Seen on Metafilter: There's a class action suit against Bonzi Software, maker of Bonzi Buddy, the same friendly folks who warn you there's Porn on Your Computer and Your Internet Connection May Not Be Optimized (click to download).
A (non-savvy) friend of mine once inadvertently downloaded Bonzi Buddy — he clicked there. It proceeded to take over his entire computer, constantly annoying him with an animated purple gorilla that called him by name without being properly introduced and tried to help him do things he didn't want to do. It took about three hours, a crowbar, and four sticks of dynamite to get the damned thing uninstalled, and I'm still not convinced it's totally gone. I'm hoping the class action's recognized and that the award is enough to put the bastards out of business.
Then they can go after the people with the spy cameras, the other popup artists, and the people who make those flash animations that make sites like arabia.com unusable without a resident killer program. I'm against suing people at the drop of a hat, but the spyware/gimme your computer thing goes beyond the drop of a hat. |