Who Owns MY Website, Anyway?
Well, people often
warn me to stay away from controversial issues, but it just ain't my
nature. When something that comes up in this world upsets me, I
just HAVE to open my big mouth.
And this one upsets
me BIG TIME.
I don't know if any
of you are aware of the recent hoopla concerning Microsoft's newest
version of IE that will be released in its final form later this
year. Seems Microsoft was trying to "help" Internet
surfers by adding "Smart Tags" to their browser, which would add
to or replace the links in websites. This means, you would see
additional links supplied by Microsoft when you clicked on any link at a
website. Web owners freaked out at this because we felt it was OUR
right to direct our viewers to the links WE chose and Microsoft was in
fact changing the content of OUR websites when they did this.
Well, good for us for screaming about this. Microsoft backed off
on this idea for now. And, to give credit to Microsoft, I must say
that they did provide a meta tag for website owners to use which would
disable this feature.
Now, there is a new
problem.
A program called KaZaa Media Desktop is now the number 4
download at CNet. This program includes something called TopText
which does the same thing noted above (that MS tried to pull on us) but
this one offers no way for website owners to disable it! (They do
say we can write to them and they will not include our site. My
fear is that writing to them will, in fact, alert them that we HAVE a
site if they didn't already know.)
Rather than tell you
about this myself, I will quote some of my fellow techies who say it
well enough (with their permission, of course):
Hal Cardona:
"People.
If you aren't sure what we are talking about, let me tell you a little bit
about it. TopText adds links to web pages when they are viewed in your
browser, I call it scumware because what they do is terrible IMHO. They
sell these links to advertisers. So, since I have a web page and you
visit it with the TopText plug in loaded, you will see links on MY site
that I didn't create! If you click on one of my existing links
they offer you a way to go to one of their advertiser's sites instead of
following the link. Basically they are hijacking MY links and, IMHO,
infringing on MY copyright for MY website. They are advertising on MY
site and NOT paying me for the privilege. Right now it's being distributed
by KaZaa. Those of us who have our own web sites would appreciate it if
you would NOT use this."
G Man:
"While
the main program may be good for peer to peer file sharing, it also
installs a secondary program without telling you the truth about its use.
This secondary program is called TopText from ezula.com and it runs the
Cydoor spyware trojan on your computer. The term Spyware is the catch-all
name for programs that watch what you choose to view/download. This
information is then stored on their server as your profile. This profile
can be used for many things that would place you and your privacy in
serious jeapardy. In addition to the above, this particular program also
creates links on websites to redirect you to sites that are paying them a
fee for this service. While this may not seem like a big deal to you right
away, it should be noted that it seriously hurts the original site's
webmaster by luring visitors away from her/his website to other sites that
are affiliated with the Spyware company and that only want to sell you
something (and collect information about you).
To learn more about
Spyware and why we should all be afraid of it, head on over to http://cexx.org/problem.htm
to read all about it. Here are two more excellent sites for you to
bookmark. http://www.infoforce.qc.ca/spyware/index.html
Go to http://www.spychecker.com
and click on the "What is Spyware?" link at the top.
Luke:
"The
flaw with KaZaa is the architecture and the means in which its creators'
promote it. Anyone can do a search on anything using KaZaa’s home page
and get the IPs of 20+ online users. With a bit of net savvy one can view all shared
files from each user on the KaZaa network. Why I think this is bad:
KaZaa's search engine exposes the IPs of its users to non-users and only
to non-users! KaZaa users have no clear way of knowing who they are
downloading from as far as I can tell. Further, if you use the software
you don't download from a single user you download from all (the source
of KaZaa's praise). If a would-be bad person uses the search engine and
you happen to have a static IP you are not only a target you are
advertising your IP but also your shared files. One step further into
paranoia: With it your IP might as well be your street address (even more
so if it is static), if someone - anyone - doesn't like the files you are
sharing there are no limits to the repercussions. If you have a shared
Metallica song, lawyers can trace you to your ISP with ease for example
and send them a nasty letter, etc. What could be worse? A bad person
does like what you have. This would-be attacker can look for ways into
your computer for what you don't want to share."
Thanks to my
friends who said this all so well.....please, readers, think about this
long and hard. This is truly big brother trying to infringe on our
rights. While I don't think we, as consumers, can stop KaZaa from
doing this, I DO believe we can stop CNet from distributing this
horrendous software by letting them know our feelings. PLEASE go
HERE
and rate this software....not only will this let CNet know how we feel,
but it will alert others who may be considering downloading this crud!
Click
here for the full story on this.
**This
editorial reflects the opinions of Linda Johnson and the other three
people mentioned. It does not necessarily reflect the opinions of
others associated with this newsletter.**
Linda Johnson is a
college instructor of all of the Microsoft Office Programs, as well
as Adobe PhotoShop and Windows. She also teaches online distance
learning classes in Excel, Outlook, PowerPoint, Publisher, and Word at
Eclectic Academy. She has worked helpdesk and teaches
and lectures at many local businesses and tech schools in her area. Support this
newsletter by checking out Linda's eBooks, MS Word MAGIC!, Book
I: Fonts, Fun & Formats and Book
II: Table Wizardry,
How
To Get Started As a Software Trainer, and
her newest series of MSOffice
eBook Tutorials and CD
|
,
