What is Digg?22 Comments
- inactive, on 10/12/2007, -0/+2"If you don't take care to read all 35 pages of the agreement, then you deserve what you get."
What the hell? That's a dishonest and cowardly tactic employed by glorified con artists. - silentdud, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1Lawyers must be going crazy... This opens doors for dozens of class action suits. Any homeless man with a law degree could make ALOT of money because the spyware/ad industry is extremely lucrative.
- raano, on 10/12/2007, -0/+1I'm glad to see the courts starting to get a clue. I couldn't break into my neighbor's house to put spoiled food in his refrigerator, so why should people be allowed to enter my computer without permission and put junk in there!
BTW. Check those EULAs carefully. Use EULAnalyzer if you don't like reading legal documents (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/eulalyzer.html). - chipster621, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Let's hope a similar case can apply tactics taken by some in the name of DRM.
- a_greer, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0For all of you who say that this is BS because you agree to the spyware, I sayt NO...One agrees to have the product installed, and wants it. The vendor sneaks in the spyware and it is somehow "ok" because it is in a eula that is so rediculusly hard to read that I doubt most lawyers would bother trying.
This is more like inviting someone over for dinner and having them cough on you and mention that htey have SARS or West Nile Virus after the fact. That is the legal angle I would take. - thatsiebguy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0This is probably the only case that will get away with it and probably won't hold up in court for anyone else that tries it.
- Drahknon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"This is probably the only case that will get away with it and probably won't hold up in court for anyone else that tries it."
Actually, the doctrine has been applied in many other cases as well involving computers, websites, and hacking. - u3b3rg33k, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0it's about time.
- Cowchip7, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0There is no trespass to chattel if you invited the spyware on your computer. Therefore, if you gave permission by accepting a licensing agreement that informs you spyware will be installed, you're in trouble.
If the spyware was installed without your permission, it may even be considered a conversion! (For all your law junkies out there) - Tweekster, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0no they shouldnt be allowed to hide that ***** in a document that is 35 pages long.
they are obviously trying to decieve you if they do that. - Trigrhapy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Problem is, we are the more advanced computer users. Most people that install this stuff, don't know anything about computers and don't understand whats going on. Spyware is *****, so i agree with this.
- Shdwdrgn, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Does this open up a way to sue spammers? Most of the spam I receive these days arrives from zombie computers. If a company hires a spammer to advertise their website, and that spammer makes use of these zombies, does that mean the owner of the website being advertised is liable as an accomplise to computer trespass (since use was made of multiple hijacked computers)?
- CrackHappy, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0The use of "allege" and "supposedly" throughout the article I find hilarious. The reporter seems scared to death of libel.
It's also ironic that when I opened the article, it tried to insert a pop-under.... - Drahknon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Now that's pretty interesting. Courts have already extended the doctrine to spamming internet message boards.
I wonder if that also means you can get consent (the usual TtC defense) or constructive consent if the user does a click-through EULA they don't read carefully? - mrmatchgame, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0Yea, and I belive they got busted for doing that and got all the cases thown out.
- Drahknon, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0"The use of "allege" and "supposedly" throughout the article I find hilarious. The reporter seems scared to death of libel."
Well, no. That's just how you properly refer to these things in legal writing. - ZombieLordzero, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0how to fix spyware once and for all:
every company that creates spywhere, for every instance that their spywhere is installed on a computer without the users concent, a member of that company is drug out into the street by law enforcement and shot. - sfacets, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0wouldn't the illegal breaking and entering of computers by the RIAA be penalised by law?
- mrmatchgame, on 10/12/2007, -0/+0I have 50 pending Lawsuits on Kazaa for ***** up my computer while I tried to download MP3's!!! J/K
- xptical, on 10/12/2007, -2/+1How can it be trespassing if you invite it in? Install Shockwave and ended up with the Yahoo! Toolbar? Well, it's your own damn fault.
Most, if not all, programs that bundle spyware have licensing agreements that tell you what they are going to do. If you don't take care to read all 35 pages of the agreement, then you deserve what you get.
I really hate spyware. But how can some third-party come in and tell me what agreements I can and can't make between a company willing to foot the bill for my freeware and a customer that gets to use my utilities for free?
What's next? Suing Google for displaying ads in my browser when I visit Slashdot? - inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0Spyware used to bother me when I used windows, but now I own a real computer I'm not so timid about visiting, for investigative purposes, the sites that used to embed themselves into Win XP's Internet Explorer as the default home page every 5 minutes.
It's amazing how basically blatant some of these sites are about the fact that, what they really want you do to, is sell you an uninstaller for the software they placed on your machine without your consent in the first place.
The legal system has utterly failed to come up with anything which is a deterrent to these bozo's so far, so I'm not holding my breath for the effectiveness of an ancient trespass law, but it will be interesting to see if it opens the way for people to claim emotional distress for having been exposed to some of the pornography that these sites display as their mast head. - Robstah, on 10/12/2007, -1/+0If this is true, maybe I can sue Microsoft for their embeded spyware in Windows XP.
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