Hey Rob:

I don' think that there is anything inherently, morally wrong with either "last cookie" or "first cookie" launches. As long as the rules are set and kept affiliates can decide on the promotion strategy that works best for them for whatever rule is in place.

Whenever there are shady things going on that's of course bad, but it doesn't really have anything to do with first or last cookie.

Of course the publisher can steal sales in many different ways, and there is virtually no way to check up on that. (As a product launch manager I always check on the integrity of sales, and would of course call it out if something wasn't right.)

Cookie stuffing can be detectable by looking at hit vs opt-in stats and where traffic is coming from. So, again if the publisher wants to run a clean launch it can be done - affiliates could be banned from the launch for cookie stuffing just like for any other violation of the rules.

An interesting side effect of all this is the "opinion" about certain specific tracking systems in the affiliate/JV community. Recently, Infusionsoft has come in discredit for allegedly losing track of sales, and other systems have been touted as more reliable...

In my opinion reliable tracking depends a lot more on the people who run a launch or promotion than on any specific feature difference between any of the systems that meet "industry standards".

So again - integrity in running promotions as publishers, and participating as affiliate is the main point, and I think this is something worth emphasizing in this community.

Best,
Thomas