Slashdot Mirror
Olympic Medalist was Spyware King
Remy writes "Seems that Australian gold medal mogulist Dale Begg-Smith is also a spyware entrepreneur. According to a report at Spam Kings, Begg-Smith has supported himself in style as president of a company responsible for generating 20,000,000 pop-ups per day, thanks to drive-by installs of spyware. I know the concept of Olympians being amateurs is outdated, but shouldn't they be barred from competition for this sort of thing?"
...unless spam or spyware is illegal in Australia, or against terms set by the International Olympic Committee (which probably includes stipulations for non-voliation of the laws of competitors' native countries), then no, he shouldn't be barred from competition.
Also, on the subject of "amateurs", you can't be a "professional" in the sport you're competing in. There's nothing to say that someone can't be rich, or be a "professional" in some other field. He shouldn't be barred for "richly supporting himself" either, until installing spyware becomes an Olympic sport.
Hmm. Don't give them any ideas.
"but shouldn't they be barred from competition for this sort of thing?"
What relevance at all does spamming have to do with the Olympics? Why not just fire and ban spammers from all walks of life, jobs, restaurants, movies, etc, oh wait, it's a little something called freedom. As much as all us hate spam, child porno, junk mail, ads, laywers, etc, we must live them. It's something most people call "society".
The olympics are judging competitors on thier sporting abilities, not thier business ethics. If Dale has broken some law then fair enough, chase him down with lawyers. Disqualifying him from the olympics would be on par with banning anyone who fails a doping test from running thier own business - they are completely unrelated.
You don't even attempt to mask your jealousy. Nerd athletes are the Xmen of the future. Sorry, Napoleon Dynamites of the world.
ps: this is only a joke if rated funny and a serious warning all should heed if rated anything else.
If Jesse Owens was allowed to compete in the Berlin Olympics near the height of Nazi power, then I don't think any Olympic committee has authority to enforce a morality unrelated to sporting itself. An Olympic spammer in an online nation is no guiltier than a black Olympian in a racist nation.
(Please don't misinterpret this as saying that Jesse Owens was somehow wrong.)
Given that the International Olympic Committe has chosen to hold their games in places that grossly violate human rights like Nazi Germany (1936), the Soviet Union (1980), and mainland China (2008), I don't think they have much moral standing to ban someone for spyware.
Seriously, since when has it been a precondition of The Olympics for an athlete not to be some horrid scumbag? For the most part you only see these people perform, a smile or tears for the camera, stand around on the medal stand while the music plays, perhaps on a cereal box and some lite interviewing on telly. Unless they erupt like Tom Cruise (on behalf of his Co$ beliefs), how are you likely to know any past or present are rotters?
Ok, thanks to the internet and nature of this weasel's business it will come up, and hopefully he'll get flayed in the press (Gold Medal Vermin), though you don't often hear much of these, except the most photogenic who go on to some level of stardom.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
From the original Slashdot story:
... but since he probably has not been convicted anywhere, I dont think the Olympic games is the correct place to judge him.
"I know the concept of Olympians being amateurs is outdated, but shouldn't they be barred from competition for this sort of thing?"
Well, it is correct that the Olympics no longer require that the contestants be amateurs, but even if they did the Australian in question would still be an amateur. I.e., olympic athletes were always allowed to be professionals in some field but untill few years ago they were not allowed to be pros in the field they are competing in. So the quoted sentence does not make much sence.
A think a much bigger issue is what this guy did may have been a crime in many of the countries he was doing it in. So should a criminal be allowed in the Olympics? I don't know
Maybe I heard a PR-friendly version of the story, but his parents wouldn't fly him and his brother around the world to compete, so they started a company to make some money. When he was thirteen. I made $3/hour at that age, and I was a high roller compared to my friends who couldn't even get jobs.
So he was making crapware? BFD. With the possible exceptions of the EFFers and some folks at NASA, how many slashdotters haven't ever written code that doesn't pollute the world with wasted CPU cycles? Christ, I just spent the day programming a Dealer Locator. That's not exactly feeding starving children, unless you count my own.
Who exactly gets to set the moral compass for what constitutes 'worthwhile' software? Right now, the net is crawling with identity theives, pr0n magnates, script kiddie extortionists, and worst of all, Marketers.
God forbid someone should judge you based the goals and accomplishments you had by age 21. I suspect the most vociferous flamers are just jealous of his financial and athletic success.
Nagano was 8 years ago, and the US team sucked and trashed some hotel rooms. 4 years ago the olympics were in Salt Lake City.