Spygames 3.0

I wrote about spywares on two previous occasions (here and here) when the FTC began going after some of them on fraud charges. Today's LA Times has a great Column One piece by Terry McDermott. Kevin Drum writes on the article as well (adding some common tips for erradicating spyware). The stereotypical stresses of being a 1L have prevented me from writing on this more, so I've been generally forced to react to others as they write. Anyway, there are a few points where McDermott expresses my exact sentiments.

One of the more discomforting aspects of the modern world is most of its inhabitants' utter ignorance of the technology that shapes it. Not one in 100 computer users has the least idea of what goes on inside the machines they spend many waking hours engaged with. They have no more concept of what's under the lid of their computer boxes than Ptolemy had of what was on the dark side of the moon.

Moreover, there is no obvious place to turn for help. Computer and software makers haven't the resources, or, as often, the desire to help. Any plea for tech support is apt to lead a computer user on a round-robin of calls, with each manufacturer emphatically shifting the blame to another.
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Wechsler was tending bar at a public golf course in South San Francisco when he bought his first computer less than a decade ago."I brought it home and turned it on, clicked on Netscape and expected something to happen. I still think about how dumb I was," he said. That ignorance makes him empathize with other casual users, people who expect their computers to be tools, not obligations.
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The result of chasing those pennies has been a flood. Spyware is by far the most common category of complaints received by software and computer manufacturers. It is responsible, for example, for up to "one-third of operating system crashes reported to us," said Paul Bryan, who works in Internet security at Microsoft.

My case was sadly typical. Consumers have downloaded free versions of the two most widely used antispyware programs more than 50 million times. In the right conditions, they work fine but are more useful after the fact than preventive. Spyware is brazenly sneaky. In fact, some manufacturers advertise their products as tools to fight the spyware they install. Then they charge customers to remove it. Eshelman calls such programs "betrayware."
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Other AumHa volunteers regularly quit volunteering because they become so consumed with the work, and passionate about it, that it overwhelms their non-Web lives. They almost always come back, though. The bunch of them, and others at similar sites, say they feel as though they're caught up in a great struggle and feel honor-bound to continue. "It's war," Eshelman said.

Armen to that. After spending the day teaching my dad how to pay his credit card bills online, I realize there is no way in hell people can fight spyware, or even realize when one is installed on their computer...a few hundred, then they'll start noticing. I'm always weary of someone who begins any argument with property rights or John Locke, but I really think it might be time to redefine property in cyberspace.