SpyMon vs CounterSpy
p2p news / p2pnet: With Sony BMG’s DRM / PR Disaster still picking up speed on- and offline, spyware maker RetroCoder wants Sunbelt Software to stop telling it like it is.
“The British company wants Sunbelt, maker of CounterSpy, to stop flagging its SpyMon software as spyware,” says ZDNet.
“RetroCoder charges that Sunbelt has violated the terms of the copyright agreement contained in its software, which specifically excludes anti-spyware research.”
SpyMon promo blurb reads, “Misuse of this program will enable the buyer to view hidden passwords or even to drive some people crazy! This is not allowed in some countries, so please don’t do it…”
Yeh. But that’s what it says : )
Sunbelt Software boasts it’s a “member of the SecureIT Alliance. The SecureIT Alliance is an effort led by Microsoft Corporation to bring greater integration to enterprise security products, and to increase collaboration between its members for customer-driven and innovative security solutions.”
The SpyMon download agreement, “continues with a legal condition: ‘If you do produce a program that will affect this software’s ability to perform its function, then you may have to prove in criminal court that you have not infringed this warning’,” says ZDNet.
On its site, RetroCoder also states: “SpyMon is a computer program that allows you to monitor other computers in real-time. You see all keys pressed, can grab screens or webcam views, and much, much more. This is much better than similar programs that ‘email’ keys pressed at predefined times.
“The complementing program to SpyMon is DataSneak; a ‘creator’ for making custom versions of ‘DataSneak’ installers is built-in to SpyMon free-of-charge.”
RetroCoder “charges that Clearwater, Fla.-based Sunbelt broke the agreement, according to Anthony Ball, a spokesman for the British company,” says ZDNet. “In order to add our product to their list, they must have downloaded it and then examined it. These actions are forbidden by the notice,” he wrote in an e-mail interview.
“Furthermore, “Our program is not a Trojan or virus; it is used to keep a remote eye on your kids or employees,” Ball said.
In the meanwhile, Breplibot.b, the first malware application trying to hide on systems polluted by Sony BMG’s rootkit DRM spyware, is on the loose.
Something you think we should know? tips[at]p2pnet.net
First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win
- Mohandas Gandhi
Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local political representatives. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance.
See:-
DRM / PR Disaster – Sony BMG rootkit DRM saga, November 7, 205
ZDNet – Spyware spat makes small print a big issue, November 10, 2005
Breplibot.b – Sony BMG DRM bug turns up, November 10, 2005
November 12th, 2005 at 1:38 am
If this keeps up much longer the only thing the DMCA will allow is slide rules and abacases.
November 12th, 2005 at 3:37 am
While these corporations have favorable conditions to pass all these protection laws, they are making hay with more and more. Everytime you turn around things like the DMCA which the RIAA pushed to have passed and promised they would only use as they should, have been shown to be just what they are. Poorly thought out laws, without the benefit of other parties and viewpoints that could have saved them from this mess, and a willingness to profit from the office by those incumbents now seated there.
It wasn’t that long ago in political terms that being an insider or an incumbent was the kiss of death for a politician. It won’t be long and it will be that way again. These sort sheenagians have far more impact that those in Washington are considering as it appears that the short term is the only viewpoint. It has been thrown at the courts’ doorstep to try and straighten out the mess the politicians have made of it.
The ability of the corporations to affix the laws nationally and worldwide are showing the one sided results that lack of opposite viewpoint and reasonableness usually limits. Through manouvering in meetings, boards, and those other methods of deciding who will attend and who will have a say, methods now in play aren’t working. Till some sort of balance is inserted into the equation this one sidedness will continue to get worse and worse. It’s flaws are already apparent when they are demonstrated in articles like this one and the one where Amazon attempts to get patents on common things that should not be patentable in an effort to freeze out the competition. Simply protectionism has went way to far.
I believe it is a reflection of a deeper problem. One that the American people will in the end have to fix. Even the world view is starting to look at the US as a land of the insane for those rules that we are having to live under and by influance their laws are also changing to match in some form these same insane stances.
Lockout of potential advances that would in the past have lost the license in reasonable time is no longer. Instead an all but perpetual lincense has been granted. One that does nothing for advancement based on the past discoveries, even after they are no longer have useful applications.
With the advances of computers and technologies, it makes little sense to protect things that aren’t even able to be used now. When was the last time you loaded a game with floppies? So why should copyright on those games still be active when they are of no use? Most everyone that once had 3.1 has neither that computer nor that software any longer running. Microsoft no longers supports the 3.1 OS. It is no longer economically viable as an OS. So why is it or any other software of such catagory still protected? Better would be the measurement of activity in support of said softwares and economic health as a measurement.
Long before DRM on any song expires, the software, the computers, and the programs will no longer be viable. This makes no sense as it is to protect forever what isn’t useful in today’s markets. It is insanity at its finest to continue to award such lengths for either software or for any other patent or copyright.