TRUSTe to Certify 'Trusted Downloads'

By Geoff Duncan
Staff Writer, Designtechnica News

Truste and corporate partners have announced a new Trusted Download Program to certify software is non-invasive and can easily be uninstalled.

TRUSTe, an independent non-profit which monitors organizational email policies, privacy, and online policy matters has announced a new Trusted Download Program aimed to curb spyware, adware, and other malicious forms of software which may act without a users' consent and be difficult to remove.

The Trusted Download Program will not act as "stamp" program which provides software products a "seal of approval" consumers can see; in fact, software certified under the Trusted Download Program will not be allowed to promote that fact. Instead, the Trusted Download Program will certify applications and software which meet particular criteria for trustworthiness, disclosure, and responsible practices. These programs will be included in a "white list" of trustworthy programs offered to program partners, who can then make decisions about whether they wish to distribute or be affiliated with the software.

Trusted Download Program partners currently include Yahoo, AOL, Verizon, CNET's download.com, Computer Associates, and Verizon.

Criteria for certification include obtaining a plain-language consent to download and offering easy uninstall capabilities; the programs also may not engage in any prohibited activities such as taking over a computer, keystroke logging, collecting personal information, or maliciously modifying a computer's settings. Software which displays ads or tracks user actions is not patently prohibited—for instance, a free software application, such as a browser toolbar, could still display advertising and even track a user's Web usage, so long as it does so with the user's informed consent and complies with the other criteria of the Trusted Download Program.

The program also allows for ongoing monitoring of applications, and more intense scrutiny for companies and applications which have been found in violation of the Trusted Download Program's criteria.

The Trusted Download Program's certification regime also extends to the ways in which software is distributed: affiliate partnerships and bundles must be disclosed, and software which displays ads or tracks users may not be distributed on childrens' Web sites (either directly or via affiliates). Participants in the program—such as AOL, Yahoo, and download.com—must also be able to segregate their advertising to certified and uncertified applications.

The basic idea behind the Trusted Download Program is to establish industry standards for informed consent and acceptable practices in software downloads, and extend those practices through the economic structure of the industry. Through the Trusted Download Program, advertisers can determine which applications have been independently certified as trustworthy and, potentially, choose only to have their advertising carried by those trustworthy channels. Similarly, partners like CNET and Yahoo might choose whether or not to distribute specific software downloads based on whether they've been certified by the Trusted Download Program. Similarly, companies may choose whether or not to enable their services to be used by certified or uncertified applications: for instance, Yahoo could choose not to allow uncertified applications to execute searches on Yahoo services. By making certification important for both distributing software and tying into advertising revenue channels, the Trusted Download Program hopes to elevate trustworthy applications and provide economic incentive for developing responsible software programs.

At this time, no information is available on the cost, if any, to developers to have their applications certified as trustworthy. A too-high certification cost may put the program out of reach of small developers, shareware authors, and hobbyist programmers, potentially keeping their often-useful tools and innovation out of mainstream download services like CNET, AOL, and Yahoo.

The Trusted Download Program begins a beta process today, with full operation expected to begin in early 2006.

Read full article here

Microsoft way to 'Defend' its trademarks

Microsoft will not have legal problems using the name "Windows Defender" for its anti-spyware product but the man who gave up the name is unhappy with the way the company went about acquiring it.

South Australian software developer Adam Lyttle was asked by Microsoft to sign over rights to the name last month but says he would have preferred a more straightforward approach.

Microsoft announced a few days ago that it would be naming its anti-spyware program "Windows Defender" when it is bundled with the next version of Windows.

Mr Lyttle wrote in his blog that he had received a letter from a company named Seed IP about a month ago accusing him of using the name "Windows" in a product unlawfully.

He had used the name "Windows Defender" for an application he wrote some years ago. He says the general tone of the letter was one of "stop using our name or there will be consequences".

Microsoft is known to be extremely protective about its trademarks. The global software company's choice of product names has been questioned in the past. The most recent example was when the use of the name "Windows Vista" was questioned by a business software and services company named Vista, founded in 1999 and located in Redmond, Oregon.

Mr Lyttle wrote that he received a second letter in which he was asked to pledge that he would not use the name Windows Defender for any of his products again, desist from using "windows", "Windows" or "indows" in any product name and hand over all rights to the name Windows Defender to Microsoft.

No mention was made of the fact that Microsoft planned to use the same name for one of its products.

Mr Lyttle wrote that he was spooked by the demand that he agree not to use the Windows Defender name again, but after consulting a friend decided that he did not want to enter into a legal battle with Microsoft.

On October 26, he signed the letter and sent it back. Two weeks later he read the Microsoft announcement that it would be using the name Windows Defender.

Mr Lyttle said he had discontinued his own product about a year ago and would have been happy to hand over the name if he had been told the real reason.

"I enjoy using their operating system and developing applications for personal and public use and I will continue to do so," he said when contacted. "I would have gladly handed over the name of the product to Microsoft if they had asked me directly."

Mr Lyttle said he had stopped offering Windows Defender as a download from his site but some shareware sites were still listing it. "It was an application meant to prevent malicious software from changing the default web page in a browser and the feedback I had was that it was useful," he said.

He said the insistence that he also pledge not to use the name "indows" in any future product was probably related to the action Microsoft launched to stop a Linux vendor from selling its product under the name Lindows. The company later changed the name to Linspire.

Comment has been sought from Microsoft.

Oryginal article may be found here.