"Clif" and "Justin" hate piracy so much, they've apparently started writing programs that scold pirates when downloaded, as well as tracking who downloaded them - and when. The programs, which they've dubbed "dust bunny" and "walk the plank", are disguised as commonly downloaded "warez" files. Their website proudly proclaims that the two programs have been executed over 24,000 times by thousands of pirates.

The authors claim they've distributed the programs under the names of popular downloads like the Pinnacle Studio 9 keygen, TurboTax, and both Unreal Tournament 2004 key generators and cracks. The authors claim many of the files were downloaded despite the conspicuously small size of 204KB.

The website for the "project" argues that the tactic isn't illegal or entrapment because the two "aren't reporting these people to anyone in the law enforcement field, even though we should be." They also claim the program isn't malware, since "it doesn't modify, add, or delete files other then (sic) itself."

The file does attempt to report back to its masters without consent according to the duo; something that's generally frowned upon if the recent opinions on AIM's inclusion of Wild Tangent are any indication. The authors add that "it wouldn't surprise us if anti-virus vendors labeled it as some type of malware."

Reading the website and the blog of the owner leaves one wondering if this is either a hoax designed to generate controversy, or a research project for a psychology grad student without spellcheck. Both "Justin" and "Clif" have stopped by our filesharing forum to play twenty questions with our forum regulars.

"I'm interested in the legality of this as well...for obvious reasons...but I haven't really seen anything directly applicable to what my software does yet," says Clif in a post. "I see this as no different than the RIAA putting scrambled versions of popular songs all over Kazaa to keep people from getting legit copies."