Define Spyware Or Just Enforce Existing Laws?

from the might-take-care-of-the-problem dept

The question over exactly how spyware should be defined isn't exactly new. However, Mark Rasch's latest column at SecurityFocus picks apart common spyware definitions to make you wonder if it's useful at all to define what spyware is. Instead, he suggests (as have others before) that the real issue isn't in defining and outlawing spyware, but simply enforcing existing laws that already make most of the worst offenders illegal by way of laws against fraud. Of course, that won't happen, because politicians want to make sure they're seen as doing something to make their constituents' lives better -- and a law against spyware (just like the mostly useless law against spam before it) is good for publicity, even if it does little to solve any real problems.
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