I certainly know for a fact many programs shave. Shaving is becoming a skill these days. The good thing is affiliates are aware of it. It is not so much the super affiliates that are being shaved but rather the medium type affiliates that get affected the most. One only has to look around on the forums and look at specific programs as there are many ways to shave.
I know myself – I have developed a core of really trusted webmasters and we are testing programs as we speak all the time. Were not going to lay down and let it happen I certainly can tell you that.
In the older days usually these things were sorted privately and deals were made and pay offs done to keep things under the carpet. Those days are gone. Public scrutiny is the way to handle it now!
Expect to see some really juicy proofs coming out soon 