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NYS Senator Suggests Criminalizing Spyware

Posted by timothy on from the truth-in-labeling dept.

putch writes "New York State Senator Michael Balboni has introduced legislation to make the dissemination of spyware a criminal act. You can read the full bill text here. Is this a good thing? It defines spyware as software that transmits personal information or computer usage data without obtaining explicit approval from the user. It would seem to me (IANAL) that it would be quite unenforceable, but may send the right message to spyware outfits. Also interesting is that it requires any 'legitimate' spyware to disclose any bandwidth it may consume and requires the disclosure to be in bits per second." The bill is quite short and readable. (This might remind you of the recently introduced anti-spyware bill in the U.S. Senate.)

3 of 322 comments (clear)

  1. In other words... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll
    ..."It defines spyware as software that transmits personal information or computer usage data without obtaining explicit approval from the user."...

    ...he means Microsoft Windows(tm).

  2. politics - party politics by sketchkid · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well I hope this (the issue, not this particular proposition) doesn't die due to party politics. It would be a shame to see the republican congress (house and senate) decide to support the idea to "let the market sort it out".

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  3. Re:Agreed by danlor · · Score: 0, Troll

    News flash buddy!

    If your program causes a blue screen, it's your fault! I don't care if you simply called a win32 API called BSOD. As far as I am concerned, if you write software it is your responsibility to make sure that the machine does not crash on your cpu cycle. No blaming it on the API you are using either. If you know that the API causes the crash, then change APIs on pull your program. simple as that. If there are no remaining APIs available, then you better write your own code, or again, pull your software.

    I find it absolutely infuriating that this windows word thinks it's just fine to "leverage" thirdparty APIs and play stupid when they fail. Guess what! Microsoft writes buggy software! Maybe you shouldn't jump in to bed with them just to save time on development.

    Here is another idea, maybe you should hold the API developer responsible when the API crashes YOUR computer during development!

    This has to stop somewhere. The way we are going right now, it will be some stupid overbearing government regulation that puts the industry in a noose. Is that what you want? No? Then stop the insanity!