[Chemist_Geek]

My own opinion is that anything that takes over your private computer without your informed consent should be illegal and that anyone distributing such programs and those paying to have it distributed (the engine that drives this train) should be held criminally responsible.

It can be argued that spyware's actions constitute theft. Burglary, I suppose, although that depends on the statutory definition. The problem is that the "consent" is rarely, if ever, truly informed.

[goldstategop]

Try wading through a 6,000 screen EULA to find out exactly what the license says. The waste of bandwidth alone is criminal.