Spyware opponents win another battle ??

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The Federal Trade Commission won an important victory last week in its fight to protect consumers from spyware, the software that tracks unsuspecting Web surfers, bombards them with advertisements and sometimes even steals log-in information and passwords.

On Thursday, the U.S. District Court in Concord, N.H., granted a temporary restraining order against former self-proclaimed spam king Sanford Wallace and his two companies, Seismic Entertainment Productions and Smartbot.net

U.S. District Court Judge Joseph DiClerico Jr. ruled that Wallace and his businesses must refrain from exploiting Internet security vulnerabilities. Specifically, Wallace was given 24 hours to remove--from any Web site, bulletin board or Internet server controlled by him or his companies software--script that exploits vulnerabilities in Web browsers in order to install, download or deposit software onto a computer without a user's knowledge.

Wallace's attorney could not be reached for comment. But a message posted on a Web site controlled by one of Wallace's companies and signed "from Sanford Wallace" says he plans to cooperate with the authorities and "show that our operations are legal."

The court's ruling is significant because it indicates that the existing federal trade laws could be sufficient in prosecuting spyware cases.

"We view the court's granting of temporary relief as a strong victory for consumers," said Laura Sullivan, an attorney for the Federal Trade Commission. "It will be an effective tool in protecting them against the unfair use of spyware."

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The rest of this can be viewed here: http://news.com.com/Spyware+opponent...l?tag=nefd.top

Just recently a friend of mine installed winamp 2.78 (cause his "toaster" doesnt handle the latest very well) and entered yahoo.com, normaly listnning (bad english i know) to music while surfin when sudently pow, searchbar, webcast etc etc all over his desktop...what the hell?
Well, it is my belive that the Spyware/Adaware battle has just begun and nobody trully won anything..

Greetings young man (happy birthday.........OK three weeks late)),

Welcome to the World of reality.

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Just recently a friend of mine installed winamp 2.78 (cause his "toaster" doesnt handle the latest very well) and entered yahoo.com, normaly listnning (bad english i know) to music while surfin when sudently pow, searchbar, webcast etc etc all over his desktop...what the hell?

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This is the "problem".................he did not read the "small print"?

If someone deliberately downloads and installs software that contains adware or spyware that is their irresponsibility. They should have read the EULA..........security policy, privacy policy and so on..........do they ever?.................NO! :(

Now, the case you quoted refers to running hidden scripts with no warning, and EXPLOITING VULNERABILITIES in browser and OS software. That is totally wrong, and must be legislated against and stopped. In that respect, it was a victory?

On the other hand, your friend's experience might be equally traumatic, but is legally quite different. He "shot himself in the foot"

An old saying is: "There is no such thing as a free meal"...............well, there are............just make sure that you fully understand why they are "free" before you sit down at the table :D

My thoughts............

Cheers

Actually this is a really big win. Seems there are lots of private networks out there and some users have privlage to click on stuff. These agreements or EULA's DO NOT take this into account, or if they do I did not read it as Admin before they clicked. So we read about the "Spam King" being told to stop but what about "Double Click", or "Data Miner". I do a sweep weekly and want to know how many systems I find that have a "Registry Setting" from them lost count. Point being a cick on an ad by them = Registry Setting, this is = messing with computer settings..the FTC says it's a no no they chenged my work standard and "Registry Settings". To change this is not good and costs me much lost time and effort. The end usres may or may not be authorized to make such a choice..these EULA's do not thake this into account. Until software vendors make it so their software cannot reach the "Registry level" to run and be productive shall such things go away. Go figure some software for a person to actually work needs SU status or Power User status...are they makeing yet another problem to solve? Stil wainting on the why is it 80% of my spam off of ligit Hotmail, AOL, and Yahoo accounts....Solve it big boys! EULA's are gonna die and some day people will know the marketing fluff of Microsoft is not Bill's watch that tells you the temp cause if it's cold outside you will know that dah!!! Gary Kildall never sued M$ but Bill made Billions off is unauthorized use of his software (oops that make him a hacker) Gary died in 1994 oh he also was behind the GUI and networking and interactive media. Just Google the name find the facts..FTC needs to nail DataMiner and Double Click!

Thanx nihil :D!

well one of the reasons i posted this was to get all views on the subject.
My friend really shoot himself on the foot has u said, like millions do evry damm day, but another curious fact is that, the version of winamp that he installed (besides being old) is the same version that some years ago was the "normal and current version of winamp" and that i also had installed at the time, and never had problems with it "nor" iv heard that someone had has well. But besides that, its true, most people dont read the EULA or Disclamer etc, personaly since i was kinda of "burned" 2 years ago when i lost 30Gb of data that toke me years to complete i made changes on my way of thinking about this subject, but its just to damm boring and time consuming to read Disclamers, Agreements etc..and it seams that the *small between lines* are getting really small with time..

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Well, it is my belive that the Spyware/Adaware battle has just begun and nobody trully won anything..

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Hum okay, u guys are right, i might have "missjudged" the point here, but has Palemoon said, there are still alot of holes to close, and seams that each day new ones arrive to replace the ones that we though that were already closed.
Well this is just what i know, its not much but thats why i search for other opinions to try and learn more :)

Cheers!!!