RE: for your information

[Joshua Hirsh <someguy@tao.ca>]

[: hacktivism :]

> the patch is available directly from realplayers website and all versions of
> real player released starting next week will have the patch
> sealed...supposedly....i highly doubt that it was unknowing (although
> supposedly it was just so they ould display track info etc from the CDDR
> database) but IMHO there's a lot more important issues to be worrying about,
> organizing around, committing energy to than the fact that somebody knows
> that I listened to Leonard Cohen twice last night.....
> 
> Slàn,
> Eric

Actually, it seems to be a growing trend to do so in software these days.
For example, ICQ has an auto-update feature, which also returns user
specific information to the icq servers, such as what software you have
installed, serial numbers, and all that fun stuff.

For your perusal, this url has some information about it.

http://www.zipworld.com.au/~benny9/icqwarning.htm

WinAMP also has an auto update feature, I was told at one time that they
are also owned by AOL, but I haven't confirmed this.

The link to a wired article contained in the url concerning this
behaviour is no longer functional though.

-joshua


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