It seems like file-sharing programs are getting more and
more unscrupulous about the ways in which they modify your
computer when you install one of them. The past year has seen
a spate of stories about the kinds of programs these
applications surreptitiously install on users' machines in an
attempt to generate revenue for the file-sharing company. The
latest move in the race to the bottom is a new tactic employed
by file-sharing programs like Kaaza and Morpheus: stealing
referral commissions from the affiliates of online vendors
like Amazon.
Amazon's affiliates program pays affiliated websites a
commission each time a user clicks through from the
affiliate's site to Amazon and buys something. An affiliate
code is embedded into the referring URL, and Amazon uses this
code to identify the referring affiliate so that it can
correctly distribute the sales commission if that referral
generates a sale. What these new scumware viruses/programs do
is replace that affiliate code with their own code anytime an
infected user clicks an affiliate link, so that the
file-sharing company gets credit for the sale instead of the
website that actually referred the customer. This is
low.
These jerks claim that since their EULA notifies the user
of the practice, it's all legal and on the up-and-up. The
problem is that it's not the user that they're stealing from;
it's the affiliate, who hasn't agreed to the EULA and most
certainly has not agreed to have his referrals hijacked. I
think that the people who cook this sort of stuff up and then
have the gall to try and defend it as "legal" and legit should
be tarred and feathered, or placed in the stocks, or subjected
to some other form of public humiliation. Maybe we could put
them on one of those crazy Japanese game shows, where they
make you drink lots of Coke and then sit in a vat of freezing
water, and if you have to get out and go to the bathroom they
hook up jumper cables to your nipples and shock you repeatedly
while the audience laughs at you. Anyway, if they'll try
something like this, what's to stop them from hijacking banner
click-throughs and siphoning ad revenues from everyone? Is
Paypal theft on the roadmap for the next release, too?
In closing, I'll leave you with some comments on this quote
from the opening of the article:
Some popular online services are using a new
kind of software to divert sales commissions that would
otherwise be paid to small online merchants by big sites
like Amazon and eToys.
I don't know where this writer has been for the past year,
but eToys isn't going to be paying commissions to
anyone--they've thankfully gone bye-bye. That was one
site I was glad to see gone, exemplifying as they
did much of the arrogance that ultimately undid the
dot-com era. It's this same sort of arrogance, which seems to
stem from the insane notion that you have a God-given right to
make money any way you can, even if it means taking
something that isn't yours as long as you're not violating
the letter of the law, that lies behind scumware like
these referral-stealing programs. I'll be glad when these
companies go the way of eToys, and I have no doubt that they
eventually
will.
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