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Bono Introduces Legislation Aimed At Spyware
from the good,-but-surprising dept
Rep. Mary Bono, who is known for her close association with the music industry, has introduced some legislation that would, effectively, ban the use of spyware. Called the Safeguard Against Privacy Invasions Act, it would require any company that used spyware to notify users before spyware is installed. Of course, most companies that use spyware already do so by hiding it in their end user license agreement. The surprising thing, to me, is that Bono is introducing this legislation. The rise of spyware may be one of the things that is holding back even more widespread use of the various file sharing networks. Many of those networks use spyware, and Bono has come out clearly against those services. Forcing them to cut out using spyware (or at least be more explicit about them) would mean that those who have avoided them out of fear of spyware would now be able to use the file sharing networks as well.
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Banning Spyware
Perhaps he thinks he can cut off revenue streams to companies like Sharman and Morpheus so they'll stop making the software and giving it away for free...
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This website is better than Slashdot
i will posting links about this site over there. Is there anyone that has been modded a Flamebait,Troll at least once there? What silliness.
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spyware... and other
First comment--totally agree about cutting revenue stream--that has to be their motivation.
Second comment--one of the things that's nice about this site is that there are NOT so many dipshits posting off topic garbage, flaming, et al. Links to this site have been on slashdot already; thankfully (from my perspective--Mike may not agree), most of those people have stayed put. Honestly, though I still read /. from time to time, I almost never take the time to post--just catching up on what's already posted takes hours! Bottom line: too many people and poor moderation.
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Re: spyware... and other
one of the things that's nice about this site is that there are NOT so many dipshits posting off topic garbage, flaming, et al. Links to this site have been on slashdot already; thankfully (from my perspective--Mike may not agree), most of those people have stayed put.
No, I'm quite happy to let Slashdotters stay where they are. Over the past few years, we've been linked from Slashdot four or five times, and each time we get that initial big hit of traffic, and then a small sustained bump. We actually get a good amount of traffic, but not many comments for the amount of traffic.
We also do get our share of moron commenters, but they (usually) go away pretty quickly once they realize that Techdirt readers ignore them. A few moron commenters seem to stick around for extended periods of time before fading off. On the whole, though, the people who comment are usually pretty insightful, and I enjoy a smaller number of high quality comments over a large number of moronic comments any day.
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I'm amused...
That y'all ripping the /. crowd about off topic posts under the heading of an article about spyware! "Hey kettle, it's the Pot. You're black!"
(Not that I don't agree with what you're saying about /., though.)
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Re: I'm amused...
There's a difference between trolling and off-topic posting...
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No Subject Given
She's probably just pissed that she's got all this spyware on her computer now she's installed KazaA to try to hunt down filesharers ;o)
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Re: Banning Spyware
Cutting the revenue stream is a good idea (somewhat...we'll ignore the open-source file sharing apps for nwo) but I don't see how this will do it.
I mean, like Mike said, all these companies already DO ask for "permission" (Personally I don't think putting in 2 lines of 8 point font in the 15th page of a 23 page EULA constitutes "asking permission" but what do I know? I'm not a lawyer). So how is this going to cut off their revenue stream?
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