Scarecrow Man Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I have to admit, this is funny. I had a nice, long laugh about this one. Adware company DirectRevenue has included code in its software that seeks out and destroys competing adware. Another adware company whose software is targeted for destruction has filed a lawsuit against them. This is sort of like a slap fight on Jerry Springer. Both sides are sleazy and it is hard to decide who to root for but it sure is funny to watch.In the end though, I would have to say that DirectRevenue is in the wrong. You can't have software that destroys someone else's software, unless the computer owner wants it to be destroyed. You certainly shouldn't be destroying software from a competitor.A few years ago a media player called Radlight did the basically the same thing. Radlight installed WhenU adware and it also destroyed any installation of Ad-Aware. Virtually the entire antispyware community (very small at the time, but extremely loud) declared war. Radlight was condemned on web sites and message boards everywhere; boycotts were organized; the press picked up on it; and Radlight's software became targeted as malware by both Ad-aware and Spybot.It was wrong then and it is wrong now. Deliberately installing software that you know is going to remove other software, such as antispyware or antivirus programs, is one thing. Simply eradicating your competitors is something else entirely and DirectRevenue should stop doing it.Also, someone has just pointed out a very in-depth article about DirectRevenue at MSNBC's web site.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6689667/site/newsweek/Spyware Weekly Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
andsome Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I have to admit, this is funny. I had a nice, long laugh about this one. Adware company DirectRevenue has included code in its software that seeks out and destroys competing adware. Another adware company whose software is targeted for destruction has filed a lawsuit against them. This is sort of like a slap fight on Jerry Springer. Both sides are sleazy and it is hard to decide who to root for but it sure is funny to watch.In the end though, I would have to say that DirectRevenue is in the wrong. You can't have software that destroys someone else's software, unless the computer owner wants it to be destroyed. You certainly shouldn't be destroying software from a competitor.A few years ago a media player called Radlight did the basically the same thing. Radlight installed WhenU adware and it also destroyed any installation of Ad-Aware. Virtually the entire antispyware community (very small at the time, but extremely loud) declared war. Radlight was condemned on web sites and message boards everywhere; boycotts were organized; the press picked up on it; and Radlight's software became targeted as malware by both Ad-aware and Spybot.It was wrong then and it is wrong now. Deliberately installing software that you know is going to remove other software, such as antispyware or antivirus programs, is one thing. Simply eradicating your competitors is something else entirely and DirectRevenue should stop doing it.Also, someone has just pointed out a very in-depth article about DirectRevenue at MSNBC's web site.http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6689667/site/newsweek/Spyware WeeklyLock 'em all up and loose the key Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zfactor Posted December 13, 2004 Report Share Posted December 13, 2004 I still cannot fathom why it is that spyware and spyware programs are not illegal... Even if only in one country since the world wide web is not centralized. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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