Our
Little Rant by Eightball & Thundercloud
From InfoAve Premium Issue #73 - March 11, 2005
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Please reference the source as http://thundercloud.net/infoave/truth-rant.htm
You're welcome to read comments sent to us by our readers
regarding Hotbar and this Rant. Please click here to
view some of the comments that we have received.
Note added on June 13, 2005: We received a rebuttal to
this Rant from Oren Dobronsky CEO of Hotbar com, Inc. In his rebuttal he
"demanded" we publish his rebuttal to this Rant. We have, therefore, published
his rebuttal, and our comments to his rebuttal letter at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/truth2-rant.htm
.
Hotbar
Threatens Cloudeight
Recently, we were
threatened (once again) by Hotbar, Inc. We received a letter by Worldwide Express courier
in which Hotbar threatened legal action unless we capitulated to their terms. They
demanded that we cease referring to them in ANY negative way; to refrain from calling them
spyware, adware, malware, or any name which has a generally negative connotation. They
demanded that we stop advising people not to install Hotbar or telling people how to
remove it. They state they are not spyware or adware, yet Hotbar's free version, displays
advertising all over its toolbar. This advertising is based on your Web browsing and this
is clearly defined in Hotbar's own TOS and Privacy Policy. Read Some Of
The Documentation for this RANT
Please
click here to read the entire letter sent to us by Hotbar, Inc.
Please
click here to read our response to Hotbar, Inc.
The letter delivered by DHL Express mail (a rather poor Xeroxed copy) came addressed from
Hotbar, in Tel Aviv, Israel yet the letterhead states the company is in New York. Their
Web site at http://www.hotbar.com/ (as of the date of
this writing) claims they are a New York based company. But, a search of the U.S.
Trademark site reveals Hotbar is a registered trademark of Hotbar, Inc.,Tel Aviv, Israel.
Even though tens of thousands of other sites, computer magazines, Symantec, Trend Micro,
McAfee, WebRoot, Spybot, Harvard University, Howard University and dozens of others refer
to Hotbar as spyware and/or adware, Hotbar, Inc. is threatening Cloudeight. Cloudeight
does not make a spyware/adware removal program which is what their demand letter appears
to stress, and we wonder why they are making demands of a small company like Cloudeight
when there are dozens of large public and private corporations making claims that Hotbar
is adware and/or spyware? If you'd like to do further reading on Hotbar please click here.
We made a commitment to you and every visitor to our site, from the very beginning, to
provide a good, family-oriented and safe environment. Our stationery and software has
never contained any questionable software, we do not track you, we do not record the URLS
of sites you visit in order to display "toolbar buttons"; we do not display ads
of ANY kind while our software runs on your computer. We have always been committed to
doing our best for you in whatever we do. We will never change that commitment regardless
of any threats made against us.
We
try, each week, to provide information to help you make informed decisions on what we feel
are things that are not good for your privacy or you computer. Whether you follow our
advice or not is your decision. We hope to help you make informed decisions. If our
hands are tied by threats of lawsuits so that we are essentially prevented from telling
you what we believe is the truth (based on our own testing, research, and a preponderance
of evidence from tens of thousands of sites) then the real loser in all of this is you.
For, you see, this is only the tip of the iceberg. When those with power and money
(HOTBAR, INC. is a multi-million dollar company, in part funded by millions of dollars of
venture capital) can threaten small companies like ours with protracted and expensive
legal battles, the powerful and wealthy have the advantage and keep those, like
Cloudeight, from helping you make informed decisions. CastleCops, a small "mom &
pop shop" like ours, is facing a similar situation. They have been threatened with
legal action by a company called I-download. I-download is a program that CastleCops had
warned its forum members and visitors about. I-download, Castlecops says, is spyware
and/or adware. And I-download is trying to legally silence them from telling their
subscribers and visitors the truth based on their research and testing. So, where does all
this go from here?
Hotbar threatened LavaSoft (makers of Ad-Aware) and now Ad-Aware no longer identifies
Hotbar as spyware or adware. How do we know this? Hotbar sent a registered letter to us
saying (we quote) "Hotbar is suing LavaSoft and its proprietor... for $6 million
dollars in damages, which were caused to Hotbar by LavaSoft 's misrepresentations of our
program as spyware." Yet, SpySweeper, Spybot and other anti-spyware software continue
to show Hotbar as spyware and/or adware. In fact, our own tests with SpySweeper revealed
alerts to over 1800 changes to the registry made by Hotbar and all were removed by
SpySweeper. We have documentation of this. We have proof. Major sites like Trend
Micro, Computer Associates, McAfee, Symantec, many American educational sites, Smart
Computing Magazine, and many others call Hotbar spyware and or adware, And, although
we have documentation backing this, we are prohibited from ever again telling you what we
feel to be the truth about Hotbar. We can never make any recommendations about whether you
should or should not install it. Why? Because we simply cannot afford to fight a
multi-million dollar corporation; a corporation with pockets deep enough to secure the
best lawyers, as well as the means and the intent (apparently) to pursue protracted
legal battles. The ones who will suffer most will not be us, but YOU, our readers,
subscribers, and site visitors. If this trend continues, every person on the Internet will
be affected. If we are gagged by threats from Internet bullies, then others like us will
be gagged as well. And, after a time, the real truth will be hard to separate from the
lies and misrepresentations. And, you the consumer, will forfeit the opportunity of making
informed decisions. If all you have to go on is the advertising hype and
misrepresentations of spyware/adware/malware companies, how many more computers will be
ruined? How many more adware/spyware/malware programs will be developed to harvest your
browsing habits and sell you to the highest bidder? And, more importantly, how will YOU
separate the wheat from the chaff if you are only allowed to hear one side of the story?
