Symantec sued for labeling product 'adware'

A small San Diego software company is suing Symantec, claiming that the computer security giant is driving away business by unfairly lumping it in with spyware distributors.

TrekEight (which variably refers to itself also as "Trek8," "TrekData" and "TrekBlue") makes a product called Spyware Nuker, which it advertises as a tool for identifying and removing spyware on computer hard drives. But Symantec's Web site and Norton AntiVirus software has for months been identifying TrekEight's software as a potentially damaging piece of "adware."

The San Diego software company says that's not true. As a result of Symantec's actions, it says, it has lost distributors, and its own distributors have lost the ability to advertise on Google.

"Because of Symantec's false statements...TrekEight has suffered significant losses in sales and damage to its reputation," the company said in its complaint. "The computer programming code which comprises 'Spyware Nuker' is incapable of performing the functions typically associated with spyware and adware."

It's a tricky problem, and one that's likely to get even worse, as public awareness rises and laws targeting spyware are passed by state legislatures and possibly even Congress.

Consumers are increasingly eager to rid their computers of anything that might be "spyware," "adware" or "malware"--but these are slang terms that have no widely accepted, hard-and-fast definitions.

TrekEight separately sells e-mail marketing and other Web advertising services. CNET News.com has received e-mail advertisements for Spyware Nuker software, but not directly from TrekEight.

However, Symantec's site says the software itself is adware. Other analyses by online spyware hunters say they haven't seen the software install any advertising or spy components.

A Symantec spokesman said the company had not seen a copy of TrekEight's lawsuit and could not comment.

[Orion Blastar]

Spyware Nuker, I went to visit the web site

and my proxy filtered it as adware/spyware. So someone else thinks it is adware/spyware as well.

So many adware/spyware removers are bogus out there, that it is hard to tell who is legit and who is not legit. There was an Adaware program that is legit and removes spyware/adware, and then there is a program spelled almost the same way that claims to remove adware/spyware, yet installs their own adware/spyware. It is not related to Adaware, yet people confuse it. This might be the case with Spyware Nuker as well?

[anthonycea]

We are all Spyware & Adware users!

Why are folks surprised by ADWARE and SPYWARE, if you have ever done a scan with Adaware or SpyBot 1.3 you can see that most of the companies we do business with or come into contact with daily are engaged in the ADWARE & SPYWARE Business.

All of this is so funny, do you have a toolbar?

All toolbars are Spyware, it does not matter which one it is.

Senator Conrad Burns (MT) has introduced a ADWARE/SPYWARE bill, see it linked from the "spyware pages" at http://www.searchwars.squarespace.com