Inside an Adware Company

Haikster writes "Brad Stone of Newsweek wrote a great article exposing DirectRevenue which is actually a combination of the old Dash guys with IPInsight, abetterinternet, offeroptimizer and blackstonemedia and the others... it's a bit lengthy but a great read."

Comments

They just use standard FOSS philosphophy

[Neil Blender]

Information wants to be free. Your information.

Where's the part with the burning and the fires?

[EnronHaliburton2004]

The article is missing a critical piece...

where enraged citizens storm the building, set it on fire, seize the funds from the bank accounts and distribute to orphanages everywhere and leave the Adware staff tied up to lightpoles with a note for the police.

Dark. And noisy.

[Tackhead]

> He says his company is committed to "transparency" and is making it easier for users to uninstall its software.

When pressed, he defined "easy" as "sorta like dipping your balls in sweet cream and squatting in a kitchen full of feral cats."

And you don't wanna know what "transparent" looked like.

Re:Where's the part with the burning and the fires

[prtsoft]

sounds good to me, where do you want to meet? ;)

I'm a newb

[ltbarcly]

How do you install adware in debian? I tried apt-get install virus, apt-get install adware, apt-get install malware, nothing works. man, linux is crap

Re:Where's the part with the burning and the fires

[EnronHaliburton2004]

Silly me! I forgot to mention the shackles and public humiliation...

feedback

[Anonymous Coward]

What happens when their own computers get infected with adware?

Re:Where's the part with the burning and the fires

[ackthpt]

where enraged citizens storm the building, set it on fire, seize the funds from the bank accounts and distribute to orphanages everywhere and leave the Adware staff tied up to lightpoles with a note for the police.

Hmm. Kinda like my fantasy, which seems to involve a tricky hand gesture which magically transfers money from their bank account to my bank account. Of course, I don't mean to be rude, thus a tastefully worded thank-yew note is forwarded to them.

Ah.. to be Merlin for a day...

The real question...

[ltbarcly]

Does it run linux?

4 pages?

[Xeo 024]

it's a bit lengthy but a great read

Damn right it's a lengthy read. Anyone have the Cliff Notes for this?

Re:Where's the part with the burning and the fires

[Anonymous Coward]

... and wave, like this (wiggles fingers)

Two hundred and forty seven thousand?!?!

[Theatetus]

That is not a small number!

That is a very big number!!

Re:Where's the part with the burning and the fires

[alptraum]

What ever happened to tar and feathering?!!!

A serious failure of OSS here

[SmallFurryCreature]

Until OSS can finally get of its collective ass and start adding easy ways for users to have software installed that will totally destroy their desktop it just cannot compete with the likes of MS. Even OSX just doesn't deliver. Simple to use HA. Just try adding hiding your IP from being broadcasted on an Apple. Can't be done. Or making sure you clock is up-to-date? No 1001 smilies for you you unix user.

Frankly I see no problems with companies like this. Spyware/Adware is a great tool wich allows me to instantly judge your intelligence. You got it? You don't have any. (Works both ways. Those without adware will see the logic, those with adware will have to find someone to explain it to them).