So, today, we are sending out a call to arms to all of you: If any of you are lawyers who
specialize in Internet law, or if any of you know of a law firm who specializes in
Internet law, and would be willing to take our side in a great battle for the truth, pro
bono, or provide us with legal advice, .
This could be a landmark case: One in which the preponderance of evidence is on our side.
One, that if Hotbar loses, they will be unable to ever threaten anyone again. Remember:
Hotbar is the very same company that prohibited those living in Utah from downloading
their software after Utah passed its strong anti-spyware legislation. (The Utah
legislation is being challenged in court and is currently stayed, so Hotbar has since
removed this from their Web sites and from their EULA, TOS, and Privacy Policy).
Another
way you can help is to send the URL of this page to your local newspaper, television
station, congressman or senators. The URL to this page is http://thundercloud.net/infoave/truth-rant.htm
.
If strong-arm tactics like Hotbar is using work, then you can expect many others to follow
their example. This is not good for us. This is not good for you. This is not good for the
Internet. The truth will eventually prevail but for the time being, we are handcuffed by
what we believe to baseless, deleterious legal threats.
Help us if you can.
Tell us what you think - Please
We would like
to thank the hundreds of people who have responded to us in our favor. For further reading
on how these kinds of threats are not unique to Cloudeight see Ben Edelman's excellent
article entitled "Threats To Spyware Critics".
Note added on June 13, 2005: We received a rebuttal to
this Rant from Oren Dobronsky CEO of Hotbar com, Inc. In his rebuttal he
"demanded" we publish his rebuttal to this Rant. We have, therefore, published
his rebuttal, and our comments to his rebuttal letter at http://thundercloud.net/infoave/truth2-rant.htm
.
You're welcome to read comments sent to us by our readers
regarding Hotbar and this Rant. Please click here to
view some of the comments that we have received.
You have our permission to reprint
or republish this Rant
Please reference the source as http://thundercloud.net/infoave/truth-rant.htm
Hotbar®
and Hotbar.com® are Reg. U.S. Pat & TM office
HOTBAR, INC.
166 IBEN GVIROL ST - BEIT WALLA
TEL AVIV, ISRAEL
DISCLAIMER:
THE ABOVE ARTICLE IS BASED ON ACTUAL LETTERS WE HAVE RECEIVED FROM HOTBAR, INC.
CLOUDEIGHT MAKES NO CLAIM ABOUT HOTBAR'S PROGRAMS; POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE. WHETHER TO
INSTALL OR NOT TO INSTALL HOTBAR REMAINS YOUR PERSONAL CHOICE. NOTHING IN THIS ARTICLE
SHOULD BE CONSTRUED AS NEGATIVE OR POSITIVE COMMENTS ABOUT THE HOTBAR
PROGRAMS. HOTBAR ADMITS IN ITS PRIVACY POLICY / LICENSE THAT IT DOES TRACKS THE URLS
ITS USERS VISIT AND DISPLAYS CONTEXTUALLY RELEVANT INFORMATION (ADVERTISEMENTS). ANY
LINKS PRESENTED IN THIS ARTICLE ARE REFERENCES ONLY AND ANY CONTENT ON THE SITES REFERENCE
IS THE PROPERTY OF THE SITE OWNER AND NOT UNDER CONTROL OR AFFILIATION OF OR WITH
CLOUDEIGHT INTERNET LLC.
WE BELIEVE ANY
TIME YOU INSTALL A PROGRAM OR PROGRAMS, YOU SHOULD RESEARCH THE PROGRAM THOROUGHLY AND
READ THE ENTIRE TERMS OF SERVICE, PRIVACY POLICY, AND TERMS OF USE (IF ANY) OF
THAT PROGRAM PRIOR TO INSTALLING IT. WE URGE YOU TO USE COMMON SENSE AND BE AN
INFORMED USER BEFORE INSTALLING ANY SOFTWARE PROGRAM ON YOUR COMPUTER. THE ABOVE ARTICLE
IS TO PROVIDE YOU INFORMATION CONCERNING HOTBAR'S MOST RECENT THREATS TO CLOUDEIGHT
INTERNET LLC ONLY. IT IS POSTED FOR NO OTHER REASON. HOTBAR, HOTBAR.COM, ARE
REGISTERED TRADEMARKS OF HOTBAR, INC.
Download a free trial and check your computer. You can't lose- you can
only win!
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