Patriotism? No, Just More Pop-Ups

from the fun-for-the-whole-family dept

If you read Techdirt, you're probably aware of things like adware and spyware that invade computers through various "free" applications. Many people don't know about them, though, and are increasingly falling victim to them. The companies who provide those products are getting increasingly desperate to trick users into installing them. MSNBC is writing about how eUniverse, a public company, is sneaking adware into their "free" patriotic cursors that they're trying to convince people to download. Of course, in the fine print, it tells you you're actually installing adware, but you really have to hunt for it. eUniverse says they're doing nothing wrong, because they don't see anything wrong with adware ("it's not spyware!", they say) and the information is there for the 3 people who actually read the end user license agreement and privacy policy. MSNBC notes that the license agreement even gives eUniverse the right to install additional programs at a later date and, if you uninstall the cursor, those other programs remain. Yet another desperation business model based on annoying users, instead of providing them with something they want and value.

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