> Symantec would be foolish to toss a hat into this ring, when so many systems are running their software, which phones home constantly.

OK, before I fall off my desk laughing hysterically at this irony, I should point out that there is actually a recorded instance of Norton Antivirus "phoning home":

http://www.computergripes.com/NortonAntiVirus2003.html

OK, now pardon me a second...

[/me falls off desk laughing... picks himself up]

> What a brilliant argument, except that showing proof would require a breach of contract because one would have to reverse-engineer just what the program is doing.

Yeah... I love irony, you know!

But... but... but... isn't a "spyware EULA" unenforceable like Rasch says?

Besides, no one had to reverse-engineer First4Internet's XCP software to determine it "phones home." One just had to look at DNS server caches. No one has to reverse engineer a piece of software to read the data it's sending if they use a transparent proxy or a packet sniffer.

As for the rest, I went into extreme detail here:

http://www.antiwindowscatalog.com/index.asp?mode=rant&id=39

Oh, and thanks for the excellent comedy material. I'll have to make sure I credit you in my next rant!

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