Yuna Software was contacted by Microsoft with the request to remove 'cloning' scripts from the download database.

This type of script allows you to imitate the person you are talking to by copying certain elements, like their name, personal status message (PSM), and display picture. We don't see any harm in this kind of script. These are things which can also be done by copy/pasting, although that takes a bit more time without a script, but it will result in exactly the same thing.

Microsoft however doesn't see this as a practical joke and contacted us to remove this type of script from the site, referring to CeX Clone in particular, calling these 'malicious scripts'.


We don't want to upset Microsoft, Messenger Plus! wouldn't exist without them. Although I wonder how many people really see this type of script as 'malicious'.

Because of Microsoft's request the following scripts are removed (and their developers informed):
CeX Clone 3.00 by Pedro_Cex, 538,711 downloads
Duplicator 1.2 by Whiz @ WhizWeb Community, 9,282 downloads
Huhu Clone 1.0 by Manix, 474,876 downloads
Huhu Clone 1.3 (FR) by Manix, 143,331 downloads
Steal Contact 1.3 by Florian van Oirschot, 1,208,167 downloads
TNT Clone 1.0 (IT) by Massimo Martinez, 115,370 downloads

We will also not allow any new scripts of this type until further notice.

I'm not sure how to put it in a different way than this, but here goes..

What a load of bullshit.

mmm buee =Z

Shame...  Duplicator was added to the Coolpicks the day before. 

conspiracy

Probably happened because someone pissed off a guy at M$ by imitating him using the CeX script

Now this scripts will be getting $$$ in the black market

Start another petiton

Did any of these manage to copy the contact's font?

Note that I'm sorry about this, I don't really understand it either but it's out of my control.

I can certainly see and understand certain reasons behind that request and why they don't want to see such scripts (has to do with security and a form of phising; remember that messenger is mostly used by young people). But removing them is indeed not going to solve these issues completely, at best it might 'slow down' such abuse a bit maybe.

some of those scripts had bugs in them and weren't very well made anyways imho

PS: what about the attached scripts in threads?

I don't understand how removing these scripts will solve anything, if someone wanted to clone a contact they can do it a number of ways and these scripts wouldn't be one of them, they would just use a fake email site to spoof the contacts email address using a phisher.

IMO, there should be more education towards it and less trying to prevent it.

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
IMO, there should be more education towards it and less trying to prevent it.

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Originally posted by Spunky

quote:

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
IMO, there should be more education towards it and less trying to prevent it.

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"Educating" WLM users to deal with clone scripts (aka third party software) is outside of the WLM support area...

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Originally posted by Th3rmal
Probably happened because someone pissed off a guy at M$ by imitating him using the CeX script

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This is just a lot of c**p , or course they won't solve anything by doing this because not only the won't stop scripts to be downloaded (they just prohibited plus to host them) but they won't stop people from doing what they want, even less if all they want can be done by copy-pasting...

Either way this makes even less sense when you come to think that ANYONE who actually downloads and install a messenger script and learns how to use it ("/anything") has some degree of expertise (common users just don't to that on their own) and so it won't present a problem that the scrip is no longer here.

And even if they were to be common users I got 9,200 matches for "cex clone" on google (yes, with quotes), which means they will have to send those 9,200 emails and try and get an action, or even a response from any of those sites.

I haven't given any maintenance to my script lately and I wasn't making any money out of it, but it makes me mad that MS takes such an stupid decision based on.... well whatever they were actually based on, and sensurating the work of others, I'm a big MS fan, but when they do stuff like this it makes me wonder...

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Originally posted by krissy-afc

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Originally posted by Spunky

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
IMO, there should be more education towards it and less trying to prevent it.

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"Educating" WLM users to deal with clone scripts (aka third party software) is outside of the WLM support area...

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No, i mean how to spot people cloning, phishing and stuff.

