Anti-Spyware Bill Is Back

from the will-it-do-any-good? dept

As was widely expected, Mary Bono has reintroduced her anti-spyware bill to Congress, where it's expected to get approval (as it did last year, before being shut down in the Senate). Clearly, some thought has gone into the bill, and it's not as bad as some previously proposed anti-spyware laws. However, you still have to wonder if it will really help. There will be provisions in the bill that are likely to have unintended consequences, causing problems for some software products. Meanwhile, the nastiest spyware products will remain controlled by criminals who don't care about the law because they don't expect to get caught. I don't think it's the worst thing in the world, but any law should have a provision to keep an eye out for negative unintended consequences and have a way to fix those quickly. There should also be a way to monitor whether or not this actually has an impact. Otherwise, it's just going to get voted into law without any balances to make sure it doesn't do any harm, because who wants to vote in favor of spyware?

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