Spy Act of 2007 = "Vendors Can Spy Act"

strick1226 writes "Ed Foster over at InfoWorld describes the Spy Act bill (H.R. 964) as having the same relation to the prevention of spyware that the CAN SPAM Act had to the prevention of spam. It allows exceptions for companies to utilize spyware for any number of reasons; if this bill had been law when Sony distributed their rootkit, they would have had perfect cover. Most troubling is that the bill would preempt all state laws, including those more focused on the privacy of people's data, and disallow individuals from bringing suit. It is expected to pass soon with 'strong bipartisan support.'"

Comments

Look! Rights go down the hole...

[Marrshu]

... there go more of our personal rights simply to support the big business and such. Who wants to guess how long it'll take Sony to restart their whole rootkit campaign? Can't forget Microsoft and all those ISPs that want to spy on you. Big Brother is watching you after all

Re:Legal, not moral

[csmacd]

Yes, organizations that distribute spyware care.

>sarcasm off

When organizations have the legal cover to do junk like this, they will. No amount of moral outrage is going to stop them, unless they monitor and report some random elected official's illegal activities.

Di not use Vista and other DRM enabled tech

[roman_mir]

We had this discussion before. The law will make it perfectly legal to spy on you, and you new shiny OS will make it perfectly impossible (well, as long as DRM works) for you to prevent this by technical means.

People who say that it doesn't matter to them, whether Vista has DRM or not as long as they can play their games, maybe surprised to find out that the DRM may make it impossible for them to enjoy their games through enabling the spying and whatever other active measures that can be taken by spying software. Do you like modifying your games in any way? It may become impossible if you are on a DRM platform and you are spied upon. Of-course there are those, who would rely on the DRM to be broken but this is not a very good practice to rely on that, I mean there are so many problems with that, for example why would you trust a 'DRM removing patch' from someone to be spyware/rootkit free? It is better to avoid such products altogether. Avoid DRM products, avoid spyware infected products, that's the only way to really stay in the clear. Besides, isn't it illegal to remove 'security protection' under DMCA anyway?

Free Software becomes more and more attractive in this culture of customer spying and DRM locking every day.

Re:OK, What Am I Missing?

[powerpants]

I don't see anything to get terribly alarmed about. What am I missing? The bandwagon.

Re:Since no one here uses windows

[TheGratefulNet]

this is actually way beyond windows.

it SEEMS that this bill gives vendor-tunnels the OK. and also it notes that they can be stealth. you know, like the sneak and peek procedures we have today.

yes, this is the electronic form of sneak and peek.

and that is why you should be afraid of this. it gives remote 'special parties', well special priviledges on YOUR BOX.

this is such a bad idea, it must have come from congress and/or special interests.

this surely has NO benefit to We, The People ;(

Re:Legal, not moral

[cbiltcliffe]

They do have good understanding of wallet vote, though.

Yes. Unfortunately, consumers don't.