The Spyware Weekly Newsletter is distributed every week to 20,000 subscribers and read online by hundreds of thousands of visitors. Please read our Terms of Use for quoting guidelines. http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/newlsetter/oct28,2004.

Wherever the term "adware" is used, it is referring to a category of software, not to any particular company or product.

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Until last June, Dutch college student Merijn Bellekom was fighting a one-man war against the most widespread browser hijacker on the web, CoolWebSearch. His small freeware program CWShredder was the only program able to detect and successfully remove all known variants of the CWS hijacker. Not one of the other antispyware or antivirus programs available on the web was able to keep up with all of the variants of CWS.

Last June, Merijn called it quits. CWShredder was updated for a final time and Merijn announced that no more updates would be forthcoming. Shortly after, he licensed much of the detection rules to X-Block for use in their X-Cleaner antispyware program.

CWShredder is back. Merijn has sold the source code and rights to CWShredder to Intermute. They have published an updated version at cwshredder.net. CWShredder still is a free download and now is being updated once again on a continuing basis to deal with new variants of the CWS hijacker.

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Program: Evidence Terminator
Author: Spycop
Price: $49.95 [20% off until November 4, 2004]
Spycop + ET Bundle: $54.95 [$44.95 off the regular price]
Purchase Evidence Terminator [Use coupon code SPYC-YB5E-EVT]
Purchase Spycop + ET Bundle [Discount is applied automatically]

Everything you do on your computer leaves behind a trail. When you surf to a web site, you leave behind internet cache, address bar history, web site visit history and cookies. When you open a document, Windows saves the filename into the registry. When you run certain programs, Windows saves a file into a temporary folder and often doesn't delete it afterward.

Evidence Terminator optionally cleans all of the following:

Recycle bins on every drive in your system. Internet history logs stored on your hard drive. Internet cookies. Temporary Internet Files (caches and other media files). Temporary program files. Recent documents list. Backup files. LOG files. CD burner software temp files. Program temp files not in the system temp folder. Those evil index.dat files no matter how many of them you have. Overwrites files to help prevent recovery. The drop down URL list from IE. The run list, find computers list, and recently searched file list.

Evidence Terminator is made by the authors of Spycop anti-spyware software. Spycop is an excellent program for detecting and removing surveillance spyware such as Spectorsoft, iSpynow, WinWhatWhere and others. It is considered by some to have the largest database of surveillance spyware on the market.

If you have any problems with the ordering page or with the coupon (SPYC-YB5E-EVT), please email Catherine http://www.spywareinfoforum.info/email2.php.

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A federal judge has ordered Standford Wallace, the so-called "Spam King", to remove spyware that he and his company were installing on computers without owner consent. The web sites distributing the software were exploiting security flaws to install spyware. The spyware then would pop up advertisements for software to remove spyware.

Prompted by a complaint from the Center for Democracy & Technology, the Federal Trade Commission has filed suit against Wallace and two companies which he runs. The FTC had asked the court to restrain the defendants from publishing or distributing any software code or scripts, to require them to remove any software code or script that exploits any security flaws and to produce documents related to their internet marketing.

The FTC is attempting to portray this lawsuit as proof that they do not require specific legislation regulating spyware. As I explained when I first mentioned this lawsuit two weeks ago, the FTC is attempting to mislead Congress and the public.

This lawsuit could be about anything, not just spyware. The case just as easily could be about a company exploiting security flaws to install software that crashes Windows continually, then popping up advertisements for a program to remove software that crashes Windows.

This case is not about spyware. This case is about digital extortion. For the FTC to say this case proves they can deal with spyware without federal regulation is dishonest and is an attempt to deceive the public.

The reason for this deception is the FTC's public opposition to antispyware legislation. Howard Beales, director of the Federal Trade Commission's bureau of consumer protection, and FTC Commissioner Mozelle Thompson went before Congress earlier this year to say that the FTC would prefer "industry self-regulation" instead of legislation.

Industry self-regulation will not work for the spyware problem. It is the industry that created this problem. Now the FTC wants the people who are the problem to police themselves? That makes as much sense as the FBI speaking out against racketeering laws in favor of allowing the mafia to regulate themselves.

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The Digital Millennium Copyright Act has been taken down a peg. On Tuesday, a federal appeals court struck down a lower court's injunction that prohibited Static Control Components from manufacturing printer cartridges that work in Lexmark printers.

In a gross misuse of the DMCA, Lexmark filed a lawsuit accusing Static Control Components of violating the copyright law. Lexmark wants to hold an absolute monopoly over ink cartridges that would work in their printers. Lexmark charges far more than fair market value for their ink cartridges. Fair competition would prevent this price gouging.

To create this monopoly, Lexmark printer cartridges must send encrypted codes to the printer before the printer will accept them for use. Static Control Components reverse engineered this process and started producing ink cartridges which they sold at a fair price. Lexmark decided to sue under the DMCA to protect their monopoly.

This is similar to another case brought by the maker of a garage door opener against the maker of a universal remote controller. Chamberlain Group, maker of products that open garage doors mechanically, sued Skylink Technologies after Skylink started selling a competing remote controller that would activate Chamberlain's mechanical openers. Skylink controllers are superior to Chamberlain, working with a large variety of garage door opening systems instead of just one.

