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Digsby IM Client Quietly Installs Badware
An anonymous reader writes "IM company Digsby has quietly included malware in an update to their client software that utilizes users' computing power and bandwidth while idle for a quick buck. When questioned, developers at Digsby claim that they have done no wrong and that users should not complain because the client software is 'free.'" The money-making distributed computing software is in addition to six "crapware" apps that users must refuse during installation. The terms of service that no one ever reads does describe the CPU- and bandwidth-robbing moneymaker, and its off switch is located behind the "Support Digsby" menu item.
Again, Ubuntu didn't do anything wrong. They just changed the default "new tab" page from about:blank to the Ubuntu-themed Google search page that's already the default home page. They log usage of their web search service, like everyone else.
Also paying for software doesn't protect you from crapware. Just because they have less incentive to include that stuff doesn't mean they don't.
Did we already forget that Ubuntu also installed such and without consent [slashdot.org] (and Linux Mint) - here you atleast have the change to disallow installing it.
As someone mentioned here, it's not alarming as you make it seem. It's only in the alpha version and not meant for the release version. Granted, I would have liked them to be a bit more forward about it, I'm not terribly upset.
However, open source means that if enough people complain, someone is going to release a fork of it removing those "features", maintain compatibility for patches, and end up with a better product. For example, Chrome had some annoyances, for one its privacy was questionable at best and it had no adblocker, but since Chrome had an open source project (Chromium) developers were able to fork that and make SRWare Iron ( http://www.srware.net/en/software_srware_iron.php ) which removes these privacy issues and adds in an adblocker. Forks are a natural part of software development and occasionally are forked to prove a point to the often stubborn developers, after the fork gets popular usually the developer relents and adds in or removes the offending code and the fork ceases to exist.
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
The power of choice: change IM client. There are tons of free IM client, just change it to something else like Pidgin.
Agreed, Digsby on the other hand is utilizing what should be idle horsepower. While this may seem innocuous since it is not being used by other stuff, it does not come without cost.
I have a computer tuned to speedstep down and use less power when idled. That means I spend less money per month to run that system. Power costs money, so in effect, Digsby is costing you money by doing this. Granted this may only be a fraction of a cent, multiplied by a few people monthly...well I'm sure you all saw the movie.
IT IS A BIG DEAL.
Free or not, hiding (or not mentioning it, or putting it in the .000001 point fine print, or burying it in a 100 page EULA - IOW: obscuring the truth) something that you know people will object to is deceptive, dishonest and wrong. You have to ask yourself, would people not install my "free" software if they knew what it was doing - if the answer is anywhere close to yes, you have a moral obligation to reveal the details.
This is part of the bargain - if you give away something for "free" and advertise it as "free", it needs to be "free" - as in not just that the costs are hidden. Otherwise, it really is a Trojan Horse.
Don't reap the goodwill of the public when you're secretly using them.
DISCLAIMER: This post was not checked for speling and grammar- if you complain- you're a whiner
Perhaps this is a good point in time to switch to Pidgin (multi-platform and my personal choice), Adium (Mac OS X), Empathy (Gnome), Kopete (KDE), or some other, more trustworthy client?
Why not use one of the many free competing IM clients?
My favourite is Miranda (Windows only, free but not open source)) because it's incredibly lightweight, uses the default Windows UI, and has an incredibly active plugin community.
Then there's Pidgin (multiplatform, free open source) which is also an excellent and mature IM which is also very extensible.
No crapware whatsoever on these similar apps. Support the projects that contribute to the initiatives of free software with your downloads and your dollars. Snub the software that steals control of your computer for monetary gain.
My mistake! I'm happy to state that Miranda is both free and open source!
free as in Willy
Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
If you've paid for your software, you can usually [expect] that they wont fuck you over with that crap
So why are there ads in some PC games that cost over fifty bucks to buy?
Free Martian Whores!
