Outrage Spreads over 'Scumware'
Written by: Allan Gardyne, AssociatePrograms.com
You've heard of software, freeware, shareware
and perhaps vaporware. Now there's "scumware".
As outrage spreads over eZula's TopText and other browser plug-ins which
divert traffic from your web site, "scumware" is the name which is
being accurately applied.
Scumware DEFACES the content of your web site without your permission.
It OVERLAYS advertisers' links on your site without your permission.
Depending on how upset you are and how you view the ethics of this, it either
diverts, hijacks or steals traffic from your site.
However you describe it, the end result is:
When I checked CNet's Download.com this week, eZula's KaZaa had been
downloaded 7.4 million times.
Many of the 7.4 million people who downloaded KaZaa - a Napster-like
file-sharing tool - apparently didn't even realize that they were also
installing TopText.
TopText, like Microsoft's widely denounced SmartTags, works through your
browser. It modifies your web page, highlighting in yellow all the keywords
which eZula has sold. Advertisers pay per click for the keywords.
What it's doing is inserting advertisers' hyperlinks in YOUR pages.
For example, if you have used the phrase "car loan" on a web page,
TopText could turn that phrase into a hyperlink which your visitors click on,
robbing you of potential sales or commissions.
As Danny Sullivan of searchenginewatch.com says:
It doesn't matter whether you're the FBI, the White House or a children's
charity, advertisers' links are being added to your pages.
That stinks. It looks remarkably similar to breach of copyright and unfair
competition.
A really nasty side of all this is that if you run a children's site TopText
or Surf+ could overlay links on it to "adult" sites. It could be
happening to YOUR site right now.
About the kindest conclusion I can come to is that it's unethical.
Jim Wilson, who created scumware.com, says:
Useful resources:
Sunil Tanna outlines the problem, suggests legal issues you can explore with
your attorney, and provides useful links.
If you haven't caught up with this topic yet, prepare to be horrified.
"As a result, potentially Coke could advertise so that any time 'cola'
appeared on the Pepsi site, the word would have a hyperlink leading back to
the Coke site. Similarly, Ford could advertise so that the word 'car' on any
pages across the web - including those at the General Motors web site - would
link to Ford."
"The stealing of traffic from independent web site publishers has become
the biggest threat to the survival of the Internet to date."
Steve Shubitz of stopscum.com says:
"In some cases, they alter the contents of a PG site with adult and or
gambling links which the owner of the site would never permit. We find all of
these actions morally reprehensible."
Paul Myers of Talkbiz News - http://www.talkbiz.com/news - in an article titled
"Who Owns Your Business?", says:
"There is a word for taking a valuable commodity from its creator without
their permission and without compensation. Theft."
Other software products which lure away your hard-earned traffic by adding
additional linking options to your web site without your permission include:
All these companies can sell advertising on YOUR site to your competitors.
http://www.suniltanna.com/ezula.html