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Three Companies Shut Down For Spyware Bundling
SenseOfHumor writes "A U.S. Court has shut down three companies for secretly bundling spyware. The assets of Enternet Media Inc. and Conspy & Co. Inc., based in California, and Iwebtunes, based in Ohio, have been frozen pending further court action, the FTC said. The court also ordered all three firms to halt downloads of the software." From the article: "According to a complaint filed in district court in Los Angeles, Enternet and Conspy bundled their malicious software with music files, song lyrics and cellular telephone ring tones offered free on a range of Web sites. The software was also disguised as a security upgrade for Microsoft Corp.'s Internet Explorer Web browser."
Obvious case there.
- 4r0g
Now there is a great name for a company! Could it be any more obvious their products contain spyware????
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
I think people downloading obnoxious ringtones got what they deserve...
If I had my way, Sony would be held accountable in a similiar manner. While these companies installed spyware, Sony actually installed a backdoor. Sony's actions are a violation of a far greater magnitude.
Conspy?!
Conspy?!!
CONSPY?
Wow - a business name that ADVERTISES that they engage in illegal behavior.
Couldn't they just shift their online resouces and reincorporate offshore otherwise ... it's not like their resouces cant be moved or something.
Is this the same Enternet company who wrote the simple Enternet 300 DSL connection program for routerless users? I remember my ISP would bundle that program with the DSL modems you got for free when you signed up for broadband (are they called DSL "modems" or something else? lol). I wonder how far back their affiliation in spyware goes... I might have to dig up my old computer and take a look-see :/
Slashdot requires you to wait longer between hitting 'reply' and submitting a comment.
Now, let's go ahead and shut down GAIN and all these 'websearch' places, and we'll be doing something. I see the auto-installing IE websearch bars and the "internet optimizer" wares to be some of the most vicious of all spyware. It's beyond intrusive, and downright annoying. Who wants to continually "uninstall" all of these?
"Crime fighters fight crime. Fire fighters fight fire. What do freedom fighters fight?" -George Carlin
There is work left to be done!
I won't have to constantly warn the users I support *not* to click on any pop up that says "Your system is unsecure! Click here to secure your system!"
I talk about stuff.
This will be the song, leading the Sony hitlist for record time.
rumour has it, the announcer has a screwdriver behind his back :D
So is it Mr Furley or the Ropers thats responsible for this?
I wonder what happened... suddenly they started to care about malware...
Bite my shiny metal... oops... Nevermind!
Microsoft! My firewall always lights up every time I launch their products. That is ok, I can block that. But can the OS provider do the same thing SONY has been doing? Personally I don't know.
Help the sig the count will be updated weekly.
Gizmos Gagets For Ninjas
but they've already infected millions. Sony gets no money from me, until they have rectified every one of their infections, and promise never to do it again.
with the exception of BMG label Arista's Brian Wilson Christmas Album, that doesn't appear to have the rootkit, and I will buy appropriate copies for gifting. Sony bought BMG a few months ago.
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
The bigger you are the nastier you can be. Just don't piss off half the electorate or all your political connections will be for naught.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Did anyone else read that as "Three's Company Shutdown for Spyware Bundling"?
My karma is in a nose dive
You know, the more this goes on, the more closed source software will be treated with the distain it deserves.
Open source code 'many eyes' seems to easy now.
So there _is_ good that the Gov't does.. *flip* and all this time... I wonder what it would take for them to force Big Boys (okay, Microshoft, WalMart, Quixtar) to start using bio-sensitive packaging and other such simple/obvious/MUST DO things..
The Wisest Men Follow Their Own Direction. ~ Euripides http://www.linkedin.com/in/buzzaz
with the exception of BMG label Arista's Brian Wilson Christmas Album, that doesn't appear to have the rootkit, and I will buy appropriate copies for gifting. Sony bought BMG a few months ago.
I hope your post was intended to be funny.
