malware at its worst

i've hear before about spyware that disables ad-aware, now check out this little baby.


Calling the tactic "malware at its worst," Lavasoft said its privacy software is being silently deleted when users install a third-party multimedia player.
Newsbytes has confirmed that installing RadLight version 3.03 deletes Lavasoft's Ad-Aware program, as promised in a warning in the software's 1,100-word license agreement.

http://www.newsbytes.com/news/02/176075.html

these guys are really out of hand. Now their telling us what programs we're allowed to have on our computers. i hope this gets stopped in its tracks

This is sick. Under no circumstances should software delete other software without a yes/no message box.

Damn Tedob you beat me to it.

Good post :)

Actually ... I beat Tebob to it:

http://www.antionline.com/showthread...937#post501937

But let's not get picky ...

Cheers,

BrainStop

I remeber an early version of RealPlayer that use to change IE's homepage. I thought that was a little intrusive!

I'm sure there must be some form of legal action that LavaSoft will take....

Having been a mirror for Radlight for the past four months (North American mirror #2), this is the absolute first time I've seen the people at Radlight do anything like this. They use SaveNow (which is targeted by Ad-Aware) to get money from ads and such (since this is made by a group of college guys with limited income). I don't blame them for using third-party utilities and such but since there's a check-box in the beginning allowing the user to NOT install SaveNow, etc, then it shouldn't be a problem. This means that the deletion occurs the first time you run Radlight (which is true, I've done it) and let me tell you, Ad-Aware is GONE. No folder, no registry entries no nothing...I'm working with these guys trying to figure out why it does that and why they put that in there. Will keep everyone posted.

I don't mind the fact that Radlight ships with spyware, or targeted Ads. But what DOES bother me, is the fact that it uninstalls another program, without asking. Why couldn't they have simply made it so that it told the user, that they would have to remove Ad-Aware before continuing the install?

From a comment I read on slashdot about this story, it appears that Ad-Aware has already fixed this problem, on their end. Meaning that Radlight won't delete it. Take that with a grain of salt, cuz i haven't had time to check it out to see if it is true or not.

That's just plain wrong. Spyware is acceptable in programs, spyware that deletes other progs is not.

yes.. this is alarming.. thanks BrainStop, Tedob1.. (i couldn't decide in which of the two threads to post my response.. but it seems that BrainStop is cheerful, so he won't mind that i picked this one.. )
here is something that i saw posted at another forum.

Get AdAware Checker 1.01
- Watches silently in the background until malicious (or potentially malicious) action is taken against Ad-Aware files. (The main Ad-Aware executable and the reflist.)
- Is very small, and thus uses up little memory when running.
- You can specify the scanning interval.
- Checks for changes to files - not just if the files get deleted. (So rogue programs can't delete themselves from the Ad- Aware reference list so they aren't detected.)

http://www.wilderssecurity.com/aawchecker.html


Ad-Aware Reference file 108-23-04-02 .This update targets Radlight (22 Kb)

http://www.bagpipes.net/files/lavasoft/reflist.zip



(cheers to you, Brainstop...)

Once again your computer becomes a battleground
between rival software companies.

• IE vs Netscape
• Norton vs Mcaffee
• Tyson vs Holyfield

stay tuned...
:cool:

Stuff like this has gotten me more serious about reading End User License Agreements (EULA). I usually at least scan them to make sure I'm not installing spyware.

OMFG!!!!!!!!! I ran Ad-aware earlier today... then i got the newest reglist (which i had be keeping updated) and i had sooooooo much crap on there...

And i thought the new sites which alter your browser buttons was bad!! At least that gives you the option not to allow it - but just deleting a piece of software on ur computer with no prompt? Is it just me or does that no sound like a virus?

My computer - my software - my choice!!

v_Ln