Spyware and Sport - (Internet Parasite wins Sporting Medal)

20 February 2006

It seams that Dale Begg-Smith and I have a couple of things in common. We are both involved with spyware and we have both gained awards in sport.

On the Spyware front, I have spent a lot of time removing spyware from my own and friend's computers. Whereas Dale Begg-Smith has become rich as president of the company that has been named as creator of some of the spyware.

On the sporting front I was awarded club colours from my university's athletic union, and Dale Begg-Smith has won some kind of sporting medal recently. Of course more people may have been interested in his sporting activities if it hadn't been for so many people having their PCs attacked by Spyware, with a cost in inconvenience and time if not financial costs.

Where we don't seam to have anything in common is that I've not illegally used other peoples computers to make profit.

It seams that when Dale Begg-Smith was awarded his gold medal in the winter olympics, not surprisingly the press were more interested in his company rather than his sporting achievement.

VNUnet story: Olympic champion skis into spyware scandal

A question posed by the spam king is whether he has a right to the title at all.

Spam King: Asterisk on pop-up mogul's gold

If he has funded his training using an illegal activity then he is bringing the olympics into disrepute and would be against the Olympic ethics policy.

I think it's fair to say that spyware is illegal. It is code that downloads itself and infects a computer without the permission of the owner/user. It almost certainly breaks the law in several countries.

Obviously without full facts it's hard to know how far he has involved in spyware, but if he is profited from it then he should give back his medal as well as the keys to his Lamborghini.