Why isn't it illegal to upload spybots to the web?

[Pepperbelly]

They are the bane of EVERYONE on the web. I bought a new machine yesterday and visited with the owner of the shop's grand son ... the techie who keeps it going and builds the machines, etc. and he guess that moe than 90% of the crashed machines people bring in for repair are in need of little more than a very thorough Ad-Aware cleaning and some work on the registry.

How can these useless fucks keep infecting our machines with this shit that we don't want and destroys our property as well as hurting everyone's use of the internets?

[somnior]

1. Wish I Knew...

I wish I knew. I suppose such programs don't fall under the same legislation as viruses and worms, hence making them illegal, since, technically, they don't "attack" the software/hardware/wetware.

Then again, the fact that they may steal personal information, and that they install without the knowledge of the end user, should theoretically violate identity theft laws, or be the equivalent of trespassing/breaking and entering.

I work with Internet software and I don't even have a clue how the law would treat those programs. :shrug:

Ad-Aware is great, though! That, and I use Mozilla Firefox, so my experience with spyware is limited to helping other people remove it from their computers. ;)

[leftyandproud]

3. dunno but you can prevent virtually all spyware...

by following the directions in these posts

http://groups-beta.google.com/group/SPYWARE-Killers

specifically, you will need

spybot (immunize)
spywareblaster
firefox (duh)
and an updated HOSTS file.

That is a quadruple knockout to spyware.

The other programs listed just scan for existing spyware but these 4 can prevent it.

[skids]

2. Even if it were, they wouldn't get caught.

Cybercrime is way ahead of law enforcement. Law enforcement is trying to catch up, but they've got a steep learning curve.

My solution is not to run machines that can be infected.

[lastknowngood]

4. Spyware is corp sponsored virus ware and it helps gather

info to make corps rich so their bribed gov officials make sure a
loophole allows them to do the same thing a virus does.