Now that I have your attention... my rant for the month... Is it really necessary for us to be lured into a trap for adware? Once again an offering, posted just today, in Freestuff takes one to a website where an attempt is made to load a piece of adware onto your system. In this case, it was ClockSync. This type of crap has got to stop! If you wish to offer an item, fine. If you wish to offer ClockSync, fine. Be honest and open about it! Dont lure people to your site like some kind of backstabbing bushwhacker and then invade their computer with your adware crap! I view those who do this sort of thing as just one level below whale fecal deposits on the ocean floor. I also have to wonder how and/or why this got through the link approval. This is acceptable behavior to the administration here? Will Renderosity itself begin resorting to this type of behavior in the near future? Or was the site making this invasion of our computer systems and privacy altered AFTER the approval? Take care, be well, keep flying Well, except for those who resort to such tactics as that above. You can gag and suffocate in the nearest putrid, scum infested pood. casamerica

BTW, before those of you out there just waiting to tell me just how "ungateful" I am to freestuff providers get started, I want to state that you do not want to go there. I am very grateful. There are simply too many ethical, honest freestuff providers to mention. It doesn't mean I or any of you have to put up with this sort of underhanded, unethical behavior. I view this sort of behavior as an insult to all those honest freestuff providers. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

I see our new screening process doesn't do anything to prevent the 102021911th repost of "Red Tex for Somebody's Free Hair", either.

Which item is it? If you want, you can IM one of us privately if you don't want to name the person publically. I can also check how that got through once I get the info. Unfortunately, it's possible that either the approving mod already has that gunk on their machine, so it didn't prompt again, or the contents of the link might have been changed after approval. Thanks for the heads up! Cres

"I see our new screening process doesn't do anything to prevent the 102021911th repost of "Red Tex for Somebody's Free Hair", either." Gee, I wonder who you mean. ;)

Also brought up on discussion.

Crescent, I've IM'd you. I tried the site 3 times from 2 different systems. It hit them each time. I am positive on the scu---..., hmmm,... culprit. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

Hey, Cas... try installing Spyware Blaster. It's free, you only have to run it once and once you do it automatically and silently prevents any of that adware crap from ever getting installed. That little gadget is worth its weight in gold, I swear.

hmmm ... its also possible that its browser sensitive ... since I'm checking with my normal browser of Netscape 4.2 (really) there's a lot of hijacking and spyware stuff that just doesn't work on my system. hmmm ..... guess I should check freestuff with Exploder instead .... Durn .... the things I do for this site .... Lyrra

Send me the address and I'll send Nigel round to sort them out SNORT :)

Don't run anti-spyware software if you have anything that runs C-Dilla(sp?) for the licensing verification.

Don't run anti-spyware software if you have anything that runs C-Dilla(sp?) for the licensing verification.<<< Yea, I had to disable my usual protection temporarily because of the new licensing software TurboTax is using. In fact, I think TurboTax is using C-Dilla. It caused all sorts of havoc! Guess with the puke-laden, fecal-eating scum-suckers invading here now I'd better get things wrapped up and get that back up pronto. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

Hey, Cas... try installing Spyware Blaster. It's free, you only have to run it once and once you do it automatically and silently prevents any of that adware crap from ever getting installed. That little gadget is worth its weight in gold, I swear.<<< Thanks, fauve. I may try it. What I have now just causes all sorts of bonker behavior with TurboTax trying to run. It may just be inherent in the type of protection TurboTax is using. We just shouldn't have to worry about this sort of stuff here. We should have enough respect for one another not to pull this crap. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

I use Pest Patrol myself, no conflicts with TurboTax yet (It uses C-Dilla)

Does software like that prevent you from seeing anystuff you may want to? DO you get to choose? Kinda curious about it.

Pest Patrol is like a virus scanner for Trojans, Ad-Ware, Tracking cookies, etc. If gives youa big list and you can delete what you want. It sits in the background and warns you of intruding pests. These days it's a must along with a good Virus scanner and firewall. The net is a messy place, LOL

Attached Link: http://www.privacyandspying.com/privacy-c_dilla.html

Spyware Blaster also lets you configure what stuff (like C-Dilla and other copy protection schemes you may need for various software packages) you want to allow on your machine, and which stuff (like the thrice-damned Orbitz) you don't.

Can't say enough about Pest Patrol here. The combination of that, Zone Alarm Pro and Fit-It Utilities/Virus Protection is the only way I'd venture out on the next these days.

