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Spyware Fines OKed By House
glimmy writes "The US House of Represenatives passed a bill that imposes fines on the use of Spyware by a majority of 399-1. This bill excludes programs used by the FBI or spy agencies, though."
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Spyware isn't as secretive as they seem to think it was. Much of it is installed with full knowledge of it's existance, but many people ignore the functions of what they download. I really doubt this will do anything at all because people will keep downloading things like WeatherBug, and think that all it's doing is reporting the weather...
Maybe the feds can make some deals with KaZaa and put some of their spy software into the program, and then KaZaa could have spyware without the fine.
These companies like Claria (Gator) will just hire lawyers to make sure the agreement you click yes to will protect them from any legal action. I would love to see these companies put out of business, but the bottom line is people agree to installing this software. It sucks for me to remove it from my friends' computers, but that's just the way it is. No matter how much I convince them not to install free windows software or use firefox, they won't change their habits any time soon.
Still, it's a step in the "right direction."
So the state reserves the right to spy, but nobody else can do it. How is this gonna fit in with anti-terrorism laws I wonder?
Also, I wonder how close corps like the RIAA really are with the FBI, CIA etc. I wouldn't be surprised if favours are done...
I'm more interested in the criminal provisions which are hopefully coming later this week. Taking away all the ill gotten money is just a nice bonus in my book, hopefully keeps anyone from thinking its a legitimate revenue stream. That and it should be easier to use against corporations which are generally very difficult to press criminal charges against.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
You don't have to admire someone for having an opinion you disagree with, just because they don't 'sell out what they believe'. Osama, Bush, and Kim-Jong Il all refuse to sell out. Do you admire them all?
Then explain why our borders are almost unprotected? We have much more advanced tech monitoring the afg/pak border than we do monitoring the US borders.
It ain't about the terrorists, it is about controling US citizens.
Tell me where the US government has domain over the citizens and organizations of other countries?
"If we let things terrify us, life will not be worth living."
- Seneca
Osama has sold out Islam as portions of the Quron teach against what he has done.
Bush has sold out per his dealings and love of China even though they have a forced abortion policy.
Kill-Jonh Il has sold out as he is a professed commie and he doesn't follow the teachings of that system (not that any commie leader in history has)
Only Microsoft has that kind of control
Down With Slashdot BETA!!! I've been around the corner and seen the oliphant; you can only abuse me from your perspecti
A transaction implies consent on the behalf of both parties. The kinds of spyware that are being banned are the kinds that do not seek the users permission to install or do what they do. That's not a transaction. It should be a crime, and this bill will make it one.
ActiveX drive-by installs should be written into law as a specific example of something that is not a user trying to "explicitly choose" something.
CEE5210S The signal SIGHUP was received.
HA! That's all that yours does? Mine not only gives me links to where I can buy Viagra to be sure to be ready, but it gives me links to where I can meet young, horny women in my area. The best part of it all is that if I can't find any YHW in my area, everytime I think about sex, it opens a new window with all the pr0n a man could need.
-------
Actually it was none of the above. It was an adherence to principles. Something rare these days.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
a mafia extortion is a transaction between two individuals, and one i certainly hope he would "flip flop" to make illegal
stubborness is not a virtue, it's a sign of a rusty, dogmatic, and stupid individual.
learn to adapt.
shaolin punk, activist post-industrial
Ron Paul is one of the finest senators we have. It's worth reading why he voted 'no'. He is a man of principle and isn't scared to stand against the vast majority when something violates his principles.
So in answer to your question, I can't say that I would like to be him, because I like being myself, but if I had to choose among which elected officials to be, he would be in my top 5, easy.
The only defeat is when you compromise your principles. Then you are utterly defeated.
EULA
Maybe Ron Paul (L-Texas) actually read the full text of the bill and understood that beneath it's geek-friendly title was a freedom-unfriendly law.
You may think its funny to criminalize spyware, but that's the first step down a very slippery slope. Spywares are not viruses or trojans. They only get installed via user consent. A government that has the power to criminalize spyware between a consenting user and publisher has the power to criminalize [insert any consensual activity here].
You don't outlaw mere annoyances. That's taking the power of government way too far, no matter what political stripe you are. Do we ban nose picking next? Belching at the table? Spyware may be annoying, but if it's on your system, you have only yourself to blame. If you're an admin and it's running amock on your wee 'bairns then look to your users and not to the spyware publishers.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
opt in, not opt out
get Fed to pressure state banking departments to pull licenses of mortgage brokers for spam on first offense, making the mortgage broker as beneficiary, not email sender the violator, thereby negating all the brokers evading can-spam through affiliate programs
Stop fax.com from daily spamming my home fax machine by holding them responsible by following the money instead of trying to figure out forged headers
Nail real estate brokers, and pull their licenses by following the money in the spam, not trying to follow forged headers
get SEC to delist penny and dollar public companies that hire pr companies and pay them in stock and cash to spam my fax machine via fax.com
Over a ten year period, remove ability of banks to write off losses on credit card fraud, thereby lighting a fire under their asses to cooperate with individual victims instead of ignoring them. Instead of sticking the taxpayers with 100% of the losses, they should be limited to 90% next year, and 10% less every year after that, until they get ZERO writeoff, while preserving mandatory consumer protection. This will seriously rearrange their attitude on fraud, instead of passing the buck to the taxpayer, and doing nothing to help consumers.
