A rose, by any other name, is still a rose… Right? And here we go back to the issue of “intent”. For the maker of this software the product is just a long–and marketable–spaghetti of code. The weight of “intent” (may I use the word “onus?”) is placed on the user. It is the user who is spying, not the maker of the software. The person being spied on may have an issue with this concept but I would place these kind of programs under the same umbrella as DVD decoders and other software used to copy copyrighted material. They are outlawed… Even though they argued that they don’t do the actual copying and the liable party is really the person doing it, the courts decided to snip the bud at the weakest link and that was the provider of the copying tools.
There is more ethical and moral weight in a person not wanting to be spied on than in the person wanting to spy on another.
I suggest the maker of “SpyMon” to keep their peace…
Spyware spat makes small print a big issue | Tech News on ZDNet
SpyMon logs keystrokes and takes screenshots. It sells for $26 and is advertised by RetroCoder as a tool to monitor kids, spouses or employees. Before downloading the application, RetroCoder asks customers to agree to a statement that forbids its use by a researcher for an antivirus or anti-spyware company, or business related to these.
The SpyMon download agreement continues with a legal condition: “If you do produce a program that will affect this software’s ability to perform its function, then you may have to prove in criminal court that you have not infringed this warning.”
Semantics, V2.0
A rose, by any other name, is still a rose… Right? And here we go back to the issue of “intent”. For the maker of this software the product is just a long–and marketable–spaghetti of code. The weight of “intent” (may I use the word “onus?”) is placed on the user. It is the user who is spying, not the maker of the software. The person being spied on may have an issue with this concept but I would place these kind of programs under the same umbrella as DVD decoders and other software used to copy copyrighted material. They are outlawed… Even though they argued that they don’t do the actual copying and the liable party is really the person doing it, the courts decided to snip the bud at the weakest link and that was the provider of the copying tools.
There is more ethical and moral weight in a person not wanting to be spied on than in the person wanting to spy on another.
I suggest the maker of “SpyMon” to keep their peace…
Spyware spat makes small print a big issue | Tech News on ZDNet