It never said anything about doing damage to your computer, just sending information, so I dont know if that would be considered hacking or spreading viruses or not. It never said anything about malicious code or viruses. I do believe that the law allows you to edit the code of your own software, I dont know how it would react in a case like this. I didnt write the article and certainly dont vouch for its authenticy, I was just relating what I had seen somewhere. As for the sending of information, there are lots of programs out there with spyware that do this, and you agree to it whenever you click yes on that License agreement, so it isnt "without consent". And your right, just about any firewall will stop these programs from accessing the internet. In this case, I assume that the users Kazaa program did have access to the internet, that was where they found the software available. In this case, I dont see how it would be different than finding an internet site online that provided warez, I believe the company would be able to say something about you running an internet site that provided warez for download. perhaps the new laws would use this instance as a precedent. And I agree with the earlier statement, if it does contain a virus, its prolly not the software producer that put it there ...