After several retailers removed Chamberlain's more expensive and inferior product from their shelves in favor of Skylink's product, Chamberlain invoked the DMCA. Chamberlain claimed that Skylink was circumventing their access control technology. Carrying this argument out to its logical conclusion, it is illegal for a home owner to open the door of his own garage if a Chamberlain opener is attached to it and he uses a remote control made by someone else.

Chamberlain lost this lawsuit last year.

Before the DMCA, it was legal to copy or reverse engineer code for the purposes of interoperability, to make the products of two different companies work together. However, some of the most disgusting and obscene abuses of the DMCA are carried out by companies trying to force out competitors and establish monopolies. The Lexmark and Chamberlain lawsuits are perfect examples of this abuse.

The DMCA is a flawed piece of law. The DMCA is being used to stifle competition and to gag disclosures of security flaws. It is worded so broadly that it is invoked in many situations to which it logically should not apply. At the same time, it is worded so narrowly that things which should be exempted are not.

Material that is copyrighted becomes public domain after a certain period of time. When that time period is up, the material belongs to the public. This is a fact that is overlooked far too often these days. We should not destroy rights and freedoms meant to be permanent in the name of protecting a copyright that is meant to be temporary.

The DMCA must be withdrawn or rewritten before it causes irreparable harm to our society. Whatever replaces it should acknowledge that our permanent Fair Use rights and our permanent right to free speech are far more important than a corporation's right to protect its temporary copyright.

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A couple of weeks ago I mentioned a new book written by Ken Feinstein called How to Do Everything to Fight Spam, Viruses, Pop-Ups, and Spyware. Finally, I have had a chance to read most of it.

This book is very easy to read and understand. It is written in a style very similar to that of the "Windows For Dummies" and "Internet For Dummies" books. You easily could give this as a gift to someone logging onto the internet for the first time. Even an experienced internet user would find the book useful. The author does a great job of explaining in very simple terms just what spyware, spam, viruses and pop-ups are. His tips for dealing with those problems are sensible and very easy to understand.

The back of the book contains a CD-ROM with copies of free or trial versions of programs that a new user might find handy. Included on the disc is a copy of Ad-Aware, Spybot and ZoneAlarm, antivirus software from McAfee and TrendMicro and a program called AdsGone. If you install any of these programs, please be sure to run their updaters before actually using them. Antispyware and antivirus programs can be destructive if they are using out-of-date detection and removal instructions.

If you, a friend or a family member are just beginning to explore the internet, this book would be a great resource. It might save you from a virus or spyware disaster that leaves you with no choice but to reinstall Windows. If disaster happens anyway, the programs on the CD can help you to clean it up.

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As regular readers of Spywareinfo know, this weekly publication covers some fairly serious issues. Some of these topics have the ability to raise Mike's blood pressure instantly. That is when I encourage Mike to write. Therefore, for the most part, there is very little humor on these pages, apart from his grammar and spelling - which mercifully does not reach the general public.

Hopefully, this idea will add some chuckles to these pages. Each month, Spywareinfo is going to offer a special t-shirt... just t-shirts - no hats, coasters, toasters, or assorted other things. It will be just a monthly t-shirt. The theme will be decidedly 'geeky'. For example, it can be something like:

"Geek: Please keep out of direct sunlight"
"Yes, of course, I used the spill checker"
"I like your wife's porn site."

Ok, perhaps not the last one… but these are just examples. Each month there will be a different "humor/wit line" which will come from you, the Spywareinfo readers. Mike will pick a winner on the third Friday of every month and that winner's line will be on the next month's t-shirt. For example, the November submissions must reach Spywareinfo by Friday, November 19, 2004. And that will be the shirt offered for December 2004 - right in time for your December holiday shopping (hint, hint!).

The winner each month will be given the choice of one (1) of the past month's special featured programs, as a prize. These are the software programs that Mike recommends each month in the "Featured Product" section of the site and newsletter. These programs are the best that can be found - 'state of the art' stuff.

When you wear this shirt, people will ask where you found it and you can send them to Spywareinfo. There is method to this madness. You will be our walking advertisement, although it will not mention Spywareinfo on the shirts. In addition, we will make a very small (a few dollars only) profit on these t-shirts. As you might know, the Spywareinfo Forums had trouble from all the traffic recently. Mike wrote about the problem here. There are record number of people needing help in the Forum. Spywareinfo has had to go to dedicated servers, our own ones, to handle this. And, of course, this is an added expense. Nevertheless, we will keep Spywareinfo a free internet resource. Buy a t-shirt and contribute a few dollars - and own something 'geeky'. You know you're becoming 'geekier' by the day. You're here, aren't you?

Now, if you think you have some clever and/or humorous line that would look good on one of these t-shirts, submit your wit and witticism here. Remember, these have to reach Spywareinfo by November 19 to be considered. And Mike will be the sole judge. He might run it by me if it is questionable (or if he needs the humor explained). We don't want you arrested. - So, think up a line and make Mike laugh.

Catherine