... if someone were to hack the malware. It would be very bad if they changed it so it downloaded copyrighted stuff, say whole CDs of recent music, to Digsby's machines, and then sent email to RIAA saying it's there. It would be a very, very bad thing indeed if this were then redistributed and thousands of unsuspecting people installed it and remained unsuspecting as the usually do, while it did its job then erased itself, because otherwise it would have been a Simply Awful very, very bad thing.
"I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
I know in computing it's fashionable to make up words, but badware? That's just crap. Besides, there's already a suitable word: malware.
No colour or religion ever stopped the bullet from a gun
users should not complain because the client software is 'free.'
A malware spreader saying this is like a person who knowingly spreads HIV saying his victims shouldn't complain because they got sex for free. I was going to say "rapist" but digsby doesn't install via drive-by download.
There is such a thing as a reasonable expectation of the program's functionality. You can't legally put "if you do 100mph for 10 minutes, then a hidden bomb in the tank explodes" in a car rental contract, and neither can you legally add unrelated stealth functions to a program just because you said so in the ToS.
Bullshit, they'd cost the same as they ever did except they figured out they could add ads for just about nothing and increase their profit margins even more.
If you really believe that in-game advertisements subsidize the cost of games then you really are ignorant.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
Laptop users also get less battery life.
Maybe. If the contract is intentionally written in such a way that no layman can understand it and it's designed to take advantage of you, there is a valid argument against the company (IANAL, but people keep telling me this is true).
And, as one person who replied to you also pointed out, if this was done via an automatic update without you clicking through to agree with a new EULA stating this, they're in trouble.
Calling due diligence is like complaining about spelling. At the end of the day you just end up being a hypocrite. There is no way that any person can fully read every contract, warning, recall, EULA, instruction manual, etc.. There simply isn't enough time in the day to accomplish this and still function in society. So, what intelligent people do is make the best guess they can as to what has the greatest risk, and read those. This software is a perfect example of something that doesn't cause great harm, so it would have been a bad idea for most people to spend hours reading the TOS when they installed it, and re-read it every time they loaded the software to make sure the TOS didn't change. That doesn't mean that they shouldn't get up in arms about bad behaviour. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't feel that the company behaved unethically. It doesn't mean that they shouldn't complain as loudly and frequently as they feel the ethical infraction warrants. Just because something isn't technically illegal doesn't mean that it isn't unethical or harmful.
As for the sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages that ballooned after 2 years... The number of people that didn't know EXACTLY what they were getting is so small as to be irrelevant. People getting sub-prime ARMs just let greed get in their way and made the stupid prediction that housing prices would always increase dramatically faster than inflation. Of course some people got 3 of them, and when the short term housing price increase happened, they massively mortgaged two of them, put the money into the third, and when prices dropped, they cried that they didn't understand as they walked away from the two massively mortgaged houses with the third being free.
users should not complain because the client software is 'free.'
Oh, I'd love to kick that guy in the nads and when he says "Dude! What up?" I'll say "Shut up! It was free!" and then he'd be all weepy like and I'd be all laughin' up in his face. Yeah, good times.
From steve: digsby developer
@All: This issue will be addressed first thing in the morning. As for performance, the functionality has actually been off this entire time. It is in the TOS because it was planned for the future and Digsby has not been using your CPU/Bandwidth when idle so if you have had performance issues it is not Digsby related.
This started up back in December of last year according to the forum posts. To top it off, Steve the administrator, shut off the research module since then. Why the stir now? Plura is the one that needs to be hammered that provided the software for this.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
Unless you've done the market research, studied the budgets of the developers, guaged the economy, researched the public willingness to buy games that have ads, and considered inflation and any number of other factors, your opinion is worth about as much as anyone else's. Acting like it's so blatantly obvious that your opinion is better than his doesn't put you in a very good light.
Whale
How many people do you know that actually ready the TOS before they purchase the product?
How many products do you know, that have a TOS you can read before purchasing?