Paul Wilders
April 27th, 2002, 11:21 AM
{QUOTE-> To all,
During the recent Radlight v Lavasoft situation where a company receiving financial support from Whenu.com released software which attacks and destroys
Adaware so that whenu.com's SaveNow spyware will not be removed, whenu itself was oddly silent. There was no condemnation of the actions taken "on their behalf" by Radlight. There was no statement denying involvement in the development of the Radlight software. There were no notices stating that Whenu.com would immediately stop sponsoring this software.
Well now I have heard from Whenu.com in the form of a blatant and arrogant threat.
In my newsletter of April 22, in which I helped to release the news that Radlight's software was attacking Lavasoft's Adaware, I made the following
statement:
"Radlight, which bundles with the spyware application 'Savenow' and with New.Net software, makes repeated searches for the installation of Adaware and removes it if found". www.spywareinfo.com/issues/04222002.html.
Whenu's entire response to the Radlight situation is to threaten me for labeling their spyware as such.
This is arrogant and foolishly timed. They were involved in this attack on Lavasoft, albeit unknowlingly. The actions taken by Radlight were done to keep Whenu's software from being uninstalled. One would assume that WhenU knew nothing of this, and I was willing to extend to them the benefit of the doubt. After this
outrageous behavior, I am no longer willing to extend any such courtesy.
My intentions:
I will be contacting the US Attorney's office and asking them to examine the possibility that Whenu.com was NOT an unknowing party in the recent Radlight v
Lavasoft situation. I urge others to do the same.
I wish to form a team of experts in spyware and network security to rip SaveNow apart and see just what exactly it does while it runs. I lack the experience to test it on my own, but I feel confident that the people who have done this before can easily detect any form of data-mining in SaveNow. SaveNow wishes to be rid of
the "spyware" label. Well it won't happen by making threats.
It is my intention to go ahead and temporarily retract the statement. This is a trivial matter. However, I will make this a very costly retraction.
"Pending a full investigation of what Whenu.com's place was in relation to Radlight's actions and a full review of the SaveNow software that Radlight was attempting to protect with it's actions, I have decided to temporarily retract the statement of April 22, where I labeled SaveNow as a 'spyware application'."
Not a word of that is untrue, and not a word is slanderous, but it certainly puts them under the glare of an uncomfortable light. I welcome any amendments from those with more experience in these matters. I want it to be as unflattering as possible,
without actually being anything worth a lawsuit.
What I am asking:
I am asking for volunteers to put SaveNow to the test. If it is no longer spyware, then by all means let's label it as something else. If it is spyware, let's rub it in their face. I've never done such a thing before and would likely blunder it.
I am asking for the owners of privacy/security web sites to publish the text of my next newsletter which I will release to the public domain, in which I condemn
whenu.com for these actions, and announce my intention to contact the US Attorney's office. It will ask the question, "where was whenu.com during all this?" This writing will be examined by myself and anyone who cares to assist to make absolutely certain it contains no slander or libel. I'm not a lawyer, but I can speak double-talk as well as most.
I am asking the owners of privacy/security message board forums to post this writing for their users to read and comment on and to spread word of it to other
forums.
My reasons:
We all know that spyware companies are becoming more bold. BDE seems ready to release ever newer versions of their software just to be an irritant to those who write software to remove it. Gator actually took the IAB to court to have their despicable actions declared legal. This week we learned that a spyware host was
destroying copies of Adaware to protect the spyware component bundled into it's installer. And now whenu.com has threatened legal action against my spyware site because they don't like the truth. These manufacturers of scum will only grow more and more bold unless they are checked.
We all just witnessed virtually the entire privacy community pull together to support Lavasoft during the situation with Radlight. Included among the supporters
were people who despise Lavasoft, but understood the importance of putting out of business a company engaging in such malicious behavior. I'd like to see this sudden union continue. There is too much squabbling and clashes of personalities among us.
Between ourselves and our users and readers, we virtually destroyed Radlight.This should be the norm, not an isolated incident. And it should be what spyware
companies think about when they think about the privacy movement. Last week they scoffed at our privacy concerns. What are they thinking after this?
I'm open to suggestions on this. I was hoping to send my newsletter out this weekend, but it already is the weekend. I'll settle for Monday morning (USA time).
I won't be able to hold off answering their threats for longer than that I think.
The email itself along with 3 documents that they sent me can be downloaded from:
www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/spyware/savenow.zip
Lavasoft has offerred some assistance, and so has Wilders.org. Bill Webb of cexx.org will unavailable this weekend.
Who else will support me in this?
Mike Healan
SpywareInfo
mike@spywareinfo.com <-QUOTE}
I urge anyone knowledgeable to join in eg to offer support to SpywareInfo in order to get this settled. Drop Mike Healan an email in case you want to join in.
