The Scumware Threat To Web Content

Imagine that you are watching your favorite television show on your favorite channel. The popcorn tastes good, the soda washes it down. Captain Kirk is beaming down to the planet to save Tokyo from -cod-zilla-. Commercial break! You get up and head for the restroom. Wait! The commercial is selling the latest Captain Kirk saves Tokyo action figures. An 800 number to dial, you reach for the telephone. Gotta have it! The Picture in Picture feature of your TV gets activated. A commercial. “To save 20% on “Captain Kirk saves Tokyo action figures, dial this number now!”. Some reason your TV switches stations to another station showing the same episode. You ponder not! You dial the number. Gotta have it! You got it!

Months later, your favorite channel goes bankrupt. What happened, now I can’t see my favorite show! The other station has bad reception, marathons of “I Love Pucie” reruns, and non-stop commercials. Man!

In the real world, this could not happen. The FCC, FTC and other government agencies would prevent such predatory marketing tactics. The laws are there for a reason: to preserve competition.

Enter the The Wild Wild West of the World Wide Web! Predatory marketing tactics are a common practice on the WWW via a vehicle known as scumware. Scumware is a parasitic piece of code that a surfer unknowingly downloads with other software. It is an infection and millions of users are infected.

Website owners and developers rely on online merchants to fund the operation and maintenance of their sites. When a surfer clicks a special affiliate link on these sites to purchase a product from an online merchant, the website owner gets a referral fee. The website owner creates custom content for the surfer's use and in turn the surfer provides income to keep the website owner in the business of providing content. The more successful the website owner is in providing quality content, the more likelihood that they will continue to provide quality content for the surfer. This is the affiliate marketing system in action.

Enter scumware! If a surfer’s clicks one of those special affiliate links, scumware takes over the browser’s normal actions. Sometimes a special coupon pops up with a savings for the surfer. If the surfer clicks that coupon, either the scumware developer or their clients gets the referral fee and not the website owner that provided the content that encouraged the surfer to click the link to begin with. Other times, scumware uses a different approach. No popup at all, the link is redirected with the scumware developer or client getting the referral fee.

How long do you think your favorite website will stay in business of providing you quality content?

• "Modified" version of Andrew Clover's Parasite Detector
   (Popup Version)
• "Modified" version of Andrew Clover's Parasite Detector
  (Detector Version)
• How To Disable Opera's Use Of AdSense
• How To Disable WebFerret's Use Of AdSense