First, I specified that the primary use of "viral marketing by a startup" is for brand awareness. Obviously, the marketing strategies of one of the world's largest oil companies can be dramatically different. And in any event, BP is using conventional marketing outlets--not viral marketing--to rehabilitate its image. As such, the anecdote doesn't appear relevant to the present conversation.

Second, I'm still not seeing the nexus between the OP and the need for surreptitious damage control. My initial off-the-cuff remark was just because I didn't want to see this forum get bogged down in this sort of issue again given how ugly and out-of-hand things got the last time. I'm glad that enTourage has released the source code and hope it proves helpful to robot and others looking to write useful apps--if they're any good, then I'll consider buying them.