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Originally posted by Spunky

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Originally posted by krissy-afc

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Originally posted by Spunky

quote:

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
IMO, there should be more education towards it and less trying to prevent it.

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"Educating" WLM users to deal with clone scripts (aka third party software) is outside of the WLM support area...

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No, i mean how to spot people cloning, phishing and stuff.

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And what did you think I meant?

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Sounds more like a moral issue to me (which I could perfectly understand) than a technical issue. Aka an "it's not because something is possible that it should be made available to the masses" issue.... So, that it would still be possible to do it manually has got little to do with it.

analogy: you can write your own viruses manually from scratch, yet virus toolkits, which can be used by any script kiddy without any programming knowledge, do exist but you wont find them on 'legit' sites either.

The combination of DP, name, color, etc is indeed a kind of identity for users. Stealing/copying all that can therefore indeed be seen as a form of identity theft, especially if it is abused towards PC-illiterate people.

Tools which make such abuse easy/easier are indeed sometimes a pest. And although they are not illegal or breaking any eula or whatever, the question could be asked if it would be a good thing to make such tools available to people, including people who are not full of good intentions.

Preventing the masses to get their hands on such tools via a site which has millions of visitors might be a first step although it wont solve the issue completely of course.

On the other hand, I'm also wondering how that decision has been taken and by whom exactly. I mean, it could have been a lightly taken decision (in our eyes), mainly based upon the name "cloning" which is very associated with identity theft by someone at MS who does not exactly know what those scripts actually do, and more importantly don't.

In short: I wouldn't immediatly dismiss such a decision as "being crap" as there a some things to say about it. But I do want to know a bit more details about it though, like who, why, how and when this decision was taken...

Be sure I'll ask about all this on the upcoming MVP summit. Although I would be surprised if I'm able to talk to the right people about that.

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krissy, spunky: MS does a lot of effort to educate people regarding phising and other stuff though. There are a lot of sites, blogs and articles which explain what is what and how to deal with such stuff, endorsed and made by MS. So they don't only try to prevent stuff, they actually do both.

eg: some very recent articles (mostly in dutch though):
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/protect/yourself/default.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/protect/yoursel...l/communities.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/protect/product...self/senderid.mspx
http://www.microsoft.com/belux/nl/protect/family/...vities/gaming.mspx
http://windowslivewire.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!2...641D59!42740.entry

Wow, this kinda surprised me.

To be honest I haven't been able to use Messenger Plus since I switched to Mac about a year ago, and I haven't done any scripting for it. I knew my script was doing well but wow, 1,208,167 downloads!! That's really cool .

I think it's a shame Microsoft requested our scripts to be removed.. As said before our scripts really do nothing other than simplifying something that every user can do if he chooses to. I can understand Microsoft wants to 'protect' it's users but I don't believe this is the way to go..

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Originally posted by Florianvo
I think it's a shame Microsoft requested our scripts to be removed.. As said before our scripts really do nothing other than simplifying something that every user can do if he chooses to. I can understand Microsoft wants to 'protect' it's users but I don't believe this is the way to go..

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OMG! They had to do when I'd reset my damn PC.. I don't suppose any of you wish to email me the file?

It'd be gratefully appreciated

Unless it's on the scripting database you shouldn't trust it.

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
Unless it's on the scripting database you shouldn't trust it.

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Originally posted by Menthix
There's no reason not to trust those scripts (assuming they come from an ok source), they were removed for other reasons. Please read the thread.

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I somewhat understand why Microsoft did it...

I've seen friends clone as other friends and then post screenshots.

Of course, they're just joking, but it can (much too easily) be used inappropriately.

Sad day for these scriptwriters, all the hard work.

time for a banned scripts thread

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
Unless it's on the scripting database you shouldn't trust it.

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Originally posted by Menthix

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Originally posted by krissy-afc
Unless it's on the scripting database you shouldn't trust it.

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There's no reason not to trust those scripts (assuming they come from an ok source), they were removed for other reasons. Please read the thread.

