<Amused thought, may have no basis in law> Could he send their hosting company a take-down order for the download.com site?
</Amused thought> On Dec 6, 2011, at 8:53 PM, Michael Painter wrote: > Fyodor wrote: >> On Mon, Dec 05, 2011 at 10:14:48PM -0800, andrew.wallace wrote: >>> Using fruitful language and acting like a child isn't going to see >>> you taken seriously. >> I'm sorry that my language offended you. But if you ever spend more >> than 14 years creating free software as a gift to the community, only >> to have it used as bait by a giant corporation to infect your users >> with malware, then you may understand my rage. >> The good news is that many users are sick and tired of having their >> machines hijacked by malware. Especially by CNET Download.Com, which >> still says on their own adware policy page: >> "In your letters, user reviews, and polls, you told us bundled >> adware was unacceptable--no matter how harmless it might be. We want >> you to know what you're getting when you download from CNET >> Download.com, and no other download site can promise that." >> --http://www.cnet.com/2723-13403_1-461-16.html >> Um, what people WANT when they download Nmap is Nmap itself. Not to >> have their searches redirected to Bing and their home page changed to >> Microsoft's MSN. >> Speaking of which, Microsoft emailed me today. They said that they >> didn't know they were sponsoring CNET to trojan open source software, >> and that they have stopped doing it. But the trojan installer uses >> your Internet connection to obtain more "special offers" from CNET, >> and they immediately switched to installing a "Babylon toolbar" and >> search engine redirect instead. Then CNET removed that and are now >> promoting their own "techtracker" tool. Apparently the heat is so >> high that even malware vendors are refusing to have any more part in >> CNET's antics! But if CNET isn't stopped, the malware vendors will >> come crawling back eventually and CNET will be there to receive them. >> There have been dozens of news articles in the last day and hundreds >> of outraged comments on blogs, Twitter, Facebook, etc. In the midst >> of all this terrible PR, Download.com went in last night and quietly >> switched their Nmap downloads back to our real installer. At least >> for now. But that isn't enough--they are still infecting the >> installers for thousands of other packages! For example, they have >> currently infected the installer for a children's coloring book app: >> http://download.cnet.com/Kea-Coloring-Book/3000-2102_4-10360620.html >> Have they no shame at all??! >> I've created a page with the situation background, links to the news >> articles, and the latest updates: >> http://insecure.org/news/download-com-fiasco.html >> Feel free to share it. Together, I hope we can get Download.Com to >> apologize and cease this reprehensible behavior! >> Cheers, >> Fyodor > > No, there's no shame when money's involved. > Do Unto Others as they would do unto you...sue the fsck out of them. > --Michael >