This makes my blood boil. At Spyware Warrior, Suzi just posted the full text of a letter she received from the legal counsel for iDownload. They’re demanding that she remove pages that refer to their product as spyware and/or malware. Suzi says:
As owner of this domain, netrn.net, the home of this blog, I am currently obtaining legal counsel and evaluating my options. I will post additional details as they develop.
I have firsthand experience with this company’s products. When I was doing testing for a post on “poisoned media files” I ran across a Windows Media video file that attempted to install the iDownload product on my computer. The ActiveX dialog box called it a “Required: Media Player Version 9 Update.” It is, of course, no such thing. That description is an out-and-out lie. Eric L. Howes documented the installation process at Broadband Reports and captured the following screen:
Legal bills are expensive. Even when you’re right, you can go bankrupt just protecting yourself and your good name. Which is why I just clicked the PayPal Donate button on Suzi’s blog and sent her some financial support.
This appears to be an orchestrated campaign to stifle all criticism of this company, because the same legal team sent a nearly identical letter to CastleCops.com as well. In addition, someone recently targeted anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman’s site for a massive denial-of-service attack.
Is iDownload’s software bad for you? I don’t have enough personal knowledge to say. But many authoritative sources seem to believe it is so.
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Symantec, an acknowledged leader in the security software industry and maker of Norton AntiVirus, unequivocally labels iDownload’s iSearch Toolbar as “spyware.” The Symantec listing describes its behavior as follows: “Spyware.ISearch is an Internet Explorer Browser Helper Object and functions as a toolbar. It is a search hijacker and also tracks user activity on a remote server at isearch.com.”
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Trend Micro, a respected maker of AntiVirus software, calls the iDownload.com product Adware. Its description begins: “This adware may be downloaded while browsing the Internet without a user’s consent. It attempts to block popup windows and redirect a browser to its server, which is http://www.isearch.com.”
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Tenebril, a respected maker of security software, lists iSearch in its Spyware Research Center. Its description says, “ This is a hijacker application. Hijackers take control of your web browser’s settings, and usually change your homepage, search page or other default pages to point to web sites owned by the hijacker. Since the hijackers can make money just based on the number of visits to their web sites, they benefit from forcing you to view their web sites each time your web browser opens.”
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The database at Spywaredata.com includes seven instances of iDownload’s toolbar.dll, all of them classified under the parasite label.
The license agreement for the iSearch software includes the following text:
By installing the Software, you understand and agree that the Software may, without any further prior notice to you, automatically perform the following: display advertisements of advertisers who pay a fee to iSearch and/or it’s partners, in the form of pop-up ads, pop-under ads, interstitials ads and various other ad formats, display links to and advertisements of related websites based on the information you view and the websites you visit; store non-personally identifiable statistics of the websites you have visited; redirect certain URLs including your browser default 404-error page to or through the Software; provide advertisements, links or information in response to search terms you use at third-party websites; provide search functionality or capabilities; automatically update the Software and install added features or functionality or additional software, including search clients and toolbars, conveniently without your input or interaction; install desktop icons and installation files; install software from iSearch affiliates; and install Third Party Software.
In addition, you further understand and agree, by installing the Software, that iSearch and/or the Software may, without any further prior notice to you, remove, disable or render inoperative other adware programs resident on your computer, which, in turn, may disable or render inoperative, other software resident on your computer, including software bundled with such adware, or have other adverse impacts on your computer.
This company lies when it offers the software to an unsuspecting user. The license agreement this company wrote, which they know the average user will not read, admits that the software may install additional software or remove programs already on your computer without your knowledge or input (or obviously, your consent). And the company freely admits that its software may have “other adverse impacts on your computer.”
Does this sound like a program you want to install?
Please, support Suzi. Click the PayPal Donate button on Suzi’s blog and help her out.
Updated: Suzi responds to iDownload.
Ed Bott 
Ed:
Thanks so much for doing this blog entry. Suzi and the others who have received letters from iSearch/iDownload certainly need public support, and your help in getting the word out is most welcome and very much appreciated.
By the way, CastleCops has now posted its official response to iSearch/iDownload’s letter:
http://castlecops.com/article-5765-nested-0-0.html
I would expect to see others stepping forward in the coming days and weeks to talk about their own experiences with iSearch/iDownload.
All the best,
Eric L. Howes
Trend Micro’s suddenly become respected software/digoutware distributors? Wayddaminute…
I use their AV product, even now, and reject the other dialogue box (on your advice? nah….even before that).
The spyware product is substandard. End of story.
I agree that Trend Micro’s antispyware product is currently substandard, primarily because of its inability to correctly distinguish true infections from false positives. But the company’s expertise in identifying and labeling hostile software in all categories is top-notch. If they can get their anti-spyware module to work properly with their database, it will be a winner, just as their AV software currently is.
I see the “Always trust content from…” checkbox. Why isn’t there a “Never trust content from…” option?
That dialog box was from an old version of Windows. In Windows XP SP2, there is indeed a “Never trust content from…” option. This is one of many hidden security features in SP2.
With regards to the last part of the EULA, if my reading of UK law is correct, then this would probably be classified as illegal in the UK
Under the Computer Misuse Act 1990, specifically the section regarding the unauthorised modification of the contents of a computer, this software would seem to be granting itself permission to do just that.
No contract or EULA can bypass or seek to evade the law.
Same iSearch don’t have offices in the UK! 🙂
They key you said is: The license agreement this company wrote, which they know the average user will not read, admits that the software may install additional software or remove programs already on your computer without your knowledge or input.
It might be legal consent, but not concious consent that a user gives. This is a growing issue now with many developers hiding anything they need in long fine print, but we just quickly are accustomed to clicking the little check box to continue.
Where the heck have I been? It is Jan. 2007, and I have just got the idownload virus in my memory. I was looking for voice/music recording software do my own mixes. I downloaded a shareware sw product that was supposed to do this and ran NAV on the file. Then as I attempted to look at it, bammn!, isearch installed itself into mt pc’s memory. Now I cant get it out. How do I remove this SOB. How can these guys continue with this home invasion business plan.
Keith