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Washington State Outlaws Spyware
An anonymous reader submits "Today, the Governor of Washington signs a a bill outlawing spyware (bill history) which imposes penalties of $100,000 per violation. Spyware is broadly defined. It includes everything from changing a browser's bookmarks or homepage settings, "Opening multiple, sequential, stand-alone advertisements in the owner or operator's internet browser", keystroke-logging, taking over control of the computer, modify its security settings, and even "Falsely representing that computer software has been disabled." But here is my favorite: "Prevent, through intentionally deceptive means, an owner or operator's reasonable efforts to block the installation or execution of, or to disable, computer software by causing the software that the owner or operator has properly removed or disabled automatically to reinstall or reactivate on the computer." Microsoft and Ebay both testified in support of the bill. On May 10th, a similar law banning Internet and email phishing was also passed."
I love the idea that we are making something so irritating illegal in the strick legal sense of the word. Make no mistake, I hate Spyware.
At least I think I hate Spyware. I am not really sure, given the broad definition. Some Spyware is good, based solely on MY definition of 'good' and the mood I am in. So what if I have to give up something 'good' because the purveyors of that 'good' thing felt it might fit into the broad definition of Spyware and thusly discontinued it. I lose.
On the other hand, the creepy porn junk and the crud that wants my bank account so they can sell me into slavery in Korea definitely (again, in MY definition of...) fit the model of BAD Spyware and need to have its purveyors captured, subjected to Janet Jackson Videos and sent to prison for a long time. And thus begs the question:
How does this law get that done? Certainly these guys aren't going to stop their nonsense, they are making money doing it, so we will HAVE to enforce this law to get them to stop, and if they don't stop because there is no good way to enforce this law, then the BAD stuff continues and the GOOD stuff is thwarted.
I am just not sure about this one.
I suppose it gives teeth to companies like Microsoft and EBay to go after these guys and have them bundled away. That is good. But Who decides which ones Microsoft and EBay go after? And do I really want to create a system whereby Microsoft and EBay are the US Marshals and are enforcing laws the way they see fit, and going after those criminals that they decide to go after?
I'm just not sure about this one.
A most overlooked advantage to owning a computer is if they foul up there's no law against wacking them around a bit.
We were also one of the first to make spam illegal. I don't really think it has helped all that much...
Shouldn't phishing just fall under fraud?
Give half of that to bounty hunters who bring the culprit to justice and we could have a new series of reality shows. Who woulda thunk spyware could be entertaining?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
that if I move to Washington, I'll be able to uninstall Internet Explorer?
As much as you'd share the blame if you were being robbed after leaving an open window.
In some places, you'll be blamed harsher than the robber himself, in others the window matter won't, actually, matter.
Oh, and your income matters, too
"The way we can tell it's C# instead of Haskell is because it's nine lines instead of two." -- wadler
.. is to make companies accountable for the actions of their 'affiliates'. Many a spyware company uses this defence, and end up gaining customers from dodgy affiliates who they don't need to pay as the affiliate has broken the terms and conditions. Genius. Their business model is just like bill posting on roads and streets.
The next steps will be legal definitions of what constitutes spyware, and refinements of those definitions based on cases brought to trial.
How will they know who's doing spyware? Offer rewards to reports resulting in convictions.
Of course, the thing might be struck down as unconstitutional depending on the breadth of definitions it starts with and the zeal of the ever-loathed ACLU in promoting the letter of the First Amendment to the detriment of the spirit of it.
sigh.
Take the 90-Day Challenge! http://rwmurker.bodybyvi.com/
Some of the better places to go to get spyware are places in russia or developing countries, etc.
The advantage and disadvantage of the internet is that you can go access web sites from anywhere.
By making it tough for any group/organization to spread their malware from washington state, means they'll go elsewhere to host their stuff.
Suppose all the spyware people jump ship and go elsewhere, somebody WILL find a site that has it and will get the spyware.
It's like passing a law that makes it illegal to skid out of control and hitting a particular tree in the hopes of eliminating accidents.
How would they feel if I came into their front room and took over the remote control?
The same way a Mafia racketeer would feel if you threatened to burn their house down if they didn't pay for your "fire insurance".
They aren't children; they know people hate what they do. As long as the annoying thing is happening to you for the profit of them, then they don't care, whether "they" are the Mafia or Gator or whoever.
The enemies of Democracy are
""Opening multiple, sequential, stand-alone advertisements in the owner or operator's internet browser"
:)
:(
hehe no free porn for Washington
We know what at least one state congresscritter is up to...
Sounds all warm and fuzzy but actually doing anything is doubtful...at least til califonia catches up.
I believe you cant make automated telesales calls here but several computers havent read THAT law either
So, will MS finally stop shipping Alexa with IE?
Oh well, what the hell...
But... MS is one of the largest employers in the state. Their employees are highly paid. Those employees spend money, buy expensive houses, etc. Microsoft builds buildings, buys land, and supports the arts and such. And lets not forget all the computers and software that they donate/discout for the state and it's schools.
Washington state will not piss off Microsoft. It is a fact. When those state AGs sued because they didn't like the settlement the DOJ did with Microsoft, was the Washington State AG among them? Why do you think that was?
MS is behind this law because if it works, it removes some (much?) of their responsibility (and also codifies in law that spyware is the programmer's fault, and doesn't specify it to be MS's fault). If the law said that, do you think it would have gotten a vote, let alone pass?
