Planet13 - 10:52 pm on Feb 14, 2011 (gmt 0)

Why of all people/companies is the NYT policing the search results and outing companies like this. What is their interest here?

There interest is to sell more newspapers / get more readers, so they can charge more for their subscriptions and charge more for their advertising space.

Although often accused of being a socialist front, the New York Times is definitely a celebration of capitalism. They exist for the sole purpose of making money, which is absolutely fine; they are a business, first and foremost, and making money is what a business is supposed to do.

I smell a lawsuit here.

Exactly who would sue whom?

JCP might have a case against the SEO company if they can prove that the SEO company did something that was explicitly forbidden in their contract.

I don't see how JCP could sue the NYT. The NYT basically said that JCP's rankings in google were suspiciously high in the google SERPs, and that some of their links were paid for, in violation of the google terms of service. This was confirmed by a google employee (Matt Cutts), and by a web publisher who acknowledges that we was remunerated for linking to JCP.