Well the hack of all hacks, eWeek’s Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, aka “King of the Freetards,” turns out to be the gift that keeps on giving. Our FSJ Spotlight Team has turned up even more examples of reverse engineered stories, and we’re only back to October. Good grief.

See this story about KDE which appeared with the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols on DesktopLinux.com, and this press release from the developers who make KDE.

Or compare this article about a KACE survey under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols with this press release by a company called KACE. Complete sentences, lifted in whole.

Or compare this article about Red Hat published under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols to this press release from Red Hat. Complete sentences lifted, word for word.

Or compare this story about an Everex computer under the byline of Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols and this story about the same computer but under the byline of Ben Hall on a website called The Green Lounge. Entire sentences, identical. Who knows which came first? To be sure, it may be that the other guy copied Vaughan-Nichols. Or maybe they both copied the same press release.

Or see this article about Ubuntu under a Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols byline, and this press release by Canonical. Whole sentences lifted.

Or compare this story about Novell’s new version of SuSE Linux which bears a Vaughan-Nichols byline and this press release from Novell. Entire sentences lifted, word for word.

Namaste, Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols. I honor the place where the language of corporate press releases and the content of your articles become one. And as your wonderful online bio points out, it does appear that after all these years of writing about technology you just may have learned something along the way. Much love.

UPDATE: Readers, for a real howl, check out this piece where Steven J. Vaughan-Cut-and-Paste offers a little insight into how much he loves himself. Honestly, it’s priceless.