Things like this happen. At least it is a win for the consumer if it works, even if MS still isn't held accountable. All us geeks can do is answer questions from friends truthfully. "What's with/causes/why is there so much spyware?"... "Microsoft." Grass roots will work, we just need it to be organized. But then again we need to do that with lots of things (accepting buggy software, the release-then-patch mantra, overpriced software, etc.)
Comment forecast: Bits of genius surrounded by a sea of mediocrity.
From what I've seen, mac users have higher standards. Unlike the bulk of windows users, mac users tend to know with confidence how their computers are supposed to behave.. and anything that messes with that doesn't have much chance of gaining a foothold in the market.
well you could not install those "features". Most driver cd/downloads have their drivers tucked in a directory some where. Especially true with driver updates you download from the manufacture's website. So yeah, you installed all that crap, you live with it. When i install an epson or an HP i just point add printer wizard at the driver dir. I have found very few peripherals to not have some kind of "manual install".
I would also add that the more expensive the hardware, the more likely it wont have badly coded drivers/software. This is why its better to buy quality peripherals rather than cheap "no name chinese company" stuff.
I'll just use my special getting high powers one more time...
Give her, and the people of Washington State, some credit. WA state was one of the first to enact anti-spam legislation in the late '90s (rendered useless by the Republicans in DC). You may want to just write off everything tech related from WA state as brought to you by Redmond, but I'd credit the greater tech awareness of the area in general. Not every tech-head in Seattle submits to the deathstar (e.g. http://www.omnigroup.com/
The potato it is uninformed.
Actually, the Republican party is mostly claiming that felons were illegally voting. The problem is, many of the people the Republicans are claiming are felons - aren't.
The Reps are trying to show that the number of invalid ballots is higher than the margin of victory for Gregoire, i.e. that we don't really know who won the election. As long as there are at least 129 ballots shown to be invalid, they will have done that.
The most damning thing is that King County (an overwhelmingly Democratic county, and the county that includes Seattle) has many many more ballots counted than voters. It also turns out that King County had a machine that could print blank ballots, and did not keep a record of how many ballots were printed using that machine. Given that bags ballots were "found" about six or seven times in King County until Gregoire won, I'm pretty much convinced that there was fraud involved.
50 valid ballots were found to have never been counted, and are still in their envelopes.
Even worse, the rules were changed after the election to allow counting some absentee ballots in Democratic King County; yet the rules were not changed to allow the absentee military votes to be counted, even though it was King County's fault that those ballots were late (King County didn't mail out the ballots to overseas soldiers, and then only under threat of action from the federal government).
The whole thing is so screwed up, we need a second election to figure out who really won. Actually I'm pretty convinced that Rossi won it and only massive vote fraud swung the election to Gregoire, but it doesn't matter whether I'm convinced, it only matters what we can prove. The only way to get a conclusive election is to have another one. And I'd like to see federal election guys supervising King County during that second election.
You can recount the ballots over and over to get a very accurate count, but this is pointless given that there are so many questionable ballots mixed in.
Won't this ban some of those 'copy-protected' CDs that automaticaly install some kind of driver through auto-run?
Well it probably seemed like a good idea at the time. But I have the feeling this will be difficult to enforce, with the exception of cases involving untrusting spouses. It's like outlawing rain. Or declaring war on Algebra. It looks good on paper, but seems entirely unfeasible.
Laziness is a virtue, anyone who bothers to tell you otherwise, is clearly lacking it.
It's not excessive in my opinion. Small fines are what nullified the effectiveness of many previous anti-spam, anti-virus laws.
There has to be a substantive risk on the part of the perpetrator to dissuade him from producing the spyware, and there also needs to be suitable incentive to pursue legal action. Small fines aren't worth anything because you can't find a lawyer who would take the case.
If Alice was an interior decorator who, on gaining access to a client's home, did stuff like:
- Changed all the speed-dial numbers on the telephone
- Installed listening/recording devices in all the rooms
- Modified the TV/video so it overlays ads of her choice over the top of programs (in addition to the regular ads screened by the station)
- Duplicated door keys and alarm codes and sold these to others
- etc
then Alice would be doing hard time at Club Fed or Her Majesty's.So why should it be any different with software?
When someone runs your software on their computer, they have admitted you into their sovereign private space, and you have a responsibility to behave in a manner respecting this. Well done, Washington. I note also that the Australian Democrats party has introduced similar legislation, which God-willing will also pass.
-- In the beginning was the WORD, and the WORD was UNSIGNED, and the main(){} was without form and void...
Gee, sorta a lot like the gun control laws that were being passed daily from the mid 80s on...
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
This is moronic !
So we have a flawed operating system that doesn't give the user (when in Administrator mode) the required tools to remove software from their o/s. It also makes it trivially easy for malicious third parties to install software on the o/s.
And the answer is to pass legislation to try to prevent said operating system being exploited ?
This is completely Mindless. It's like letting a colony of wasps build a nest in your bedroom then treating each individual sting without ever looking at the nest.
Mindless I say... What they should have done is pass a law telling MS to fix their fucking rotten o/s. That MIGHT have done some good.
Sky subscribers are morons. They pay to be advertised at !
Refuse to buy any software that uses this malware-like protection. Unfortunately, that means the onus is on you to research each game you buy to find out what uses what.