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Originally posted by SourSpud
I once got a trusted script sent to me through msn from the database, I din't trust the person who sent it me so I opened it with winrar first and if I would have imported the script it would have run an executeable file. So please be aware that scripts can just be as dangerous as any other file you download from the internet.

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What do you mean? a dll could be infected?

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Originally posted by SourSpud
What do you mean? a dll could be infected?

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Why not just PM the person who wrote the script? They most likely have the scripts laying around and should be trustworthy.

So, would Microsoft have a problem with someone, for example, hosting the scripts on a site in a text file? Allowing someone to compile it or stick it in the script editor themselves? They can control the distribution of such files from a software company but I doubt they could control the distribution of the source because it isn't really malicious.

My advice to any developers who have coded these scripts is to make them available in different ways via your own personal site or uploading them to development sites. You can even set up your own Google Site / Google Code area for free, so do that.

There's no reason why the developers have to comply with Microsoft.

How about an 'unofficial' Messenger Plus! Live Script Database?

No, Microsoft doesn't have the resources to hunt down all of the places these things are hosted at. They can't even keep their operating systems and office and stuff from being offered online, so I highly doubt they'd spend resources on hunting down a harmless little script like this .

IMO they just want to make sure it's not so easily available anymore, people who really want the script will find it no matter what.

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Originally posted by traxor
How about an 'unofficial' Messenger Plus! Live Script Database?

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I think you misunderstand Cookie . By unofficial, I meant 'unofficial' with inverted commas there on purpose. The site in question would be controlled by someone like MenthiX or another trusted associated of the Messenger Plus! forum but not be the official source for any plugins, just the one that happens to have all of them there including the ones that Microsoft threw a hissy fit about.

...And once you do that somebody will ask for a DB which includes all the scripts we denied from the site ourselves for various other reasons . I won't do it. If somebody is looking for these scripts I suggest they contact the creators.

Any update on this?

And traxor's idea sounds pretty good (and legal as they are text files, not scripts)

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Originally posted by riahc4
Any update on this?

And traxor's idea sounds pretty good (and legal as they are text files, not scripts)

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And the format of the files does not matter in that regard either.

They may ask you to take away those specific "cloning" scripts, and refer to them as "malicious," but MessengerPlus! works simultaneously with MessengerDiscovery. Which uses a "cloning" script, !imitate. Which clones the contacts name, font, colour, and text font and colour. And there are a lot of scripts with these traits.

I mean, you can hold a petition or a poll for whether or not it should really be removed. I use them on my friends here and there, and sometimes, all the time. They think it's amusing, not malicious. But again, don't want to upset Microsoft and have them shut everything down. Then there would be a lot of upset users... But a petition or poll wouldn't hurt, just for the hell of it. Introduce the poll or petition to Microsoft, and see what they think. If they still say no, then I suppose just pull the plug. But the users still have MessengerDiscovery's "!imitate" script... =/

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Originally posted by oraelbathory
I mean, you can hold a petition or a poll for whether or not it should really be removed.

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Originally posted by CookieRevised
So, all in all, I would strongly discourage downloading scripts from such databases.

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Originally posted by blessedguy

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Originally posted by oraelbathory
I mean, you can hold a petition or a poll for whether or not it should really be removed.

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It was Microsoft that requested, and Plus! depends on Microsoft to exist, simple as that.

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Yeah, that is true. Like me, though I may have a moral background and limit its use to certain restrictions, not all people are me, sadly. And they feel the need to use the scripts for more inappropriate things. And once it comes to that, either certain cases of it, or too many people doing it, like Anderton said, it becomes a problem and Microsoft sees it as nothing but as such. Which, I can't blame them. If I were to put myself in someone's position who was being victimized by someone who used the scripts so "poorly," I would want it removed, as well. So, I suppose I wasn't quite thinking the same with my previous post, but yeah. If it needs to be removed, it needs to be removed.