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A Day in the Life of a Spyware Company

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the get-rich-quick-schemes dept.

prostoalex writes "Business Week has a detailed expose of Direct Revenue. The article has some juicy details on the everyday workings of a spyware outlet, talks about the the business model and advertisers who funnel cash to Direct Revenue, and even mentions Direct Revenue's anti-spyware achievements (the company's installer blasted away competing spyware apps, so that the user's computer wouldn't be overwhelmed with redundant pop-ups)."

16 of 215 comments (clear)

  1. oh, I wouldn't be talking about redundancy by bunions · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/07/155 1237

    It's the same article in a different place.

    Additionally, it's in a different place, but it's the same article.

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  2. slashdot giving us the spyware experience by atarione · · Score: 4, Funny

    by spamming this story multiple times

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  3. Missing important details by arivanov · · Score: 4, Funny

    Latitude, longitude, altitude.

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    1. Re:Missing important details by Kazymyr · · Score: 2, Funny

      And thickness of concrete walls, if any.

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    2. Re:Missing important details by QuantumFTL · · Score: 5, Funny

      Latitude, longitude, altitude.

      This is Slashdot - all we really need is their IP address :)

    3. Re:Missing important details by xLittleP · · Score: 2, Funny

      And it says on page 4 that their office is on the fourth floor, so there's your altitude.

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    4. Re:Missing important details by Millenniumman · · Score: 2, Funny

      Does Linux have any drivers for precision guided cruise missiles?

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    5. Re:Missing important details by Gromius · · Score: 2, Funny

      well kind of...
      Depends on your defination of precision and guided. Look its the best we've got availible at the moment. Fear our soft foam missiles. Fear them.

  4. Hmm. by AndreiK · · Score: 4, Funny

    So if you run their program and their competitor's program at the same time, they will kill each other off? Who needs virus scanners now?

    1. Re:Hmm. by LazyDino · · Score: 2, Funny

      Linux users! They can't benefit from this antagonism ;)

    2. Re:Hmm. by bblboy54 · · Score: 5, Funny

      So if you run their program and their competitor's program at the same time, they will kill each other off? Who needs virus scanners now?

      Actually, who needs this? Windows has this feature built right in.

  5. QA for a spyware company? by teratogenicbenzene · · Score: 5, Funny

    Douglas Kee, then Direct Revenue's chief of quality assurance (QA)...

    Isn't having a quality assurance branch for a spyware company kind of an oxymoron?
    That's like having an "ethics department of sudan" or "NSA oversight committee".

    Sigh...

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  6. Re:how to stop them in 3 easy steps by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    >death via organ donation

    Impractical. Tissue matching is hard enough when the donor is human.

  7. What, me worry? by CurtMonash · · Score: 2, Funny

    Spy vs. Spy!

    Resolving the references in the title and content of this comment is an exercise left to the reader ...

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    To err is human. To forgive is good system design.
  8. Re:Dupe by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    That comment almost made you spit your latte out over your PowerBook at Starbucks, didn't it?

  9. Hose your PC for $30 by DaveInAustin · · Score: 2, Funny

    FTFA: by accepting its ads, consumers get popular software applications free of charge that otherwise can cost up to $30 apiece.
    Wow, I can save $30 by making my $500 PC unusable.

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