Follow the money on investigations of spamming. Create Social Security numbers for investigators to use with other created identity info, and get the new cooperation of the banks through their lost deduction above, and get them to participate in follow-the-money spam investigations, sharing seized money and assets to cover bank and investigative agency expenses.
Stop the stupid do not spam list dead in its tracks, an idea a spammer testified in front of Congress as a "target-rich" list he'd like to get his hands on. And don't let Schumer knock you over when he sees the news cameras while killing this stupid, stupid idea. The tip for watching out for Schumer running to get in front of news cameras comes from reporters commenting on his tactics probably more than ten years ago, and watching his hunger for the camera since then. Be careful. And call him on this stupid, stupid idea.
make a web site devoted to outing Congress members who support the direct marketing association and other spammers instead of consumer in boxes. And keep track of who the good guys are, so that voters clearly know where their Congress person has voted on over the years.
Feel free to add, modify, or tear down my ideas. But don't let them die, as following the money and pulling licenses of licensed industry spammers is very effective. It will stop mortgage brokers from buying spamming services and using affiliate programs to skirt the law almost overnight as soon as a few dozen mortgage brokers lose their licenses. This can be done in one investigation in the first year.
And, above is just opinion, hoping to get ideas into someone in a position to make a difference, since I missed the deadline in submitting the comments to the FTC, so hopefully some Congress person's assistant reads this. So add, tear down, keep re-posting similar comments on future stories, just don't mod me down too much as I've been banned after getting modded up to 5, then down to 0 then up a few, then down 1, and then changing my subnet to try and defend a post after getting banned, and getting banned for months for changing my ip to a different one in the same subnet and posting after getting banned. So go easy. I learned my lesson and trying to make my karma (from my ip even though I'm posting anon) a bit better. Thanks for allowing me to vent.
If I work for an employer and they monitor me via Spyware, they can be fined!
If I browse an Internet ad that installs Spyware, the host of that ad can be fined for infecting my system.
Remember, Slashdot does not have a -1 disagree moderation, and no, troll, flamebait, and overrated are not substitutes.
I just spent a while this weekend trying to remove dozens of these things from my parents' laptop and I decided the main problem are three things in windows:
1. IE shouldn't be "customizable" by other apps at all, period. Any extra browser bars added on should be able to be seen and removed (permanently) just by going to the "View > Toolbar" menu.
2. There should be one easy way to see for sure what programs are running at startup and decide if you want them to or not. It'd be nice if you didn't have anything in your "startup" folder if nothing started up when windows booted! Somehow, that's not the case. Being able just to stop these things from auto-starting when you do get one would be 99% of cure.
3. Every application should be able to be fully uninstalled from the "add/remove programs" area.
If these three things just worked, spyware would soon be a dim memory of the early 2000s!
* Rights belong to individuals, not groups.
* Property should be owned by people, not government.
* All voluntary associations should be permissible -- economic and social.
* The government's monetary role is to maintain the integrity of the monetary unit, not participate in fraud.
* Government exists to protect liberty, not to redistribute wealth or to grant special privileges.
* The lives and actions of people are their own responsibility, not the government's.
Gee, almost sounds like a libertarian, right? Then you read stuff like this rant. So in other words, he supports people's rights to all voluntary social and economic associations for certain values of voluntary, namely "socially conservative".
He may be consistent over time, but his statements are mutually and internally inconsistent. If he really believed in social liberty and freedom, he would not describe himself as a cultural or social conservative, which is also translated as "authoritarian". If the lives and actions of people are their own business, why does he care who has sex with whom or how marriage is defined?
Nothing pisses me off as much as Republicans who steal the verbiage of socially liberal positions, and then turn around and disparage the word liberal like it means something dirty by attacking the straw man position that all liberals favor massive redistribution of wealth. I'm also not a libertarian, but if I were I would probably be offended by this guy borrowing my platform and abusing it.
Yes, this is the "Spy Act", as opposed to the "I-Spy" act (4661).
Looking at the provisions it seems the attribution "Spyware" is more a case of hype though. The act is much wider in its scope than what a /. reader would define as spyware.
1B,C,D,E could be paraphrased in a nanosecond by the average /. reader. Leaving the most important provision: "utilizing such computer to send unsolicited information or material from the protected computer to others".
And yes it does contain a provision banning "Collecting personally identifiable information through the use of a keystroke logging function or similar function."
This part, "Removing, disabling, or rendering inoperative a security, anti-spyware, or anti-virus technology installed on the computer." ...would be easy to break. I suppose the action has to be "wilful".
Not before time.
It says "such that the user is prevented from viewing the content at the intended Web page;"
If you're going to a non-existent domain, there's no content to view. Doesn't apply.
Also have you bother to check on what Avenue A does for a living? They sell data on companies. What to but information from your competitor? Want to find out how he's bidding work. Well they will sell you this info! Now how exactly do they harvest this information. Know how to say "Data Mining".
Spybot didn't give an error when I went to this companies internal site which uses session cookies. Whatever you say thier is more going on here than just cookie's and milk.
Set up shop outside the border and you're immune, sadly.
Sadly? Excuse Me?
Ok, I'm as much against spyware as the next guy, and from what I've read this seems like a pretty good, well intentioned bill.
But I am MUCH more opposed to having a foreign country impose its laws on me, restricting the freedoms that I possess according to my country's laws than I am to spyware.
Please, think before you say such things, people around the world are just as opposed to having the US impose its laws on them, as you would be in the opposite circumstances.
This is not a sig.