quote:
Originally posted by screen317
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Is it wrong to try to earn some honest money with your own creation?
No, but the creator of Messenger Plus! is not making honest money off of his creation. The only money he gets is off of the installation of the sponsor software, which is not his own creation.
Errrr.... hence the term 'sponsor' and 'ads'...
By your definition, everybody who has ads on their webpage are being dishonest and/or stealing money? Including the children who let their parents and family sponsor them per km they run in that yearly schoolrun? etc... Their is absolutely nothing dishonest about earning money via sponsors.
quote:
Originally posted by screen317
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These same people who didn't care to READ what they were agreeing upon clicking "I Agree" everywhere they can?
Correct, these same people. Are you telling me that it is only because of the gullibility of the general population who don't know any better and who do not want this sponsor software, that the adware is still supported? What was this "honest money" you were referring to?
Errr (again).... It is not because somebody does not read a, VERY visible, mandatory* choice that the author is being dishonest. Nobody is tricked here! If people don't care to read what they install then it is they who need to change their habits. In the real world you also don't go buying and signing stuff without first reading stuff. And before you reply with "but the small print...": it is very clearly stated in 'normal' print, before the EULA (aka small print), what the optional sponsor is and will do. This is a far more honest way of using a sponsor than most other programs on the net!!!!!
*
(in the sense that you must make a choice, nothing is preselected!)
quote:
Originally posted by screen317
I am aware that an uninstaller is included; however, I have always had the policy to never trust uninstallers from the creators of any type of malware.
In some circumstances (with real malware) you are correct, but in this case you do far more 'damage' using 3rd party tools since there is not a single 3rd party application which properly uninstalls the optional ad sponsor from C2Media which is/was bundled with Plus!. Not even apps like Spybot S&D, Hijackthis, etc! They all leave traces behind and/or even damage the uninstaller.
Your policy, as a decent PC-repair dude, should be: Check the official documentation and/or official forums and/or other official knowledge bases first, where people base their stuff on facts, not on hear-say or their own incompetents. And use a virtual machine to check if the uninstaller works as it should be for yourself. And if so, use the provided uninstaller! Otherwise, and I am very sorry to say, I don't see you as a real knowledgable PC-repair dude who knows what he is talking about, but instead simply bases his 'knowledge' on hear-say and other (wrong) assumptions.
So, the policy for uninstalling apps should always be to first see if their is a dedicated/included uninstaller... If you don't trust these uninstallers then use a virtuale machine to check it out.
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Originally posted by screen317
Optional yes, but it relies on the ignorance of the general population. It doesn't have to be pre-checked, because the author knows people will click "I agree" regardless. Is this not exploiting ignorance?
Nope it is not, as it is VERY clearly explained on that same page what is being installed though. There is no trickery involved here. Trickery is when there is no clear and very visible text explaning what is being installed.
If there was simply an "I agree" and "I don't agree" choice without any other explanation on that same line and page and without any special title on that page, without a second confirmation on the EULA, then you would be correct. But this isn't and never was the case for Messenger Plus!.
PS:quote:
Originally posted by screen317
... to discuss this
It has been discussed a number of times before though. And each time people come with the same arguments and each time we reply with the same facts. You might wanna search the forums for those previous discussions.
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