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
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