Thanks for that, Albert. We keep a list of evil sites we know of, and use it for our AdSense competitive ad filter, so we should post that to WOT. CC-ing Audacity Team on this reply.
all best, Vaughan On 8/2/2012 2:26 AM, Albert Santoni wrote: > Hi guys, > > As many of you are aware, there's a lot of scumbags out there that > take open source software like Mixxx and Audacity, rebrand it > (sometimes), bundle adware with it (always), and make money off our > work. > > The GPL permits such lame behaviour, and in the past, we've asserted > our trademark ownership in order to force some of these scumbags to > stop using the Mixxx name anywhere on their site. > > Some of these guys go to great lengths to appear legitimate, such as > having fancy certifications that say it's OK to steal your personal > information and install loads of crap on your computer, as long as > it's in the fine print. Additionally, there's a whole little economy > that revolves around this stuff, which starts by sucking people in > from Google Adwords, getting them to download and install Mixxx plus a > bunch of toolbars and useless junk, and then the unscrupulous > distributor gets paid per installation of crapware. > > Hey, it's a free market, and you could argue that they're filling some > niche. I suspect that the vast majority of the people who install > Mixxx from these guys know nothing about DJing, but that doesn't make > it right. By bundling unrelated crapware with a product, you're adding > ZERO value to it, and very much taking something away from the user > experience during installation. The only value being produced is for > the guys making the crapware - they're getting a cheap way to get > their software on to loads of computers. (Back in the day, these > things used to be like pyramid schemes - crapware installs more > crapware... I don't know if that's still common, but I hear botnets > are all the rage these days...) > > Anyways, it is indeed a free market, and some guys have been building > a site called "Web of Trust", which seems like a useful tool for > informing less aware users about what they're getting into when they > visit one of these sites. With WOT, you can rank the trustworthiness > of a site, and users who have WOT installed on their PCs get a big > popup telling them when they visit one of these sketchy sites. > > I would encourage anyone who thinks vendors who like to fork Mixxx and > bundle additional programs to please leave their feedback on the WOT > page for each of these sites. > > You can install WOT via a Chrome extension (easiest way): > https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/bhmmomiinigofkjcapegjjndpbikblnp > > And the official Web of Trust site is at: > http://www.mywot.com > > > Lastly, you might wonder if this is similar to what Google already has > in-place, where they block malicious sites. The answer is no, Google > tends to mostly block sites with browser exploits, and additionally, > they're making a profit out of all of this too via Adwords, so they > have a conflict of interest. Web of Trust seems to be genuinely > neutral for now. > > Thanks, > Albert > > ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Live Security Virtual Conference Exclusive live event will cover all the ways today's security and threat landscape has changed and how IT managers can respond. Discussions will include endpoint security, mobile security and the latest in malware threats. http://www.accelacomm.com/jaw/sfrnl04242012/114/50122263/ _______________________________________________ Get Mixxx, the #1 Free MP3 DJ Mixing software Today http://mixxx.org Mixxx-devel mailing list Mixxx-devel@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/mixxx-devel
