Yeah! New Spyware law getting started...

[Larry_OHF]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

Bill imposes hefty 'spyware' fines Tuesday, October 5, 2004 Posted: 8:24 PM EDT (0024 GMT) WASHINGTON (AP) -- Companies and others that secretly install "spyware" programs on people's computers to quietly monitor their Internet activities would face hefty federal fines under a bill the House passed Tuesday. The most egregious behaviors ascribed to the category of such software -- secretly recording a person's computer keystrokes or mouse clicks -- are already illegal under U.S. wiretap and consumer protection laws. The House proposal, known as the "Spy Act," adds civil penalties over what has emerged as an extraordinary frustration for Internet users, whose infected computers often turn sluggish and perform unexpectedly. The bill, sponsored by Rep. Mary Bono, R-California, provides guidelines for technology companies that distribute software capable of most types of electronic monitoring. It requires that consumers explicitly choose to install such software and agree to the information being collected. The House voted 399-1 to approve the bill. Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, who often votes against spending measures, cast the lone dissenting vote Tuesday. The House separately was expected to approve another anti-spyware bill as early as Wednesday. That bill, sponsored by Rep. Robert Goodlatte, R-Virginia, provides for additional criminal penalties. The chairman of the Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. Joe Barton, R-Texas, said Goodlatte's anti-spyware bill was preferable because of its criminal sanctions, and Barton said he will work to combine both proposals for a final vote by year's end. Barton acknowledged that experts had recently found more than 60 varieties of spyware installed on the panel's own computers. He said all the spyware programs had been installed without the permission of computer users. The committee's ranking Democrat, Rep. Jan Schakowsky of Illinois, called the proposal approved Tuesday "a bill whose time has come." "People are increasingly finding their home pages have been changed or their computers are sluggish," she said. "Their computers are no longer their own, and they can't figure out why." The House bill approved Tuesday explicitly permits snooping software built by the FBI or spy agencies secretly collecting information under a court order or other legal permissions affecting federal departments. The bill's bans against spyware would begin 12 months after it becomes law and would automatically expire after 2009.

[Hivetyrant]

Well its about damn time, there arnt many thing I hate more about computers than Spyware. If there was anyone in the world I would like to meet, it would be the owner of GAIN, so I could punch him over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and so on.....

[Harkoliar]

i wish they would do the same for the other countries. but thankfully most are based from the US so they can liable.

[dplax]

Originally posted by Hivetyrant: Well its about damn time, there arnt many thing I hate more about computers than Spyware. If there was anyone in the world I would like to meet, it would be the owner of GAIN, so I could punch him over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and so on.....

I'd like to get hold of the one who made lop. That was a pesky beast to get rid of. Took the combination of zone alarm, avg, adaware, spysweeper and noadware to get rid of it. And even then it came back a few more times...

[Larry_OHF]

My sister-in-law calls me from work two days ago to ask for help cleaning addware/spyware out of her work PC (She said that she would get into trouble if she did not clean it out before the boss saw it).

It was called Bargains.exe or bargainbuddy.exe

It was an ever-running series of pop-ups that would come up randomly at odd times. She was lucky to find me at home when she called.

She picked it up while going to one of those sites where you can download screen-savers.



[ 10-06-2004, 11:05 AM: Message edited by: Larry_OHF ]

[Hivetyrant]

Oh man, Ive had the "Bargain buddy" and Bargains.exe on my computer more times than ive played Solitaire...ok, well maybe not that much, but alot, and although it doesnt do all that much, any procceses running in my computer that shouldnt be must be destroyed!!1

[johnny]

Bargainbuddy paid me a little visit too, it's really hard to get rid of it. Adaware couldn't delete it, or if it did, Bargainbuddy would be back the same day. Must be one of those respawning trojans. Same thing with the Gatorcompany, one of the most annoying trojans i've ever encountered. It simply won't die. Or Fastclick, Doubleclick, and other such names, i'm sure most of you are familiar with those names.

Can't they pass a law that allows people to shoot at them ?

[Larry_OHF]

Gator has got to be the "Napster" of the spyware world. They were probably the first spyware in existance, since I remember having trouble with them before anybody even knew what spyware meant. I don't even know if spyware was even a word back in those days...which is not actually all that long ago...but to the tech world, it seems to be.

[Harkoliar]

ahh.. gator with that sneaky fill form annoying monkey!! grrr..

[philip]

I read microsoft is starting some anti-spyware project as well. But well I have to see it first to believe it