[per loin]

What you suggest would be the same as locking up someone who follows you as you perform your daily routine of leaving your driveway, going to McDonalds for breakfast, stopping by your bank, going to the dry cleaners, visiting your grandmother at the retirement center, stopping by a bar for a beer on the way home, then finally stopping the chase once you hit your driveway.

If the chase stopped at the driveway, no crime. But the spyware continues on into your house (continuing your analogy) posts advertisements on your living room walls, unlocks your back door, and alerts other criminals to it being unlocked. It also partially disables your car to make it easier to follow you.

[xrp]

Good call, but the ad/spy catching programs are installed by the user, so in essense, it is as if the private detective stops at your driveway and then you go out to your mailbox and invite him in your house for tea and crumpets. Then you give him a paintbrush and paint and tell him to paint some graffiti on your walls.