The true cost of free iPods

As long as we're on the subject today of people giving away free iPods, Gratis Networks, which has this scheme/deal where they'll give you a free iPod if you sign up for one of their partner offers and then get five of your friends to do the same, is starting to feel a little heat. We did a little investigative reporting about this back in July
and discovered that it's more or less legitimate (these things are a sliding scale), but Wired News reports that a lot of people who have signed up have complained about either never getting their free iPod, getting tons of spam, or getting sent the wrong product (like an HP iPod instead of an Apple one). The company says, in their defense, that they've shipped out over 4,000 free iPods and that delays on Apple's side are the source of the problem.