CastleCops recently received a letter from iDownload claiming that we have incorrectly classified iDownload as Spyware and demanding that we remove them. Interestingly enough we were given a 5 day window to comply with their demand, but we didn't actually receive it until the 6th day. Brian Livingston's published an article regarding the cease and desist letters being sent out by iDownload, indicating not only did CastleCops, Spywarewarrior, Spyware Guide and SunBelt Software all receive similar letters, but the CEO of iDownload is calling the campaign a "success"?
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When iDownload's CEO, Arlo Gilbert, called me, I asked which companies had received a cease-and-desist letter from iDownload's attorney. "It would not be in our best interest to share that list," Gilbert said.
He did assert that the letter was having the desired effect. "The majority of sites we've contacted have taken down or properly classified iSearch," Gilbert stated.
When asked to name some of the sites that had complied, Gilbert answered, "I'm not going to share that information. It would be shooting a gift horse in the mouth."
Gilbert added, "The people who are profiting off this information and have not reclassified the information will be sued." When asked for the names of some companies that iDownload has filed suits against, Gilbert said, "We're not going to reveal it," but added that the suits were a matter of public record that could be looked up.
CastleCops subsequently responded to iDownload but we were not the only ones. Suzi from Spywarewarrior also posted her reply publically in her blog and now Alex Eckelberry President of Sunbelt Software has also made their reply publically available.
I find myself asking the question what exactly does Mr. Gilbert consider success? Does it fall into a similar category of "acceptable loss" or "collateral damage"?
Since the threat tactics of iDownload were made public, their practice and products and choice of attorney have been under scrutiny, by the security community and public at large. There have been a number of questionable things uncovered by individual sources, like the unauthorized use of ICSA Certification published at Edbott.com
The company claims the product is certified by ICSA Labs. This is a prestigious honor and not lightly awarded. ICSA Labs is a division of CyberTrust, which was formed recently by a merger of TruSecure Corporation and BeTrusted. Its staff and management number some of the world’s foremost authorities on computer security and information technology. To earn ICSA Labs certification, a product must pass a series of stringent tests, and it can be removed if it fails the testing at any time.
When I reviewed the list of certified products at ICSA Labs’ Web site, I did not see any mention of Virus Hunter. So I fired off an e-mail to Larry Bridwell, Content Security Programs Manager for ICSA Labs. I received the following response within three minutes:
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VirusHunter is NOT certified by ICSA Labs nor has it ever been submitted for testing.
We have sent a letter by post requesting that the certification claim be removed.
I don't understand how what they are doing or have been doing can be called a success. Perhaps that is because we at CastleCops measure our success in relation to Our Vision. Maybe it is because we value above all things integrity, or because we believe in doing the things we do and helping the people we do because it is the right thing to do. Our success and that of the Anti-Spyware/Security community is measured in the number of people who are freed from the applications they don't wish to be on their systems. It is measured by the people we help to educate on how to protect themselves, their systems and their families