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[News] Skype and RealPlayer Give Another Reason to Reject Proprietary Software

  • Subject: [News] Skype and RealPlayer Give Another Reason to Reject Proprietary Software
  • From: Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 01 Feb 2008 13:58:23 +0000
  • Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.advocacy
  • Organization: Netscape / schestowitz.com
  • User-agent: KNode/0.10.4
New Skype bug opens users to easy hijack, says researcher

,----[ Quote ]
| SkypeFind, which was introduced in Skype 3.1 for Windows, lets users 
| recommend businesses to others running the voice-over-IP and chat client and 
| write reviews of those businesses. "Sadly, it could also be used by attackers 
| to own Skype users' machines," Raff said in a blog post.   
`----

http://www.linuxworld.com.au/index.php?id=787643642&rid=-50

RealPlayer named by StopBadware.org

,----[ Quote ]
| RealPlayer 10.5, it claims, "fails to accurately and completely disclose the 
| fact that it installs advertising software on the user's computer." And 
| RealPlayer 11, it claims, "does not disclose the fact that it installs 
| Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when 
| RealPlayer is uninstalled." Ryan Lukin, PR manager for RealNetworks, disputed 
| some of the claims.     
`----

http://www.news.com/8301-10789_3-9862135-57.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20


Related:

Why proprietary code is bad for security

,----[ Quote ]
| Tho Skype is using an encrypted protocol, it’s still their own, non-disclosed 
| code and property. So we don’t know what it contains. 
|
| [...]
|
| It’s time to stop accepting that we are the bad guys, and to stop consuming 
| things we just don’t understand (and cannot, because they are proprietary,  
| closed-source systems). 
| 
| Say no to companies, or even governments who treat you like this. Start using 
| open sourced products and protocols wherever you can. Even if you could 
| still never understand the code used in these systems, there are still lots 
| of people who can, and who will examine it. The magic word here is “peer 
| review” - your friend or buddy or neighbour may be able to understand all 
| that, and to help. No, not with Skype or Windows or any black box from Cisco.      
`----

http://wolfgang.lonien.de/?p=394

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