US votes to outlaw spyware

  • Thread starter Thread starter John Fitzsimons
  • Start date Start date
Far Canal said:
John Fitzsimons wrote



Loada smoke & mirror bollocks. Existing laws cover all the phishing -
keylogger stuff, which is straightforward criminal activity. Adding
spyware used to collect browsing habits for advertising purposes only
muddys the water.
Click to expand...

Maybe they could add a clause to allow the prosecution of software
executives that knowingly build operating systems designed to allow
software to be loaded covertly. Think of the revenue the government
could get from people like Bill Gates.
 
Mel said:
This may be On-Topic in APS, but it's Off-Topic in ACF!
Click to expand...

Spyware is a bad form of freeware. Never-the-less it is a form of freeware.
Discussion of the US Government outlawing it should be considered on topic.


BAR
 
Spyware is a bad form of freeware. Never-the-less it is a form of freeware.
Discussion of the US Government outlawing it should be considered on topic.
Click to expand...
It's just another joke like all the other jokes that precede it!

They outlawed alcohol, but people still drank.

They outlawed drugs, but people still take drugs.

They outlawed SPAM, and their's still SPAM.

Now they outlaw Spyware, and their'll still be Spyware.

The Spyware law is an excuse which allows the Police to use Spyware and
Keyloggers to track online activities.
 
Sharky said:
Maybe they could add a clause to allow the prosecution of software
executives that knowingly build operating systems designed to allow
software to be loaded covertly. Think of the revenue the government
could get from people like Bill Gates.
Click to expand...

I have some sad news for you, they aren't going to do one damned
useful thing. They just want it to look like they're doing something
useful while they are spending your money. They're already familiar
with lodging themselves in a system and milking it for all it's worth.

cmsix
 
Time said:
Spyware is a bad form of freeware. Never-the-less it is a form of freeware.
Discussion of the US Government outlawing it should be considered on topic.
Click to expand...

No it's not. Freeware is freeware, spyware is spyware. Spyware is NOT
freeware. Period.
 
John said:
No it's not. Freeware is freeware, spyware is spyware. Spyware is NOT
freeware. Period.
Click to expand...

Which is to say simply that spyware isn't freeware. However, since
spyware is often passed off as being freeware and as such gives freeware
a bad name, discussion of it in that context is on topic in this group.
That it's being "outlawed" (fat chance) is probably of interest to most
in this group.
 
It's just another joke like all the other jokes that precede it!
They outlawed alcohol, but people still drank.
They outlawed drugs, but people still take drugs.
They outlawed SPAM, and their's still SPAM.
Now they outlaw Spyware, and their'll still be Spyware.

The Spyware law is an excuse which allows the Police to use Spyware and
Keyloggers to track online activities.
Click to expand...

What you write about the effectiveness of prohibitions is true, but
has no bearing on topicality. IMO the discussion is on-topic.
 
Bob Adkins wrote



Excellent. This might possibly motivate M$ into fixing their shitty OS
and make it a **** sight more difficult for spyware/trojans/virus to
take advantage of their crappy programming.
Click to expand...

Actually, they did make XP more secure than previous versions, it funny how
most people choose not to run it in it's safest mode. Most XP systems I set
up for people are set up with one account, the administrator account. Now
if I were running Linux, that would be like running the box as root 100% of
the time. For those that might not know, that is a definite no-no in the
Linux world. Nevertheless, because of enhanced accessability, we continue
to choose to run XP this way, admittedly it is a complete PITA to run as a
user. When we make bad choices, it's not necessarily someone else's fault.
There are alternatives out there, and if you want a more secure OS, then
simply download one, it is an option. Where we collectively spend our OS
dollars will affect far greater change than some, stupid, means nothing,
legislation. Currently, the winds of change are blowing for MS, and
eventually they will either fulfill their obligation to their customers, or
they will fail, it's the capitalist way.
 
Bob Adkins said:
I have some interesting news for you and Sharky:

http://news.com.com/Microsoft+seeks...3-5718370.html?part=rss&tag=5718370&subj=news


The gist of it is that Microsoft is getting sued for removing
spyware. How
do you explain that?
Click to expand...

I don't need to explain it but I will. Some lawyer or bunch of lawyers
thought that while they were waiting to get elected to the senate or
congress or to get a lobbying job, they'd take a shot at a really deep
pocket and see if they could get an out of court settlement. I didn't
even need to look at the article to know that.

Wake up and smell the legal system.

cmsix
 
snip

Currently, the winds of change are blowing for MS, and
eventually they will either fulfill their obligation to their customers, or
they will fail, it's the capitalist way.
Click to expand...

That would be the capitalist way in a free market economy.

MS will just do what it takes to keep their virtual monopoly. If
other vendors don't make the effort to port their software and device
drivers to other operating systems , most people will stay with MS.

If MS can influence the legislature to pass laws to shift perception
away from their OS's problems so much the better.

War on drugs, war on terror, war on spyware - all we gotta do is win
those and we are home free.
 
I don't need to explain it but I will. Some lawyer or bunch of
lawyers thought that while they were waiting to get elected to the
senate or congress or to get a lobbying job, they'd take a shot at
a really deep pocket and see if they could get an out of court
settlement. I didn't even need to look at the article to know
that.
Click to expand...

In this case, looking at the article would have saved you the typing.
No one has sued Microsoft over spyware removal. The only lawsuits
mentioned were against PC Pitstop and Lavasoft.
 
H-Man wrote

Actually, they did make XP more secure than previous versions, it funny how
most people choose not to run it in it's safest mode. Most XP systems I set
up for people are set up with one account, the administrator account.
Click to expand...

And the great advantage of running only one account is ???
 
And the great advantage of running only one account is ???
Click to expand...

Using Windows without admin privileges is a PiTA mainly because a lot
of software is written assuming that it will have admin rights. E.g.,
many apps assume that they have write access to the Program Files
directory. Many of the problems created by such apps can be overcome
by explicitly giving them admin rights, but it should not be necessary
to lower security in that way just to make an app useable.

How much blame belongs to Microsoft for encouraging bad coding for so
long (they don't encourage that any more) and how much belongs to
vendors who write the bad code is a matter of opinion, but the bad
code is out there, and not just in old apps written before MS
discovered the notion of limited access.

There are a lot of resources available for those who'd like to try
running as a non-admin. The first two links here have a lot of info
as well as links to other resources. The third one is Microsoft's
list of broken software.

<http://blogs.msdn.com/Aaron_Margosis/>
<http://nonadmin.editme.com/>
<http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;307091>
 
H-Man wrote



And the great advantage of running only one account is ???
Click to expand...

No great advantage, that's the point. I set these machines up this way as a
result of the new owners requesting it, not bercause it's a good idea. The
problem is, with a user account, everytime you want to make a system
change, or install some software, you need to log out and then login as
administrator, make the change and then login as user again. For most
people this is just too much to deal with and therefore choose to run as
root 24/7. As always, a less than completely secure way to run your system.
 
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