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is that legal?? surly thats invasion of privacy and making us pay for internet accses for some rich bitch comapny can abuse us??Quote:
A California company has quietly attached its software to millions of downloads of the popular Kazaa file-trading program and plans to remotely "turn on" people's PCs, welding them into a new network of its own
full story here
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-873181.html
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All I can say is... wow. I know lots of people have gotten in trouble for running kazaa on our network, but I'm pretty sure the heads would have rolled if those in charge had known about this "feature" up front.
Well, according to the company, "it plans to use the machines--**with their owners' permission**--to host and distribute other companies' content"
As long as they can get permission from each user, then there is nothing illegal about it. There is always the threat, however, that they will active the software without acknowledgement from the users, and in that case, it can become illegal, but who is going to enforce it? If it goes to court, they'll just claim that it's like any other banner-run software. Even if it did get further than that in court, it'd probably get dropped because the government would rather try to place the blame on KaZaA for distributing the software, giving them an excuse to shut down another file-sharing client.
Wow, I'm really surprised by this. I remember hearing about something like this - using people's processing power - to help in medical research and stuff like that. But that was only if you wanted to, you'd have to sign up somewhere and specifically say you wanted to help.
It's nothing like this, where the bastards actually put in on your computer without you knowing. I realise that they said theat they aren't going to do it without the user's permission, but I still reckon it shouldn't be allowed. How many times has something just popped up on your screen and you click OK or NEXT or whatever. I always do. What if someone doesn't read it properly and just accepts. I realise that it's their own fault then, but they can't be the only ones to blame. They wouldn't expect something like this without them signing up for it.
I think it's wrong - these people are evil!!! It should be stopped.
Greg
Either way, anyone who has a software firewall which tracks outbound programs will have to allow the new program to access the Internet. And with the advent of so many free personal firewalls out there, many people will have that second layer of protection.