Going to Rip Spyware Programs READ !

[DasFox]

People take Dr. Damms example to heart companies, and people will come after you, and maybe one day end up in a court case, so if your going to rip, change around, make these apps clean, then you better, change some code, and call them by another name, or find yourself facing the same problems as Dr.Damm did, or maybe even worse facing a court case, and that's no joke on this, rip them yeah they need to be clean, but then they need to be what is considered your program. and not someone elses property.

[Sephiroth]

People have four choices..

1. Use the offical verison
2. Use a different program
3. Buy the ad-free verison(if avaible)
4. Code their own p2p program

Ripping programs does not help P2P, and it does not help the program which the users and the "clean" installer makers are dependent on..

The clean verisons also pose security risk since you dont know where they come from they could have worms or viruses in them and someday someone will probably create a clean verison of a program with a little nasty add on release it anonymously and thousands will download it and screw up their PC..

[Rickio]

you forgot another choice.

buy retail...

[dr. damn]

Originally posted by Sephiroth
The clean verisons also pose security risk since you dont know where they come from they could have worms or viruses in them and someday someone will probably create a clean verison of a program with a little nasty add on release it anonymously and thousands will download it and screw up their PC..

The same risk is there with any software product, regardless as to whether it's on the shelf, on the internet, or you buy it from a guy in a dark street corner.

If you don't have a virus scanner, you run a huge risk -- and even if you do, the risk is still there, just minimzed.

[crackerjacker]

:mellow any program that a user tries, must be questioned, as to whether or not you can trust the *company*. reason, who knows if their is a backdoors in the program or if the program is malicous*, or spyware, or what ever. you see the best defense against this, is to experiment, and use a firewall.
peace*:fire


what i means is that, just because someone creates a program, you have to use good judgement, to trust it. just make sense, use a firewall. o, yeah, and firewalls are not 100 percent proof. although, some protecton, is better then nothing.
:fire in saying this, you have to question one thing foremost which is, is this program worth your time.... hmmmm.
so, think twice, about a program. using a virus scanner, stay protected, and back up your important files too.

peace

*









ya i must be out of my mind* whats your excuse? nah, just kidding..:tilted :fire

[cheapprick]

Sephiroth,

You have said many times that you don't like clean versions of software. I would like to see you post your reasoning. You have listed stuff above, but as Crackerjacker pointed out the same risks are there with any p2p programs. Are you directly profitting from the ad-ware?

Please don't flame me an answer, I'm asking a reasonable question I think.

Thanks

[Sephiroth]

Originally posted by cheapprick
Sephiroth,
Are you directly profitting from the ad-ware?


No. I dont really care about the whole ad-ware contraversy. IMO its the ad-companies some of which do some bad times and the anti ad-companies who profit off the whole thing and get free advertaising by producing a ad-ware cleaner, hype up then entire issue come up with some fancy buzzwords like Spyware, Scumware, Adware and etc. Then watch as all the people who are taken in by everything they say go out and spam their there hype and the link for their site so they can give away the free verison and also market their other programs which you have to purchase.

My reasoning is this.. The ultimate purpose of the clean verison is to force the offical verison to change their handling of their bundled software, right? But not one of the companies which others made a "clean" verison has changed anything.. In fact these clean verisons lets users continue to use that program and network which can still benifit that program.. If a program didnt take in account user concerns and users went some place else then eventually that program would be forced to adressed the issue. With clean verisons they never have too.

Why is this significant? One many newbies dunno the different between a clean and offical verison and clean verisons are from untrusted or unknown sources unlike the offical verisons of programs so there is a risk when using them..

As for why i dont like them as i posted in the first paragraph i dont think that they work overall and i think they are taking a bad direction for p2p. Not only do they work by they prevent other programs from gaining users by allowing programs that have some bad things to continue to prosper.. Fasttrack during the entire BDE contraversy which it still installs the network was the lowest probably in the last year, people where using other programs and then the clean verisons poped up and magically the network is at its highest numbers ever yet they didnt change anything and even booted one program off the network..

Finally the clean verisons do not require any p2p knowledge and little technical knowledge overall.. If the offical program dies then the producers of the clean verisons would most likely just move on to the next program to "clean." It also seems that many of these people who make these "clean" verisons like dr.damn and etc. are benifiting directly from it and are getting credit for doing really nothing more than making a new installer.. They are able to influence people even though they could be entirely ignorant about that subject and yet people will believe them and they are not doing this for the good of P2P because clean verisons do nothing to benifit P2P. It robs other programs of potential new users and prevents change.

[kazall]

are you sharmen the oner of kazaa? you have a point there i agree.

[rt678]

I think Dr Damn should write his own P2P program rather than messing with other people's programs. It isn't like you are FORCED to use a particular program! There are a bunch out there. If you don't like the terms they want you to agree to, then just don't use it.

[evilmegaman]

Oh so lemme guess yall usin Kazaalite while dissin Dr.Damn?

[cheapprick]

Yeah, I'm using Kazaa Lite. That's why it's important to me to find out why some are against it.

And what Sephiroth said above made sense to a point.

The only thing is yes, eventually these companies would be forced to change, but how long will that take? The majority of people on Kazaa will still be using the "real" copy, so how to make it change?

He says to boycott it, but with October fast approaching, and the numbers of files available there, I feel forced to stay it out.

[rt678]

I use Grokster as it came from the Grokster website. The install disclosed right up front that Cydoor was in there and what it did. The install offered me some other programs and I delined. Basically the deal was that if I wanted to use Grokster, I had to agree to their terms. I agreed to do so and have used Grokster for many months now. It seems to have been a good deal for both us. As I said above, if you do not want to agree to their deal, then use one of the dozens of other P2P programs. Guess I don't understand why either just agreeing to their deal or not using their program does seems unfair to some posters here.

[DigitalJunkie]

P2P Networks & P2P Software Developers may not be same people.

Both official & "clean" versions both should exist, without competition there wouldn't be progress for P2P as a whole!