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Spyware Notification Bill Introduced

Posted by michael on from the click-here-to-give-up-first-born-son dept.

cheinonen writes "According to this article at News.com, Rep. Mary Bono has introduced a bill that would require software manufacturers to notify you if they plan to install spyware on your machine. I might not be a legal genius, but won't they just get around this by noting this in the EULA, which many people already do, since you're supposedly required to read and agree to that anyway? Will this bill do anything at all?"

5 of 25 comments (clear)

  1. The Benefit would be... by gartogg · · Score: 4, Interesting

    That if it's a self installer, and It dpesn't com packaged with another application, It would need to pop up a Window. This in itself would slow the spywear installation trend.

    And no-one would mind a lawsuit for no-compliance... except the bastards who are trying to invade our computers in the first place.

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    I'm a concientious .sig objector.
  2. big surprise. by Unknown+Poltroon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Let me guess, the bill will have no teeth, and yeat the senator comes off looking like someone whos doing a good thing. Smoke and mirrors, the foundations of current politics

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    All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
  3. "conspicuous location" by ClosedSource · · Score: 4, Insightful

    From the article:

    "The bill would require companies to post an agreement in a conspicuous location telling computer users that spyware is being installed."

    I doubt that the burying it in the EULA would qualify as "conspicuous", but the devil is in the details of the bill.

  4. See: Tobacco and Alcohol labeling. by jfisherwa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If they made it similar to the Surgeon General's Warning on tobacco and alcohol products, whereby the company basically gets to choose from a number of straightforward preset messages that must be displayed as prominently as the company logo and be at least %n as large, I think we could have a winnner.

    WARNING: This software includes "spyware," which when installed will grant us access to track all of your web viewing habits.

  5. More informed users, less Kazaa? by s4f · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Didn't the act that created virtual perpetual copyright come from Mary Bono? (Or Sonny get that one done before he became one with that tree?)

    In any case, what's the most popular SpyWare? Kazaa?

    Who's the favorite whipping boy of the "copyright industry?", Kazaa?

    Who derives most of their profits from SpyWare? Kazaa?

    Who would be most inconvenienced by a law that forced them to tell their customers that they're installing SpyWare? Kazaa?

    Who among the the average userbase would choose to install SpyWare on their systems if it was made plainly obvious to them that it was happening? I'd say less than do now.

    Less users, less profit, less Kazaa to annoy "Big Media."