Desert Rat said:
Don't get me wrong, MS AntiSpyware is a better product
than Spybot S&D for cleaning spyware from your system. But
it falls far short of the functionality of CounterSpy
which won a PC World test. The software is only 19.95 and,
on first run, found 29 more items than MS ASW. If MS can
reach the functionality of Counterspy, or better it, they
will have the top product in the field.
Sunbelt's CounterSpy is a derivative of Giant's AntiSpyware. Sunbelt
got the code snapshot from Giant. Sunbelt can modify their snapshot
however they want to increase the effectiveness of their version of the
core product and they don't have to share with Giant (now Microsoft)
those changes. Per a condition of that contract to Sunbelt, Giant had
to provide signature updates to Sunbelt, so Microsoft has to also
provide those signature updates until July 2007, according to
http://www.windowsitpro.com/Article/ArticleID/44857/44857.html. After
that date, Microsoft will not be supplying signature updates to Sunbelt.
If Microsoft develops a whole new application, they probably won't have
to provide those signature updates and only need to provide signature
updates in the old format for the old code that Sunbelt got. If
CounterSpy is detecting more than MS Antispyware, it is because Sunbelt
is adding more to their version of the product beyond just the
signatures provided to them from Microsoft. Microsoft can do the same
by adding more detection beyond those in the signatures they use and
provided to Sunbelt, but they also have to fix lots of defects in the
product to make it a Microsoft product that is usable by a myriad of its
users instead of the limited scenario provided by Giant.
Sunbelt claims they co-own the Giant code (for the AntiSpyware product).
If that were true, they would have to share any changes with Microsoft.
That's means if CounterSpy detects better than Sunbelt would have to
involve Microsoft in also providing that same better coverage. However,
since they don't shows that they really don't co-own the code. They
probably just bought a snapshot of that code. Companies do that a lot.
They sell off a snapshot which the purchaser owns and can modify but
they don't get rights to the seller's snapshot or any changes made to
it. It is a way for the selling company to generate quick revenue and a
way for the buying company to bootstrap themself into a market, but
neither owns or co-owns the code used by the other party from that
moment on. So far, Sunbelt has not released any information to divulge
the contract that it made with Giant. Maybe when Sunbelt tries to sue
Microsoft over who can develop an SDK for AntiSpyware might they be
forced to disclose the conditions of that contract.
Microsoft could merely use the AntiSpyware product to train their
developers regarding the technology on how to detect and eradicate
spyware, so they'll have a completely separate codebase which has no
legal ties to Sunbelt. So Microsoft won't have to provide signature
updates to Sunbelt for a product that it retires and obsoletes. If
Microsoft provides no signature updates for the old code based version
of AntiSpyware then they won't have any signature updates to deliver to
Sunbelt, and Sunbelt won't get the signature updates for the new code
version of AntiSpyware from Microsoft. If you read
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1743722,00.asp. When push comes to
shove, I suspect Microsoft will win, especially if they develop new code
for a new application and co-ownership is proven a pipe dream on
Sunbelt's part.
