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Using Spyware to Report Pirates?

Posted by Cliff on from the do-the-ends-justify-the-means dept.

An anonymous reader asks: "I have visibility to AUP complaints we receive at work, and we receive messages from a software vendor that make it obvious that their product is phoning home when it discovers it is running a cracked copy of itself." Apparently the software phones home, and then the publisher's legal department sends the administrator an e-mail. "The message goes on to detail the users IP, a timestamp, the product in question, the users PC name, username, and MAC address. This falls under -my- definition of 'spyware.' What are your thoughts?" Software has been making surreptitious checks for "piracy" for over a decade, yet these checks are usually limited to the software itself, and not data on the user's machine. Do you feel software publishers should have the right to peer into users data, if their software suspects foul play on the machine, or should it do the easy and intelligent thing and just stop working?

9 of 1,013 comments (clear)

  1. Hey yanks -- ready to hear the truth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    God Bless America

    God Bless America, with the worst crime levels in the first world
    God Bless America, where "democracy" means a rich, white male as President
    God Bless America, the biggest consumer of the world's natural resources
    God Bless America, where "freedom of speech" means race-hate groups like KKK
    God Bless America, and its massive and ever-growing poverty gap
    God Bless America, with the highest obesity levels in the developed world
    God Bless America, all its appalling "sitcoms" with no grasp of irony
    God Bless America, because corporations should be allowed to run amok
    God Bless America, wasting billions to attack foreign countries

    God Bless America, and thank God I don't have to live there.

    1. Re:Hey yanks -- ready to hear the truth? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

      And you, you fucknugget, are an example of WHY things never change in the USA.

      Yeah, we may be totally shitty, but they're worse... *pointpoint*

  2. Yes. by hackwrench · · Score: -1, Troll

    Yes it is Spyware and IMO Kucinich is the best Presidential candidate to be most for passing laws against this sort of thing.

  3. Aww diddums, have no argument do we? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    God Bless America

    God Bless America, with the worst crime levels in the first world
    God Bless America, where "democracy" means a rich, white male as President
    God Bless America, the biggest consumer of the world's natural resources
    God Bless America, where "freedom of speech" means race-hate groups like KKK
    God Bless America, and its massive and ever-growing poverty gap
    God Bless America, with the highest obesity levels in the developed world
    God Bless America, all its appalling "sitcoms" with no grasp of irony
    God Bless America, because corporations should be allowed to run amok
    God Bless America, wasting billions of dollars to attack foreign countries

    God Bless America, and thank God I don't have to live there.

  4. IN SOVIET RUSSIA... by Un+pobre+guey · · Score: -1, Troll
    select one
    • ...spyware installed itself in you!
    • ...spyware? Yawn.
    • ...spyware didn't exist. Officially.
    • ...you spied on the spyware.
  5. IN SOVIET RUSSIA... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    Please go draw a warm bath and open your veins. Thanks. No, your veins do not open you there.

  6. Using Spyware to Report Pirates? by pandrel · · Score: 0, Troll

    I would have to say, this is well with in the software companies rights. If you use cracked versions of licensed software the software companines should be allowed to do anything they can to stop the illegal use of they're product.

  7. Re:why not? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    As someone who makes a living writing peer-to-peer software

    I'm calling bullshit on you. Nobody makes a living writing p2p software. You might be living off of some savings while writing p2p software or maybe you found some dipshit stupid enough to bankroll your writing of said software, but you aren't earning money from that software.

  8. Re:What we want to know... by treat · · Score: 0, Troll
    On my machines I run Sygate Personal Firewall. I have it set to block traffic based on application, not port number

    Can Linux do this?

    If not, Windows is more secure than Linux for a desktop user.