Funny this came up. My computer was completely taken over by several programs. I struggled with trying to remove them for the last couple weeks. I started getting all kinds of errors. Then i tried to repair windows and nothing worked. Then i finally tried to reinstall windows to overwrite some files that were replaced and it I could no install windows.... but of course, reinstalling XP overwrites existing user settings and I could not get back into folders i had previously. After a 3 days of fucking around, i finally had to go to a data recovery expert to salvage the stuff I needed off my drive so I could then just reformat it.
I am sure there will be some spyware legislation in the near future. The "definitions" of "spyware" "adware" etc is just semantics. People will never distinguish between good and bad or any good or bad combination of all of them... just as they dont distinguish between good and bad pornographers. I think Gonzo said it correctly, "its the new spam" and just like spam, there is going to be a lot of people doing extremely nasty shit with it that will cast a dark shadow on those who don't.
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