

The Download Dot-Con - nikcub
http://nikcub.appspot.com/posts/the-download-dot-con

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jgmmo
I work for a security software company, and made a definition today that
detects CNET download wrappers. The fact that several other vendors already
detect them makes this a much easier decision.

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nealp9084
CNet, Brothersoft, Softonic, and a handful of other sites all pull this same
scam. I don't know if they all still do, but they managed to alienate a lot of
people.

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billpatrianakos
So do we know if they've only recently starting breaching their own policy or
have they been doing it all along despite the 2005 policy implementation?

Does anyone willingly download toolbars like the ones that come bundled on
download.com? Anyway, I've steered clear of CNet downloads for years now. Even
before they began doing this and you had a chance of actually getting a
download that you knew was clean the whole thing started feeling kind of
spammy and shady.

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omellet
I was using the laptop of a friend recently. He had only Internet Explorer,
and when I ran it about 1/3 of the browser window was taken up by toolbar on
top of toolbar. Google, Yahoo, Bing, basically anybody that made a toolbar. I
asked him if he wanted them, and said he wasn't sure, but didn't want the
browser to stop working if he got rid of them.

I got rid of them for him, but I'm sure it's only a matter of time before it
happens again.

