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Scumware. Money? Or Ethics?

Did you know that any word, image or link on your website can become a paid advertisement linking to your competition - without your knowledge and without your consent?

It's true and it's happening. Today.

In the article "Mystery links," as printed in the San Francisco Chronicle, writer Benny Evangelista outlines the reaction of music site owner, Douglas Hoppe, when he discovered links to his competition on his website.

(excerpt) "...random yellow hyperlinks began appearing on his fledgling music site. Hoppe became hopping mad when he realized words such as "jazz" and "hip hop" had become hyperlinks, sending potential customers to the site of BMG Music, one of the world's biggest record labels. Someone was hijacking his visitors..."

How can this be possible? It's possible due to software that interfaces with a browser to change what surfers see when they visit websites on the internet.

So who is hijacking traffic on the Internet? Some of the known "hijackers" include:

eZula's TopText:
Toptext marks, with a yellow underline and highlight, selected keywords that fit the advertiser's service or product - on every webpage that contains these keywords- across the entire Internet.

Toptext is bundled in with KaZaA, a napster-like music sharing program.

So far, over 9 million people have downloaded KaZaA - getting TopText in the bundled download.

Gator:
Have you heard of Gator? It provides some nifty little services, like filling out forms for you and remembering passwords so you don't have to. Oh - it does one other little thing, too. It covers up banners with banners of their own choosing. Since their super-imposed banners are exactly the same size - and in the same place, it looks like they actually "belong" there.

Bannerama
Surfers who download Bannerama can replace any banner ad with content of their choosing; trivia, or cooking tips, for example. Oh yes... and Bannerama also slaps it's own banner on one out of every banner it's own software blocks.

Microsoft Smart Tags
Smart Tags are links on webpages that are generated by the browser, not the website owner. The "Smart Tags" feature automatically scans a webpage and inserts links under any words - links that lead to website's of Microsoft's choosing.

In recognition of public outrage, Microsoft relented and announced that the feature will be defaulted to "off" and the surfer will need to enable the feature in their browser settings. For now, at least.

Are programs like Toptext, Bannerama, Gator and Smart Tags legal? That's still a topic of hot debate.

As printed in NewsBytes;

"Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) attorney Robin Gross said today that the Microsoft "Smart Tag" technology could violate both copyright law and federal rules prohibiting deceptive and unfair business practices."

and according to an article in Forbes;

"Someone talking about replacing banner ads with ones he sells is attempting a technology war," warns Christopher Kelly, the chief privacy officer at ExciteAtHome.

So, what do the hijackers have to say about their actions?

In it's defense, Microsoft told reporters that Smart Tags gives surfers "valuable links to relevant information."

As interviewed by Cnet's Stefanie Olsen, Jeff McFadden (Gator) had the following comment; (excerpt)

"...I can understand why Web site publishers don't like this advertising in its current form. It's only natural that they'd like to control what a Web visitor sees..."

So while Mr. McFadden can understand a site publisher's concern, he continues to replace banner ads with those served up by his software. For a fee, of course.

What can you do? Share this article. And don't buy the programs sold by scumware promoters. Hopefully, they'll get the message.

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