All others: feel free to post a supportive post (and/or comment) in this thread.
regards.
paul
During the recent Radlight v Lavasoft situation where a company receiving financial support from Whenu.com released software which attacks and destroys
Adaware so that whenu.com's SaveNow spyware will not be removed, whenu itself was oddly silent. There was no condemnation of the actions taken "on their behalf" by Radlight. There was no statement denying involvement in the development of the Radlight software. There were no notices stating that Whenu.com would immediately stop sponsoring this software.
Well now I have heard from Whenu.com in the form of a blatant and arrogant threat.
In my newsletter of April 22, in which I helped to release the news that Radlight's software was attacking Lavasoft's Adaware, I made the following
statement:
"Radlight, which bundles with the spyware application 'Savenow' and with New.Net software, makes repeated searches for the installation of Adaware and removes it if found". www.spywareinfo.com/issues/04222002.html.
Whenu's entire response to the Radlight situation is to threaten me for labeling their spyware as such.
This is arrogant and foolishly timed. They were involved in this attack on Lavasoft, albeit unknowlingly. The actions taken by Radlight were done to keep Whenu's software from being uninstalled. One would assume that WhenU knew nothing of this, and I was willing to extend to them the benefit of the doubt. After this
outrageous behavior, I am no longer willing to extend any such courtesy.
My intentions:
I will be contacting the US Attorney's office and asking them to examine the possibility that Whenu.com was NOT an unknowing party in the recent Radlight v
Lavasoft situation. I urge others to do the same.
I wish to form a team of experts in spyware and network security to rip SaveNow apart and see just what exactly it does while it runs. I lack the experience to test it on my own, but I feel confident that the people who have done this before can easily detect any form of data-mining in SaveNow. SaveNow wishes to be rid of
the "spyware" label. Well it won't happen by making threats.
It is my intention to go ahead and temporarily retract the statement. This is a trivial matter. However, I will make this a very costly retraction.
"Pending a full investigation of what Whenu.com's place was in relation to Radlight's actions and a full review of the SaveNow software that Radlight was attempting to protect with it's actions, I have decided to temporarily retract the statement of April 22, where I labeled SaveNow as a 'spyware application'."
Not a word of that is untrue, and not a word is slanderous, but it certainly puts them under the glare of an uncomfortable light. I welcome any amendments from those with more experience in these matters. I want it to be as unflattering as possible,
without actually being anything worth a lawsuit.
What I am asking:
I am asking for volunteers to put SaveNow to the test. If it is no longer spyware, then by all means let's label it as something else. If it is spyware, let's rub it in their face. I've never done such a thing before and would likely blunder it.
I am asking for the owners of privacy/security web sites to publish the text of my next newsletter which I will release to the public domain, in which I condemn
whenu.com for these actions, and announce my intention to contact the US Attorney's office. It will ask the question, "where was whenu.com during all this?" This writing will be examined by myself and anyone who cares to assist to make absolutely certain it contains no slander or libel. I'm not a lawyer, but I can speak double-talk as well as most.
I am asking the owners of privacy/security message board forums to post this writing for their users to read and comment on and to spread word of it to other
forums.
My reasons:
We all know that spyware companies are becoming more bold. BDE seems ready to release ever newer versions of their software just to be an irritant to those who write software to remove it. Gator actually took the IAB to court to have their despicable actions declared legal. This week we learned that a spyware host was
destroying copies of Adaware to protect the spyware component bundled into it's installer. And now whenu.com has threatened legal action against my spyware site because they don't like the truth. These manufacturers of scum will only grow more and more bold unless they are checked.
We all just witnessed virtually the entire privacy community pull together to support Lavasoft during the situation with Radlight. Included among the supporters
were people who despise Lavasoft, but understood the importance of putting out of business a company engaging in such malicious behavior. I'd like to see this sudden union continue. There is too much squabbling and clashes of personalities among us.
Between ourselves and our users and readers, we virtually destroyed Radlight.This should be the norm, not an isolated incident. And it should be what spyware
companies think about when they think about the privacy movement. Last week they scoffed at our privacy concerns. What are they thinking after this?
I'm open to suggestions on this. I was hoping to send my newsletter out this weekend, but it already is the weekend. I'll settle for Monday morning (USA time).
I won't be able to hold off answering their threats for longer than that I think.
The email itself along with 3 documents that they sent me can be downloaded from:
www.spywareinfo.com/downloads/spyware/savenow.zip
Lavasoft has offerred some assistance, and so has Wilders.org. Bill Webb of cexx.org will unavailable this weekend.
Who else will support me in this?
Mike Healan
SpywareInfo
mike@spywareinfo.com <-QUOTE}
I urge anyone knowledgeable to join in eg to offer support to SpywareInfo in order to get this settled. Drop Mike Healan an email in case you want to join in.
All others: feel free to post a supportive post (and/or comment) in this thread.
regards.
paul