[DMCA-Activists] David Reed: Do I Own My Own Computer?

[Seth Johnson]

http://www.satn.org/archive/2002_09_29_archive.html#85520271

Do I own my computer? 

UPS just recently sued Gator Corporation - a company that
distributes "spyware" that tricks you into installing it on
your computer, then watches your browser's activities and
does things like pop up ads based on what you are viewing.
The article I read says that they are "working to discuss a
possible settlement".

Sounds like a "conspiracy of thieves" to me. Because this
particular activity is happening on our computers! Gator
keeps appearing on my wife and children's computers,
installed as "Precision Time" and "Schedule Manager". Did
they agree to install it? No. They were tricked by the
shrink-wrap agreement of some software they did agree to
install (usually a game download), or maybe by a deceptive
click on a button that led to a completely hidden install.

What really is going on is that Gator is hijacking our
computers for its own ends. Despite slimy rhetoric that they
are an "opt-in" system, my wife and kids really have no
choice, at least not an informed one.

And then Gator uses that ill-gotten platform to make deals
with UPS? Deals that put UPS on their side against the
people who own the computers they play their sleazy games
on?

Gator's never asked permission to use any of our computers
to play these games. Yet the legal system is set up to
protect them.

And soon we'll have our operating systems and hardware built
so that companies like Gator can install stuff that will be
protected so that we can't see what it is doing on our
machines. Maybe sometimes this is good, if you have
recourse. But these guys are seeking laws that give us no
recourse over things that happen on our computers.

This is what is wrong with Berman-Coble, with DRM, with
TCPA, and with Gator.

It's my computer, dammit. If I don't give informed consent,
you can't use it.