyond blatant theft, this process is tragic in that many of these tracks represent years of struggle for the performer both financially and artistically.

The feds, however, think differently, and so do the artists who depend on CD sales to make a living. The latest victim of federal prosecutors is Limewire, a company started five years ago that was a key player in the rise of the illegal downloads industry. A federal judge in New York City issued an injunction against the company that will effectively force it to shut down. The case is not over yet, for the owners of company still face multi-million dollar charges over their violation of copyright law.

In response to the case, the company claims that it is attempting to revert to a pay-for-service platform. Seems like they were a little bit too late.