Anti-Spyware Bill up for Vote in Congress

paul_friedman writes "According to Reuters - The U.S. House of Representatives will vote as soon as next week on a measure to crack down on deceptive "spyware" that hides in users' computers and secretly monitors their activities."

Comments

Won't this legalize Spyware?

[erick99]

The bill approved by Barton's committee would require software makers to notify people before loading new programs on their machines that can collect information about them. Violators could face millions of dollars in fines.

A lot of these programs do tell you that they are going to load Gator or some other piece of sh*tware. However, it is buried in the middle of the EULA which most people "pagedown" through rather than read 10 or 15 screens of fine type legalese. I do read them or at least scan them for the part about giving me even more

"free productivity"

software. This legislation like the spam legislation (CanSpam), will simply embolden those who have been hesitant. Now that they can legally load your system up with spyware as long as tell you somewhere, no matter how hard it would be to actually find it, they will do so. I just wonder what these politicians are smoking when they come up with these "solutions."

-erick

Oh whatever

[screwedcork]

As if the people who write spyware care about the law and doing what's right

Yeah,Sure

[rainman_bc]

It's probably going to be as effective as the CANSPAM act.

How are they going to nail people in Russia and China?

politicians and technology do not mix

[loose electron]

More useless laws that can not be enforced.

Just like attempts to make P2P filesharing illegal, it will be virtually impossible to regulate or control.

No doubt...

[Anonymous Coward]

Corporations contributing to congressional campaigns are exempt, of course.

Isn't this already illegal?

[halivar]

Isn't this already illegal? Lately I'm afraid of legislation banning things that are already illegal. Take the DMCA, for instance; copyright violations were already punishable, but all of a sudden a whole slough of other things are, too.

I say, let's strengthen our ability to enforce laws we already have on fraud and invasion of privacy. It seems new laws, making more things illegal will simply become another "gotcha" for folks using legitimate software.

Finally!

[Jaycatt]

I was just doing a training for my coworkers about what spyware is/does. No one had ever heard of it, and didn't know they should be scanning their PCs. I remember telling them that I hoped it would be the next "big thing" they'd start passing laws about (like they did with viruses and spam). Glad to see that hope may come true!

It'd really be nice to see this issue talked about in the more mainstream press, so that it gets a negative following like spam has. Might not solve it, but at least people will know it exists.

Hmm...

[queenofthe1ring]

It will be combined with another bill, passed by the Judiciary Committee (news - web sites), that would establish criminal penalties for those who use spyware to commit identity theft or other crimes.

So now it's going to be a crime to commit a crime?

Re:NO!

[LiquidCoooled]

You know times are hard when your own family outsources your technical assistance.

Re:Nothing can be done

[frankthechicken]

Exactly the number of people who want to have weatherbug on their PC, the number of people who purposely download and install Claria products is ridiculous.

People want these things because it gives them cool things, they don't care what happens in the background.

I personally equate it to smoking, without the risks of using the product being fully known about or appreciated.

Perhaps the preventative measures taken against such adware products should be similar to smoking. Large, prominent notices being required, detailing the risks of using the software, perhaps higher taxes on companies deemed to be adware firms.

Unfortunately the ability to label such problematic software is, well, problematic.

Re:NO!

[Pig Hogger]

80% of what I do at work is cleaning spyware. I would be out of a job if it stopped existing.

Then, you are a part of the problem. Vested interests that benefit from the status quo.

Sorry but

[needacoolnickname]

I think governments really have more important things to think about than spyware and spam - oh, I don't know... wars, the economy, health care, education, ways to spend the money they make off the tobacco industry for everything possible except for the health issues they are saying they nede the money to pay for...

If someone installs spyware it is their fault. Nothing is free on a Windows machine. Take some personal responsibility for jebus sake.

Here's a question. Why are all the spyware programs written for Windows rather than Mac or Linux. There are perfectly good freeware programs for the other OSs and they aren't laden with the crap?

Wouldn't it make more sense...

[Sentry21]

Maybe it's just me, but wouldn't it make more sense to create an agency (in the manner of the FCC or CRTC) with the mandate to regulate these types of activities? That one agency, given the ability to pass regulations as the FCC has, would be able to regulate things like SPAM, Spyware, and other interests (viruses perhaps?). They could impose fines for companies that write programs to do this kind of work, publish lists of software banned under the regulations, and so forth.

Just like the acts that created the CRTC and the FCC, it would be a simple matter for Congress to say 'there is a problem, you guys handle it', rather than having to learn the full issue every time something needs to be done.

--Dan

Hurrah! Congress is on the case!

[Anonymous Coward]

If you'll excuse me, I have to go upstairs and uninstall SpybotSD and Ad-Aware from my Windows box!

This is just like when they made spam illegal. Oh, the joy I felt when I removed all the anti-spam measures from my server-- my heart was truly singing!