Sunday, May 02, 2004
Whose PC is it, anyway?
The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) held a workshop on spyware last month. They invited spyware companies to attend. Maybe they're imagining that some kind of industry self-regulation will work.
Do you think you have property rights in the PC you paid for? Spyware companies don't. The author of the Spyware Weekly Newsletter asked one of the panels about regulating obnxious behavior like software that fights back when you try to uninstall it. He got a shocking reply.
The Software & Information Industry Association's Mark Bohannon said he didn't think you should have a specific legal right to uninstall software on your computer.
Think about that. Think about the arrogance behind an attitude like that. You need to protect yourself against people like that. So far the government isn't helping.
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Do you think you have property rights in the PC you paid for? Spyware companies don't. The author of the Spyware Weekly Newsletter asked one of the panels about regulating obnxious behavior like software that fights back when you try to uninstall it. He got a shocking reply.
The Software & Information Industry Association's Mark Bohannon said he didn't think you should have a specific legal right to uninstall software on your computer.
Think about that. Think about the arrogance behind an attitude like that. You need to protect yourself against people like that. So far the government isn't helping.
# posted by Frederick @ 7:23 PM Email to a friend:
Haloscan: they provide trackback