Instead of “da bears” they may soon be saying: “duh spyware” in Chicago. This comes on the heels of a Chicago federal court ruling against software being unknowingly installed on the plantiff’s computer along with free software.

In sum, and in the words of the court: “Simply put, plaintiff alleges that Spyware interfered with and damaged his personal property, namely his computer and Internet connection, by over-burdening their resources and diminishing their functioning. Accordingly, the court denies (the) motion to dismiss (the) trespass to chattels cause of action.”

I’m guessing this ruling will be appealed but I like the court’s decision here. It also won’t do anything to the spyware generating out of third world countries, but at least it’s a start.

I wonder if packaging of additional software like what Yahoo has been doing for convenience will also come under fire?

If I was the decision maker at Yahoo (hello, Mr. Semel), I’d be making it at least a few extra clicks to get the additional software rather than packaging it in as part of a default installation. While Yahoo aren’t spyware vendors — and please don’t anybody get derailed and think I’m actually suggesting that — their practice of default pack-in is coming under increasing legal scrutiny. Yahoo isn’t low hanging fruit like these spyware vendors are, but what they are doing isn’t taking things that much further.

Wiser legally it seems (but I’m not a lawyer) to let the users pick and choose what they want to install instead of trying to do them any favors without asking for permission. The same can be said for default changes of file types like when I installed the Y! Music Engine and it became the primary application for playing sound files. They didn’t ask me, at least that I saw anywhere, they just assumed. Well, sorry, it wasn’t.

What’s that saying about assumptions?

Did this post make you go hmm?

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