Posted on 08/30/2007 3:15:21 PM PDT by ShadowAce
For many years, we've written some highly critical reports about Spyware vendors, some of whom would then e-mail us asking us to stop referring to their product as Spyware. Claria Corporation was perhaps the worst offender in this regard, threatening to sue anyone (AV Vendors or the press) who called their Gator spyware what it actually was.
It has all been part of a massive attempt by the spyware industry to hoist some kind of pseudo-legitimacy on a sector that spent almost a decade trampling user rights and privacy. As part of this push, Zango (formerly 180Solutions) recently sued Kaspersky over using the Spyware tag, but a court has dismissed the lawsuit:
"In the latest ruling on one of these cases (in which Zango sued Kaspersky), the ruling makes it clear we already have such a law on the books. The judge dismissed the lawsuit, noting that security firms have every right to label software as they see fit, citing part of section 230 of the Communications Decency Act."Specifically, the court ruled that AV companies are protected under statute 47 USC 230(c)(2), which defines the AV vendor as an interactive computer service provider and immune to such semantic lawsuits by the spy-infectious-disease-spew-ware industry.
If I recall, I had that stinking Zango virus on a machine I owned. It was ungodly the efforts I had to go through to get rid of that crummy thing. “Spyware” is being too kind. These people should be taken out and lynched.
I left Windows well before spyware became the problem it is today. While I understand the immensity of this, I’ve never had to deal with it on a personal level.
47 USC 230(c)(2), which defines the AV vendor as an interactive computer service provider and immune to such semantic lawsuits by the spy-infectious-disease-spew-ware industry.
bump
Oh, and BTW.....this one is a kick in the seat of the democrat pants, LOL
The Congress finds the following:
(3) The Internet and other interactive computer services offer a forum for a true diversity of political discourse, unique opportunities for cultural development, and myriad avenues for intellectual activity.
I believe the proper citation for this is:
47 USC 230 (a) (3)
Spammers and spyware creators should be branded all over with American flags and Stars of David, then dropped into downtown Mecca.
Spybot flags the cookies it generates.
I had that one on my laptop. Could not get rid of it no matter what I did. Downloaded a removal tool and it would appear to be gone but would reinstall when I rebooted?
That company (Zango) should be sued!
BonziBuddy is Deeply Saddened.
BUMP!
LOL!
Beee-yoooo-teee-ful
I’m the guy everyone calls to fix their computer. Many times I’ve wanted to kick Bonzi in the balls, but alas, he seems to have none.
There are a few good reasons why a product may be deliberately made difficult to detect or remove. The owner of a computer may want to run software the users might not want, and he might want the software to be protected from those users. A piece of software that's required for some other piece of software to operate may reasonably include some measures to prevent accidental removal, though it allow an informed user to remove it and accept the consequences.
In general, though, a lot of the junk out there is very deliberately designed to infest the machines of people who either want it gone, or would want it gone if they knew of its existence. While I wouldn't want to throw somebody in jail because the "uninstaller" they wrote for their shareware application didn't clean up absolutely everything, I would see no problem with criminal laws that applied in cases of demonstrable intent.
Absolutely. Lots of spyware has functionality that many people might find useful; it’s the hook they use to get people to install it.
I’ve never had anything but grief with Real Media products. They are incredible resource hogs, buggy and crash-prone, and they do ‘’phone home’’ without asking or even telling you.
One of these days I'll get off of win 98.
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