Turbo tax found that they sold 5 million copies of software last year, and 15 million returns were filed with it. They put that stuff on to prevent folks from loaning it out..and they've taken some heat for it as well.<<< I do not blame TurboTax for doing what they did... just like I did not blame Curious Labs for their protection system (There were too many other things they did wrong they could be nailed for anyway). TurboTax had and has a right to try and defend their property. Their product is useful, saves me a ton of time and they deserve to be paid for its use. I do not place their protection system in the same category as the ambush I got hit with by simply clicking on a link to download or investigate an offered Poser item in Freestuff. Fauve, yep, Orbit explorer or whatever it calls itself is another of those pieces of cyber-terrorism floating around. I may have to try Spyware Blaster. If it is as configurable as you say, it might prevent the type of problems I had with my current system and TurboTax/C-Dilla. I'm going to look into the program Trav mentioned also. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

BTW, the ambush link has been removed. I want to thank the administrators and/or mods for moving on this as quickly as they did. Like I stated to ladynimue, I appreciate it. I hope it saves anyone else from getting ambushed. Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

But the problem - the sin of omission - of both Intuit and Curious Labs (with Poser 5) was that they were not up front about this crap. AFTER you've bought it they tell you. If they listed this "added freebie bonus" ahead of time so you as a consumer could make an informed decision then pakled's and casamerica's points would be entirely valid. While they keep this aspect of their product hidden they are casting every customer as guilty unless they can prove they are innocent - which much like arguing that you are sane when already incarcerated as an alleged loony - is next to impossible. As always, it's not what they did, but the manner in which they did it.

I use ad-aware and ad-watch and it catches it all. I paid for it so I get the ad-watch with it, (free version doesn't come with it). To be honest I didn't know that when I bought it, I paid because it's worth it and I wanted to support the comapany that makes it. I use Black Ice after Zone Alarm ripped me off because I bought their software through their old credit card company and the new one won't accept my receipt. Haven't had any problems except for when I had it off my system and got nailed by a pop up that wouldn't die. lol It is stil annoying when folks use that in the freestuff area. Don't these morons get it that no one will buy the crap that they are slamming us with? The one that tagged me was from the free stuff area called ad washer or something like that, and their annoying as crap ad made me decide I would NEVER buy anything from that company. Called them and they tell me that it's too bad that I don't like it because they have a right to put ads on my system. Sigh...morons. Marque

Intuit sold 5 Mill units ($50 million), and they are unhappy because they could have sold 15 Mill. My heart bleeds for them, and every "ripped off" multi-billionaire in Siliconia. I quit buying Quicken and switched to TaxCut long before I heard about their decision to screw with my machine, legit buyer or not. But that would have been the last straw, if I hadn't already found one. No more Intuit products, period. I will not traffic with people who treat me like a thief. I learned long ago that we suspect our own worse character traits are universal. Liars think we all lie, thieves think we all steal, pedophiles think we all hunger for kiddies. If you treat all your customers like thieves, you have told me something about yourself that you probably would rather I didn't know.

"If you treat all your customers like thieves, you have told me something about yourself that you probably would rather I didn't know." I'll have to take issue with this blanket statement. most software companies get ripped off. Some get ripped off to the point where they go bankrupt and can't make any more software. Your heart bleeds? Well, that is fewer GAMES to entertain you, and fewer UTILITIES to make your life easier. When you have proof that people are stealing you blind, you have to act... especially if you are publicly owned or have responsibilities to a board of directors or an insurance company. I may forgive a theft against myself... but not on behalf of others. Proof? Every software company I have ever worked for keeps an eye on the cash flow, booked sales, copies out there being used, relevant secondary sales, etc.. Numbers. Sometimes devastating numbers. If a third of your product is stolen, it is bad enough... but if only a third is purchased legitimately? When you sell X number of games and 3 times that many hint books, you know that far too many of your so-called customers are thieves. This has no reflection upon the maker of the product, but upon the person who takes what is not his and passes it on to others of equal veniality. I do not blame any company for trying to protect the work of their hands, since they are also trying to protect jobs for their employees and their ability to continue in business. Sometimes they are clumsy in how they handle this protection (I can tell you horror stories about game protection in the old days), but the intent can not be faulted. Carolly

