rotas»sator

My friends will tell you that I’m known to soapbox on a bit against downloading unlicenced copied music, software and other intellectual property. This form of “sharing” is basically taking something that you don’t own.

For any other type of property in existence, this is called theft.

</rant>

Ethical considerations aside, the tools of this particular crime are frequently file-sharing (P2P) programs such as Grokster or Kazaa. A “feature” common to most of these programs is the unwanted installation of slimeware programs that are included in their confusing licence agreements.

Ben Edelman has examined five of the most common file sharing programs, namely eDonkey, iMesh, Kazaa, LimeWire and Morpheus. He finds that the unwanted software installed with all but one of these programs is buried beneath a swamp of legal jargon and sheer words in the licence agreements. For example,

The Kazaa installer asks users to accept unusually lengthy license agreements. All told, the Kazaa installation requires accepting 22,606 words of license agreements — nearly five times the length of the US Constitution. Kazaa includes four separate licenses shown in three separate windows, only one of them affirmatively shown to users without users’ specific request, but collectively totaling 182 on-screen pages. Kazaa’s licenses further cite seven additional web pages purportedly included by reference. Comparison of Unwanted Software Installed by P2P Programs — Ben Edelman (emphasis mine)

When the “permission” to install the attached adware, spyware, etc (and then agree to whatever other conditions they desire) is buried so deep in licence agreements, it is not even remotely reasonable to expect that users have read it. Some of these licence “agreements” allow the software to do outrageous things, such as redirect your browsing (don’t get me started on security issues…) or reinstall itself if you try to remove it.

Be aware that if you use one of these programs, you’re potentially putting your online safety into your own hands the hands of the Enemy.

Blessings, Steve

[Listening to King's X, Dogman — Pillow]