Yanks trying to make Spyware illegal

Please read this article regarding Spyware Bill Passes House.

A small exerpt - "The bill, which passed with a whopping 399-1 vote, also makes it illegal to hijack control of a user's computer, expose users to pop-up ads that can't be closed, modify a user's personal settings, and download personal information without permission."

EDIT: Yahoo just pulled the article less than three minutes since we posted the link! It originated from Jason Tuohey, Medill News Service Tue, Oct 05, 2004.

 

If it passes and they can actually enforce it that would be great. A good first step.

 

Possible bad news for anti spyware makers?

Phamaceutical companies don't want to cure, they want to treat - that's where the money is.

 

robbery,murder,rape(even use of non-licensed software!) etc are all illegal but they still occur just because something is made illegal doesn't stop it happening and same will happen with this

 

Valid point.

However, it has to be "on the books" first for it to be illegal, even if you can quite convincingly point to a Joe Blow and say, 'Here is the guy who hijacked my PC' he cannot be convicted unless it is first a "crime".

Good move, can only hope they can follow thru with it.

Cheers, TAS

 

I'm afraid I think that the types of people(term used loosely!)that write these types of malware(cos they are)that perform the actions that are trying to be made illegal would either not bother about such legislation or would even get more of a "kick" from doing it because it was illegal:-they would be "bucking the system" even more!
Lets face it the legit companies that bundle spyware with certain installs probably wouldn't be affected by this type of law:-assuming they warn of the installation taking place!the hackers,trojan writers etc aren't legit anyway:-so they wont give a monkeys about any form of legislation.
I think its more of a case of the "powers that be" wanting to be seen as though they are trying to do something