jsmarkbrown
Premium
join:2002-12-16
Baltimore, MD
2 edits | Unbelievable
I just spent a good hour or so reading every post to the thread at Spyware Warrior. The most difficult thing to consider in all of this crap is how do we control it? The internet will no doubt (if it's not already) be the largest source of revenue for a majority of businesses around the world. What makes it so great is that everyone can participate easily, whether you are selling or buying. But there seems to be little to no policing done; most, unfortunately, done by people who have been ripped off. You can make just about any claim you want on the internet, and profit by it. Recently, I started receiving emails offering liscensed software for dirt cheap. It was obviously pirated software. I reported this to Microsoft, Adobe, and Macromedia. Not only are the sites I reported still operating, but many new ones have popped up, coming from the same person/people. I never received a reply from Adobe or Marcromedia, and received a form letter from Microsoft. They obviously don't care. (one site is using the same host as it was a month ago) Although pirated software and rougue software are two different things, they are indicative of how we are left to fend for ourselves in alot of ways. We get frustrated with the software we use, because it breaks, or breaks our computers, or maybe doesn't fix everything we want it to fix. And we are increasingly being forced into using a smaller selection of software, because we're afraid of what we may get (or not get) in return for our hard earned money. Perhaps the only thing we are left with is a lesson well learned, and hope that as the internet gets even more popular, people will become more educated about how risky the internet can be, not only to our privacy, but also to our wallets. |
