Hats off to Apple Canada, which as far as we can make out appears to have pulled off a small but embarrassing heist at the expense of the local version of the Microsoft Network (MSN). The stunt would seem (naturally, we conjecture) to have taken advantage of the collision between MSN's thirst for ad revenue and what some might call the dubious presentation of advertising material undifferentiated from editorial.

Mat Brown (thanks Mat) sends us a JPEG of the gory evidence, which you can see here. This shows http://ca.msn.com from 27th February proudly sporting the following: "The new 17-inch iMac - the PC you really want". By virtue of including a pretty picture this is the most prominent among "Today's features" (we think "features is MSNspeak for ads and come-ons).

This fascinating item seems for some reason not to exist at MSN Canada right now, but a Google for iMac + "PC you really want" gives strangely high marks to the site. And a check of the cache gives you this, where you'll note the link clicks through to Apple Canada.

Medals all round for the Apple Canada marketing team, we reckon. Outstanding work. ®