McAfee files patent to help in fighting piracy - and making money of it?

[DoMiN8ToR]

I just posted the article McAfee files patent to help in fighting piracy - and making money of it?.

A recently published patent from McAfee reveals that the company is working on technology to fight piracy.

Click to read the full article here: [http://www.myce.com/news/mcafee-files-patent-to-help-in-fighting-piracy-and-making-money-of-it-66976/](http://www.myce.com/news/mcafee-files-patent-to-help-in-fighting-piracy-and-making-money-of-it-66976/)

Feel free to add your comments below. 

Please note that the reactions from the complete site will be synched below.

[ChristineBCW]

Excellent interpretation - “making money?” indeed (as if there was any doubt that every focus would be on that goal). It’s one thing if McAfee’s version of DRM is pressed exclusively to their paying-for-censorship customers, but we’ve all seen freebie software include some McAfee add-on. This will probably be the next ‘tool’ that get installed by an inattentive computer user.

I can’t wait until Sony or Disney pays enough to have other studios’ legit products disallowed from streaming. “Could be an illegal copy - sorry - please only pay to watch Sony-Disney products.”

[kevpc]

so, in order to carry out this ‘function’, McAfee will have to be able to spy on wo is doing what on the internet with a computer? who in their right mind is going to agree to this? isn’t there enough government and company snooping going on already? any info gathered will obviously then be sold on to whoever wants it and i suppose the ‘client’ will have to agree to this as well? plus, who is going to be the ones that decides whether the website has illegal content on it? to be able to do that, McAfee would have to have a 100% accurate database of content, who made it, who released it, who has legitimate access to it etc. there is no way in hell i would ever agree to this! having spyware installed on my computer to benefit anyone and everyone else? you must be kiddin’ me!! then add into the equation how good McAfee is at what they are supposed to do, recognise and remove viruses, and you see what a disaster that is!

[TSJnachos117]

I’m so glad that a software company that meant to protect you from (among other things) spyware is now forcing you to deal with their own brand or spyware. It’s not hypocrisy, it’s good business. When peoploe realize what’s happening, I’m sure it will seriously harm McAfee’s reputation (although by then it will be too late).

[QUOTE=kevpc;2686294]Who in their right mind is going to agree to this?[/QUOTE]
Kevpc, you seem to be under the illusion that people actually read the user agreements. You see, by not reading the agreements, that leaves more time to rot your brain on YouTube, Facebook, ect. Heck, as I seem to recall not even Supreme Court Justices read these things.

[Steve33]

…along with the growing number of Anti-Vs and anti-adwares having deep roots into the OS.
There have been rumors that some of them can corrupt OS operation files.

[paulw2]

You mean that people still use McAfee junk??

[kpoole]

Don’t have to worry about this myself. They’ll never have a Linux version.

[ChristineBCW]

KPoole, my bigger fear is that, in the world of constant subscription-always-on, other vendors will keep adding these “phone home-reporting mechanisms”. If you’ve got an Epson or HP printer, those drivers come with phone-home “auto-update” services. What else do they do? “They try to sell ink from the vendor’s direct web store.” That’s been going on from a decade.

Having the recent Malwarebytes Destruction Of Bootable OS Features is just one more “ability” that these vendors heap on themselves.

It’s not really Buyer Beware It’s User Beware and Vendors can hide anything they want, claiming, “Then don’t use our product.” Like having the American Congress pass laws preventing direct broadband competition, or disallowing [I]a la carte[/I] TV cable packagings. “I’d love to pay for MY 30 watched channels and none of the other trash” but of course, the vendors by law refuse to allow that.

The always-on-full-subscriber services are going to present a LOT of challenges, and “not having a Linux version” won’t stand in their way to get ya or yer computer. “Since Linux is free, we the distro’s feel like we can foist anything onto our free users, free of their knowledge.”

[Steve33]

I don’t know about linux but Ubuntu tries to “phone home” everytime I boot it up.
I am still trying to run down whether it is truly the os doing this or one of the programs I have installed in it.

Personally, if I can’t change an os or prog. that runs in it not to phone home then I don’t want it, I prefer to decide for myself if and when a connection is made.

[debro]

McAfee has been junk for years, and it regularly comes bundled with new pcs, pre installed “for your convenience”. Obviously McAfee pays for the privilege of being pre installed, in the hope that the ignorant/ stupid extend their “free” period.

Un installing it leaves junk all over your hdd, and active programs still installed.

McAfee antivirus is a skanky ho.

As to programs on Linux, if you build it, they will come.
“It” is market share. OS X didn’t have market share for years, but now that it’s building, software is being developed for it, and the same will happen to Linux.

Steam is already there, and porting games to Linux. Now the users will come, and eventually, the stupid users will come, and then exploits and virus’ s will come, and eventually mcafee will come.

Given that mcafee software is so bad, they’re actively developing software for new markets.

Also, don’t discount the “think about the children!!!” effect, and parents panicking about their children’s safety. Irrational emotional advertising is targeting exactly the protective instincts of parents.

[ChristineBCW]

Hubby’s first contact with McAfee has been about his last - they were one of the first commercial DOS products and he said their box-advertising claimed to eliminate all 233 known viruses (circa 1991). He plugged in the diskette, booted up the machine and it cleansed 47 viruses from his own machine. He was shocked.

Then he rebooted it again, ran McAfee a second time, and it found 50-odd. Then a third time, it found 70-odd. After a half-dozen more ‘runs’, it had found 233 viruses.

Exactly the number claimed. Then he went to a second machine and saw the same sequence of Found & Cleansed each time. And on other machines, too. Exactly the same count, the same sequence of counts.

He realized it was a scam - they had some pre-built screens that simply displayed the counter. He screen-printed them up, keep the diskette around for a few months and tested it - every machine he found - even newly loaded ones - would have the same “found and cleansed”.

He made sure everyone saw McAfee’s product after that. He still won’t touch a machine that has it voluntarily loaded.

[debro]

[QUOTE=ChristineBCW;2686519]He was shocked.

Then he rebooted it again, ran McAfee a second time, and it found 50-odd. Then a third time, it found 70-odd. After a half-dozen more ‘runs’, it had found 233 viruses.
Exactly the number claimed.
He realized it was a scam - they had some pre-built screens that simply displayed the counter.
.[/QUOTE]
Lol … it’s like registry cleaners then

[Wombler]

I’ve had problems with their software in the past too.

I remember some years ago being forced to reboot a friends laptop five times in succession to get the trial version of their suite removed, as each component removed itself individually and required an immediate reboot.

Needless to say I was none too amused.

[B]Wombler[/B]

[UTR]

[QUOTE=kevpc;2686294]so, in order to carry out this ‘function’, McAfee will have to be able to spy on wo is doing what on the internet with a computer? who in their right mind is going to agree to this?[/QUOTE]

The anti-Constitution idiots we have in Congress (nearly all members are in this category) will agree to it unless they think it will cost them too many votes.

[voxsmart]

This is madness! Who do they think this is going to appeal to ? I suppose if the powers that like to control had their way we would be compelled to load it. I can’t see that happening. McAfee is a pain hiding from the unsuspecting in Adobe updates. I fed up with having to remove it from friends and neighbours computers time after time and sorting out the mess of running two antivirus proggies at once, fortunately it’s never too serious, just a time waste.