Non-Running Un-Program Wins 16 Software Awards

"Buyer beware: pointless text file wins 16 software awards"
WatchGuard

Excerpt: the first three paragraphs.

"An amusing story over on Successful Software.Net highlights the risky side of relying on freeware and shareware for any mission-critical purpose.

"Andy Brice, a UK-based software developer, had grown suspicious about "awards" ascribed to freeware and shareware programs that he knew lacked functions and features of rival offerings. So he invented a program named AwardMeStars. It didn't run; in fact, it wasn't actually a program. It was a text file comprised solely of the words, "This program does nothing at all," and renamed as an executable (.EXE). He had a third party submit his file to just about every software aggregation site; then he sat back to watch the results.

"His non-operating, do-nothing program won 16 awards. Various cites labeled it 'Certified 5-Star,' 'Editor's Pick,' and 'Cool Discovery.' All of them, obviously, from sites that didn't even bother to note the blatant name of the program, nor try to run it even once." [emphasis mine]

There's more, including links, in the WatchGuard article.