[Politech] Weekly column: Problems with Congress' "anti-spyware" bill [priv]

From: Declan McCullagh (declan@private)
Date: Mon May 02 2005 - 12:49:26 PDT


http://news.com.com/2010-1071_3-5690270.html

Making the wrong move against spyware
May 2, 2005, 4:00 AM PT
By Declan McCullagh
 
Spyware's creators must be uniquely evil people.

Anyone who distributes malicious code that infects your computer and
surreptitiously monitors what you're doing deserves what's coming to
them. The problem is that the measures in an ostensibly anti-spyware
bill due for a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives may not be
the best way to punish these folks.

No doubt the bill's sponsors, led by Rep. Mary Bono, a California
Republican, sincerely believe that their Spy Act will outlaw dubious
adware and spyware practices.

It's not clear, though, that the Spy Act is necessary or wise. It
could end up being no more useful than the Can-Spam Act of 2003, which
hasn't exactly eliminated junk e-mail.

[...remainder snipped...]
_______________________________________________
Politech mailing list
Archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
Moderated by Declan McCullagh (http://www.mccullagh.org/)



This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.3 : Mon May 02 2005 - 12:14:38 PDT