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Australia Says No To Spyware
PrivateDonut writes "Australian parliament introduced a bill on Thursday that would 'make it illegal for anyone to install a program without informed approval and attract a fine of $10,000.' Is this doomed to fail as many other anti-spam/spyware bills have failed? Or has Australia finally hit the mark?"
Not just 'consent', but 'informed' as well.
Does this include automatic update features? If an update breaks something, is it malware?
"I assumed blithely that there were no elves out there in the darkness"
Some free applications include spyware in their main installs, to provide ad revenue or whatever.
Kazaa used to be one of those, is that right?
Can this make any impact on those programs who refuse to install unless you also allow numerous pieces of malware to go with it?
Violator gets $10,000 fine.
Austrailia govt gets $5,000.
Bounty Hunter who finds the product gets $5,000.
All the spyware on the internet would be rooted out in less than a week if Australia could smack down fines to people across the world.
God spoke to me.
Like if you take a loan, the bank actually has to go through with you every paragraph.. maybe they mean the same thing?
Fines, BAH.
An blacklist of people that develop or use mal/spyware. Something that ISP's can check before they give internet access or hosting services.
I can hear it now, "Oh sir. I'm sorry, but you have a high Internet abuse score. We are unable to aprove your e-mail account at this time."
Ignorance is amusing, stupidity is annoying.
Well, wait a second. When you buy a computer with Windows on it, you are buying {a computer with Windows on it}, not just {a computer}. And you don't own the computer before you buy it, and Windows has been put on the computer before you buy it, so technically you wouldn't need to give any consent because the computer isn't yours until you buy it. That didn't make any sense.
At the end of the day we all know that local laws like this have no effect in a global place unless every country connected to the Internet agrees on such laws. Spyware software is a matter of education and choice. The best way to fight it is to educate people on software and the importance of knowing how it works so consumers can make choices based upon facts and information. Some operating systems allow spyware to be installed, others do not. People need to learn that they can choose operating systems that do not allow Spyware. And they also need to learn how to avoid the pitfalls in the operating systems that allow spyware to be installed easily by clicking on the wrong advertisement banner in the wrong browser if the wrong configuration is in use. Knowledge = power....
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
In Canada, Private Member Bills are a joke. Is Australia different?
"Certainly, sir. This computer costs AU$700 with Windows preinstalled. If you would prefer the version without Windos pre-installed, we can sell you that for AU$700."
It is wishful thinking. Vendors are entitled to choose their own prices and are not obligated to sell components for a reasonable price.
I live in the UK, and whilst it's not impossible to buy a new prebuilt computer without Windows installed, it's pretty much the standard for retailers to offer "a computer with windows preinstalled" rather than just "a computer".
This is pretty much a moot point for me personally on the desktop front seeing as I build all my computer's from components, but on the laptop front there's only been a couple of places I've found where I can buy laptops without Windows preinstalled, and they have been web-based retailers only with a pretty limited selection.
Pretty much everywhere I've found with a halfway decent selection of laptops uses the principle of "You will buy Windows, and we won't give you a copy of the Windows CD, and you'll damn well like it! Oh, and if we find out that you've put an alternative OS on your laptop, the warrenty is void even if the problem is that we've supplied you with shoddy hardware rather than the software causing a problem."
How I wish building your own laptop was as easy as building your own desktop...
Don't take the above poster too seriously. He doesn't.
"Do you really think there will be extradition for installing Spyware?"
If the number if installations pushes the fines into the multi-million dollar range, then quite probably.
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For example, if , under the proposed law,, action can be taken against the (American owned) banks which process the money for all spamware sales, then it would stop.
If the Australian government says to American Express: "If, after being informed that one of your clients is using your service to process payments for items promoted by spyware, you continue to make payments to that client, then the Austrailian branch of your company will be fined $10,ooo for each transaction" it would stop.
If the American government threatened to withdraw banking licences from banks that provided services to those who use spyware/spam to promote their goods and services, there would be no spam. They could do this using existing anti-corruption/money laundering legislation. But they don't.
Unfortunately, the US government has sold its soul to the devil.
Sent from my ASR33 using ASCII
In addition to not using obvious passwords, there is a rampant problem on the side of websites: requiring the user to choose a question and answer in case of a lost password. Stuff like, "What city were you born in?" Such a question may foil a criminal on the other side of the world from his victim, but if a criminal is targeting locals, perhaps even acquaintances, friends, and family, then it's trivial. Personally, I just respond to the questions with a random string of characters that only leet hackers could guess.
Personally, I regard protecting individuals from unfair/unethical/violent treatment being one of the principal roles of government, which is why I support some laws that have been decried in the past as being a push to a "nanny state" (like occupational health and safety, minimum wage requirements, or reduced speed limits in school zones). Mostly its a matter of perspective, I find; but I'm hard pressed to think of a piece of legislation passed in the last ten years that fits the bill apart from the internet porn ban (a spectacularly successful law, just ask Abbey Winters...). Some might cite the more stringent gun laws, but since lethal shootings have gone down since the law was passed it could be argued that it had the desired (or at least the stated) effect.
.au, but if it can be used to show best practice and inspire similar legislation in other countries then it will do some good. And like any law, this won't stop someone determined to behave in an antisocial manner, but it will stop the 99% of people who only behave antisocially because its convenient. Not perfect (what is?), but definitely an improvement.
I'm in favour of this law, like any law that prohibits destructive antisocial behaviour. By itself I don't think it will make a scrap of difference, since (almost?) no spyware originates in
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Foreign Affairs explain Treaty-Making here.
Basically the Government can sign any treaty they like, but to have any effect in Australia it has to legislate those effects. (I think you might have been implying that)
Regulation (subordinate legislation) is useless because:
a) it can only be made under an existing Act giving power to a Minister to make Regulations in that matter
b) it can be disallowed in the Senate within 14 sitting days of the making of the Regulation
Basically if it's controversial then it's easier to legislate than it is to regulate.
'There is a Light that never goes out.'