I don't "blame" companies for trying to protect their products, any more than I object to people locking their front doors. That was not what I meant at all. But copy protection schemes that make products unstable, interfere with the operation of the machine, make modifications to your computer that affect other programs, are installed covertly, and do not have documented ways of being uninstalled-- These are things that show the company is more interested in thwarting thieves than in satisfying customers. And when those companies have been glutting themselves at my expense for decades, my lack of sympathy may seem uncharitable, but there it is. Bill Gates didn't become the richest man in the world by selling at fair market value. If a department store adopted the policy of searching anyone who attempts to leave the store, would you come back? If you had to sign something that consented to being strip searched on demand, would you go in? Sadly, I think most Americans, for all their lip service to personal privacy, would. Well, not me. Of course thievery exists, and of course there are companies that have suffered for it. But I think calling the thoughtless nastiness of common "protection" schemes "clumsy" is much too generous, however. If a storekeeper starts shooting "suspects," I don't care how often he's been robbed; I'll shop elsewhere. I have had copy protection hose hardware and my OS. Haven't you? I once bought a game that wouldn't work because of the copy protection, and the store where I bought it wouldn't take it back, 'cause I might have copied it. Right. That is insane, and we put up with it. Greedy, above-the-law pigs like MS have set the tone (and created a model) for everyone, and my point is simply that I will, as I always have, express my views with my wallet. I used Quattro Pro for years because Lotus expected me to wait for them to mail me a new disk (assuming I could REALLY PROVE I ever owned their product) if their flimsy, $500 piece of mylar failed. In the specific case of Intuit, I think the notion that they got cheated because people "loaned" their copies to others is a bit fuzzy logically. Software licensing is full of lunacy, most of it on those pages none of us every read, in the EULA. But that is another thread.

I don't think it's the fresstuff guys' fault, it's probably their host. One of the sites I frequent had this problem with Internet Washer Pro, it's was the 150m.com freehost sending the damn thing. God I hate that program, POW! from Analog X can't kill the pop up, it kills the other window. Bastardly IWP people. May the fleas of a thousand rabid dogs nest upon their crotches.

Well, so much for this thread staying on topic. ;-) I never realized there was so much jealousy of success out there. It does make me happy, though, to realize that I did still have a shred or two of naivetleft in me... after all these years, too. ;-) Take care, be well, keep flying. casamerica

This problem has been around since the beginning of computers, and it will never go away. Wordstar became an industry standard through warezing, did you know that? If someone wasn't going to buy the product anyway, and takes it from a friend to learn how to use, I don't know if that was really a lost sale or not. It might be a sale down the road, when that person has learned the software, turns around and buys it for their work. I can tell you, its BECAUSE of copy protection that I don't buy CD's like I used to. Half the time the damn things don't run on my hifi equipment, and the MP3's can be burned to a cd and played where the CDs won't. But these poor entertainment corporations that have been overpricing CD's since the beginning are complaining its the illegal trading. Its not the illegal trading. Its the high pricing for a product that won't run on my equipment that forces me to choose an illegal product over a legal one. Now, the behaviour I find truly despicable is when people take other people's artwork and redistribute or worse resell it as their own work. That's not right.

I use Mozilla in Linux to browse with, and Evolution to read my mail. I haven't had a single bit of spyware or virus arrive without my laughing at it since I switched over fully. My Linux boxes are also pleasantly free of script kiddies who want to break into it. The Windows boxes OTOH constitute the vast majority of my repair and re-install problems (which is why I gladly bought and installed Win4Lin on my RH 8.0 box to run Poser and Vue d' Esprit with.Once I get my laptop cleaned up, the wife's machine will be the last Windoze unit in the house, and her inet connection is firewalled quite strongly by passing through my Linux-based firewall/router :) ) /P

I agree... but the copy protection measures only really penalise the legally registered users, which is my point. And time after time, sales go down, not up, when draconian copy protection measures are used. CD sales a good case in point. I'm not condoning warez, but I'm stating I don't want copyprotection spyware screwing up my computer either.

Bijou has a point - it has gotten to the point where most software makers will charge an ungodly amount of cash based on how long the copy protection holds out vs. how quickly they must recoup their R&D investment. This is why I've mostly shied away from proprietary software, unless I have no other recourse. OTOH, those folks who do make a great open-sourced program or game are certainly worth a few bucks, enough to get me to whip out the credit card and support 'em. For instance, I can download Red Hat Linux for free, but I would rather support the cause, and so I go out and buy the $80 boxed set. Call me a fool all you want, but I'm doing my part to make sure RH sticks around for a couple more years (they're the first purely Linux-based company to turn a consistent profit). I also get free godies like automatic patching and priority access to their servers. They also tend to listen to paying customers faster than the non-paying ones :) This is the exact opposite of the Proprietary world, where companies demand cash, and are often far more surly in their pricing and treatment of customers. /P