Monday, April 26, 2004

The Latest High-Tech Legal Issue: Rooting Out the Spy in Your Computer. At a conference last week, participants discussed the controversial issue of spyware. Some critics said it should be outlawed. By John Schwartz and Saul Hansell. [New York Times: Technology] I had to comment on this one, Dell is taking an interest in Spyware because calls to their help lines are clogged with problems relating to this kind of software. In a recent satellite broacast from PBS called "Cyber Insecurity", Randy Marchany of Va. Tech was asked what about liability when it comes to poorly written software, or software that's released with known bugs and exploits. He said all this would go the way of the tobacco industry where at first the industry tried to protect itself from litigation with overly narrow End User License Agreements. Now with spyware the crack is already beginning to form with states leading the charge with legislation against Spyware. This is very similar to the how the Tobacco Industry cracked. When businesses (like Dell) start getting angry because it hurts their bottom line, they are going to take legal action and protect their interests. Spam will probably fall into this same pattern as well. 9:01:55 PM    comment []