Sony has at various points claimed that there was no rootkit, that it could be uninstalled and that there was no spyware and that Apples are not affected. They have also stated that there is anti-copying technology on all of their CDs. You can safely assume that all Sony/BMG (and subsidiary) CDs have one or more of:
- Prescratching (deliberately malformed tracks that will play correctly in most players but will cause older copying software to fail on a read error).
- Watermarking. A serial number encoding in the audio. To the audiophile, this might be apparent as an intermittent burst of static or noise.
- Autorun malware. This isn't the first time they've done this nor the first time they've said they would stop.
What you decide to give your friends (and enemies) for Christmas is your business but I try to make it a habit not to support unethical companies nor to give my friends malware.
Why not support local studios and local bands? Aside from supporting artists instead of lawyers, it means you definitely won't be rebuilding your friend's Vista system in three years because Sony "forgot" to mention some DRM. I would at least suggest waiting 6 months or so to see if Sony has put any surprises on the CD.
It's about time some of these companies are shut down. There is no real value in spyware!
[%] Cingular Ringtones
I withdraw the previous comment totally and irrevocably while beating myself around the head exclaiming stupid, stupid, stupid!
A barefootgenius is != to genius.
/. bug #926803 - Why I can post.
Sadly, these guys will just probably just re-incorporate and continue this nasty business. Reincorporation is simple and can be done quickly. They may even do it internationally to make legal efforts against them costly and time consuming. By the time they are shut down again, they will have run with the money. Sad but quite likely.
When will Sony be held reponsible for installing rootkits on private coputers?
And will Sony risk being shutdown like Enternet media Inc. or the others?
I predict Sony's status as one of the larger corporations around will allow them to buy themselves out of trouble.
Today's show is brought to you by the number 09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0: 25
And if so, why the hell isn't the Corporate Death Penalty being applied against some of the nation's biggest offenders? There are any number of corporations that have caused hellish environmental destruction, have screwed bajillions of dollars out of consumers, have outright lied about their products, have been caught red-handed cheating the government out of billions, etcetera. As far as I know, most of those companies are allowed to continue to exist... yet surely they are more harmful to society than the spammers.
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Don't like it? Respond with words, not karma.
Which font is that makes a word like sony look like fony? (Don't mention Disk World. They only do music with rocks in. .....Oh... ...erm..)
((Boy, does that sound like the plot for it's own sequel.))
This is a cipher. I'm sure someone will eventually decrypt it...and find some stupid message.
More honestly known as BRIBES. Make enough of them and you can get away with mass murder. Google on "Haliburton" for an example.
nothing that seems to have invaded either the mac or the win-me machine at this juncture, so the older BMG stuff appears to be in play on this disc. mac shows no files other than music files on the disc. there are no EULA pop-ups, and no calls home. I checked on a hard disk I don't care about.
:-D
the local scene is vibrant around the twin cities, but I haven't been lately, so I'm a little out of touch on it. the Cities Sampler should be out, so I can check that, of course. but my list runs from ages 20s to 80s, and the Brian Wilson Band seems safe across all ages as a welcome gift. nothing like the Electrified Barbwire Noseclips would get me invited back, I'm afraid, around most of the decrepit fogies (50s) that I'm related to
if this is supposed to be a new economy, how come they still want my old fashioned money?
They realized that due to their sorely lax security concerning MUSIC CDs, anyone on a windows machine (like the gov't is going to use terminals? Please, we're talking about BIG WAR SPENDING here) within the Gov't can insert a "DRM-disabled" CD from Sony and compromise national security. That's why they slapped Sony's ass like a cheap $20 whore.
Still waiting on Serviscope_minor to wake up to fucking reality and realize that Jessica Price isn't going to fuck him.
This is not a troll, at least not intentionally, but at what point does malicious programming become a civil or criminial offense for those who know most intimately what the software does and the issues it involves? Intention is a significant part of legal matters, and while I am entirely against "programming malpractice" laws, putting this into "programming malware" could put a dent into the industry. Just the stigma alone of criminality would cut the numbers of programmers doing it.