Copyright To Protect Spyware?

has come upwards across a rather worrying storey on The Register. RetroCoder, the maker of pseudo-spyware, is relying on its copyright to forestall the providers of cyberspace safety programmes from downloading, running or examining its software. In particular, RetroCoder’s SpyMon purports to live designed to inform parents well-nigh the online activities of their children. In doing so, it records users’ keystrokes. However, it likewise has the mightiness to cause got screenshots of users’ computers too to near those computers downwards remotely. SpyMon’s download page includes the unequivocal contestation that

This software parcel is a copyrighted product. As such the possessor of thecopyright expressly forbids whatever use, disassembly, examinination and/ormodification past times anyone who industrial plant for or has whatever human relationship or link toan AntiSpy or AntiVirus software household or related company.

If you lot practice create a programme that volition touching this softwares mightiness to performits business office too thus you lot may cause got to bear witness inwards criminal courtroom that you lot cause got notinfringed this warning.

Infingement of a copyright licence is a criminal offence.

saw this i coming. Way dorsum when inwards the days of the Blaster Worm, the truthful cat discussed (in jest) the prospect of IP beingness used to protect worms, viruses too other nasties. He’s unhappy to run into that his prediction seems to live coming true. Merpel says, what well-nigh the piteous estimator users? Don’t they deserve a tell here?