The most evil and nefarious group of programmers — the constabulary of malware-programming scoundrels who infect and spread botnets, viruses and spyware across the Internet — are now taking a cue from the second most evil and nefarious group of programmers — Microsoft, Adobe, Apple and the like — in trying to protect their work. They are adopting EULAs.
Quoth Ars Technica:
The help section of the latest version of the Zeus malware states that the client has no right to distribute Zeus in any business or commercial purpose not connected to the initial sale, cannot examine the source code of the product, has no right to use the product to control other botnets, and cannot send the product to anti-virus companies. The client does agree to “give the seller a fee for any update to the product that is not connected with errors in the work, as well as for adding additional functionality.” Modern license agreements take a great deal of (deserved) fire for being absurdly draconian, but even the likes of Adobe and Microsoft don’t claim that purchasing a version of their respective products locks the user into buying future editions.
Nothing to worry about, though. Continue to run your illicit botnets with peace-of-mind. The EULA of a commercial malware company is even less enforceable than real EULAs.
Malware authors turn to EULAs to protect their work [Ars Technica]
Ummm….already posted on the MotherBoing this morning…
We’re a different site, Qozmiq. We all try not to dupe each other as sort of a vague rule of thumb (although we both inevitably do, when we see fit), but it’s not like a post on one site is exclusive to it.