spyware

Sent: 6/23/02 3:57 PM          My first email to Comet Systems

Hello,

I was visiting a friend's website today and lo and behold, what popped up but your
darling little Comet Cursor download. Within 5 seconds I also got a message from
my firewall that your nasty little program was trying to access the internet.

I have read some of your articles and I see that you claim your software
is not spyware. That is such BULLSHIT!

I think it is extremely UNETHICAL for a company, person or other entity
to download something to an unknowing person's computer without their
permission. Unfortunately I guess is it legal, but I don't know how. I
will do everything in my power to fight this kind of invasion of my privacy
and invasion of my personal property (my computer).

I had Comet Cursor on my computer a couple of years ago and the little
cursors are cute. But to invade someone's computer unknown to them is
inexcusable. If people choose to have it, fine. But at least give them the choice.

I suppose all that you care about is money and that you have no
conscience. I hope you wake up in the middle of the night having nightmares about
your unethical actions. I also wish you a lot worse than that, but I won't put
it into print.

My real hope and goal is that enough people will decry these activities
from your company and other companies such as lop.com until legislation is
enacted that will prohibit this kind of invasion.

In my book you are nothing but scumware of the worst kind!

Yours truly,

Suzi

First response:

Hi Suzi,

I am very sorry for the aggravation we've caused you. I realize you're
understandably quite upset about the fact that our program downloaded onto
your computer without your consent. I assure you this isn't our intent or
design. In situations where this has occured, it is usually due to a
defective security layer in your browser: microsoft's internet explorer
browser program is designed to prompt you before downloading any web
programs (in their parlance, activex controls). Being prompted before you
can download such programs is the default behavior of the browser. If you
got our software without any warning, it may be because your browser is not
doing its job in warning you - this is not just a problem vis a vis the
comet cursor - you could unwittingly download *any* web program without even
knowing it.

Can you please check to see whether your browser has inadvertently been set
to "low security"? To do that, click on the "tools" button along the top of
your browser, and then select "internet options", and then click the
"security" tab. At this point, it should say your security settings are set
to "medium" -- that's the default setting. If your settings are at "low",
"medium low", or "custom", then this is a problem and you should select
"default", which will reset them to a safe level (medium).

If that's not the case, please write me back and we can try to figure out
why this happened. I promise it's not our intention for people to get our
software un-asked-for and when it happens, we are eager to understand why so
as to prevent this from happening to other people.

While I understand your indignation given your experience, to your point
about our intentions: we are not simply after making money and are very much
concerned with maintaining a business with high ethical standards.

Best Wishes,

Jamie Rosen
Founder

My second email: (Does anyone know if Jamie Rosen is male or female? I assumed that she is female,
                                 but then I saw references to "Mr. Rosen".)

Thank you for your prompt reply. My browser settings are set to medium
security and have been. It is also set to disable downloads. I do not
believe that it happened due to my browser settings or a defect in Internet
Explorer however. I have read many articles that confirm that other people
have had the same experience with comet cursor. I believe that you are
trying to make yourself look innocent but there is much evidence to the
contrary. Take this article for instance:

http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,52985,00.html

I am sure that you are aware of the article. LOL.

Believe me, I will follow this issue and do everything in my power to stop
companies like yours from these deceptive practices. Hopefully in the
future it will be illegal. Take Brilliant Digital for example. They are
under fire as well for their scumware. I'm sure you are familiar with it.
Then there is c2media and their lop.com. Another scumware.

If your comet cursor is not spyware, then why is it targeted by companies
such as lavasoft whose AdAware removes it?

Sorry, but I just do not believe that it is a defect in Internet Explorer or
my browser setting. I hope to see the day that your company is put out of
business or forced to come clean.

Suzi

second reply:

Hi Suzi,

You can believe whatever you want but the reality is that we do not ever try
to sneak our software onto people's computers. I'm not saying you didn't get
it unintentionally - what happened to you is definitely a problem. That
doesn't mean we intentionally caused that to happen.

If you're willing to follow this issue through in this case, I am happy to
discuss this with you by phone and try to understand exactly what happened.
You can then make up your mind for yourself whether we're scumware.

I appreciate your skepticism -- especially given your experience with our
software -- but I encourage you not to accept what you read on the internet
as truth so quickly but to keep an open mind a bit longer.

Best Wishes,

Jamie

I'm happy to call you whenever it's convenient.

Jamie Rosen
Chairman and Founder
Comet Systems, Inc.
(212) 231-2000                       My notes: this information is also posted on their website.
www.cometsystems.com

My third message and her response: note the response is first

Again, I understand your skepticism, especially with all the corruption and
venality that exists in corporate america today. But don't take my word for
it... I really am not trying to convince you of anything - all I'd like to
do is understand what happened on your computer for you to have gotten an
unsolicited installation. Is there a time I could "look over your shoulder"
(via the phone, of course) to understand just what happened?

Thanks,

Jamie

Sent: Monday, June 24, 2002 12:13 PM

Jamie,

I am not a programmer but I know that a program can only do what it is
programmed to do by the human who wrote it. I am sorry but I do not
believe you. I have programmer friends who are researching this for me. I
do not believe that any program can download itself without some code
written in it which instructs it to do that.

Perhaps your programmers are lying to you if they are telling you that the
comet cursor does not auto install itself.

Suzi