As most of you know, we exposed CNET and its software bundling last September. Apparently not enough people read our article to get their attention, but behold! On December 7, CNET’s Vice President and General Manager, Sean Murphy, issued the following open letter to all CNET Community Members – which we assume includes a lot people who download — or who used to download software — from CNET’s Download.com.<\/p>\n
You’ll notice he says: “Some press surfaced yesterday about how we’re bundling advertising offers with an open source software called Nmap.”<\/em> The date on his letter was December 7, 2011<\/u><\/a>. <\/p>\n Our Infoave Premium readers we’re informed about CNET Download.com’s bundling in September 2011. See the article published on September 23, 2011 on our InfoAve Tips & Tricks Web site http:\/\/thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/?p=2864<\/span><\/a> . Apparently, we’re not powerful enough to influence CNET to do the right thing. However, when CNET was exposed two months later by developer who was incensed (and good for him!) at CNET’s bundling of his software. Only then was it that CNET finally acquiesced and aplogized to all the people whose trust they betrayed – included developers who, like us, were shocked to see our software bundled with adware in a package created by Download.com.<\/p>\n First, read the letter sent by Sean Murphy:<\/p>\n “Dear Download.com Community,<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n Some press surfaced yesterday about how we’re bundling advertising offers with an open source software called Nmap. The bundling of this software was a mistake on our part and we apologize to the user and developer communities for the unrest it caused. In addition to immediately taking Nmap out of the download manager, we reviewed all open source files in our catalog to ensure none are being bundled. It is a Download.com policy not to bundle open source software and we will continue to take pains to ensure this does not happen again.<\/em><\/p>\n Following on the heels of the Nmap post, there was much speculation about how Download.com protects user security. The security of our users is extremely important to us and we put all files through a rigorous scanning and compliance process before adding them to the Download.com catalog or to the download manager. Some files have been flagged after our initial screening; however, in each case, the flag was proven a false positive. In addition to our scanning, all third-party offers are clearly identified as such, and there is no requirement for the user to download and install the offer; rather, a user has the option to Accept or Decline. Further on the point of user engagement, we are removing the registration requirement to use the Direct Download Link on our site. This allows you, the user, to download the Installer without using the download manager.<\/em><\/p>\n Thank you for your patience as we address the issues stated above, and please continue to share feedback on the Download.com user experience.<\/em><\/p>\n Sincerely,<\/em><\/p>\n <\/em>Sean He sounds very sincere and very contrite, doesn’t he? But as so often happens in the American business world, image matters but substance does not. He wants community members to think they’re going to stop bundling software and that they are totally committed to removing the adware bundling from its software. But Mr. Murphy sings a different tune to the developers who distribute software on Download.com.<\/p>\n On the same day (December 7, 2011) Mr. Murphy wrote this note to software developers:<\/p>\n “…First, on the press that surfaced yesterday: a developer expressed anger and frustration about our current model and how his file was being bundled. This was a mistake on our part and we apologize to the developer and user communities for the unrest it caused. As a rule, we do not bundle open source software and in addition to taking this developers file out of the installer flow, we have gone in and re-checked all open source files in our catalog. We take feedback from our developer & user communities very seriously and take pains to both act on it and respond in a timely manner. <\/em><\/p>\n <\/em><\/p>\n With that, I want to share progress made thus far: This week we will launch the alpha phase of our new installer. This alpha phase is intended to test the tech and do QA, and will roll through the next few weeks to ensure that our installer is bug free. Between this week and the end of January we will be completing the necessary engineering and administrative work to roll out our beta, which will include a small group of developers who’ve agreed to participate in the beta launch. Our goal is to exit beta by end of February and have the necessary systems in place to enable opt-in, influence over advertising offers (for those offers that impact your product), download funnel reporting and revenue share back to you, the developers. In the weeks\/months following the full release, we will continue to iterate on the model, adding more features to the Installer and bringing greater efficiency to our own download funnel (read: increased install conversion).<\/em><\/p>\n The initial feedback from developers on our new model has been very positive and we are excited to bring this to the broader community as soon as possible. More communication will follow as we move into Q1, and until then, thank you for continuing to work with Download.com…” It appears to us that Mr. Murphy is more sorry for being outed than for betraying the millions of people who trusted Download.com for spyware\/adware free, unbundled software. It appears from Mr. Murphy’s letter to developers, that CNET will still be bundling, but in a different way – a way that give developers more say in how their software is bundled.<\/p>\n So guess who’s being left out. Again? You and me and everyone who once trusted CNET’s Download.com for safe, unbundled download. These days, more and more, it’s all about the money. CNET discovered that they could make a lot of money by bundling software – and now that the revenue stream has been turned on – they are very reluctant to shut it off.<\/p>\n Trying to find a fair way to bundle software is like trying to find a fair way to cheat. It’s not going to happen. The only acceptable resolution is for CNET to offer software for download that is not bundled with anything else. It’s not all about fairness or honesty, it’s all about the money. And CNET is going to find a way to bundle software in the future whether we like it or not.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As most of you know, we exposed CNET and its software bundling last September. Apparently not enough people read our article to get their attention, but behold! On December 7, CNET’s Vice President and General Manager, Sean Murphy, issued the following open letter to all CNET Community Members – which we assume includes a lot people who download\u2026 Read More »<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,10],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3311"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3313,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3311\/revisions\/3313"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thundercloud.net\/infoave\/new\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nSean Murphy
\nVice President & General Manager”<\/em><\/p>\n
\n<\/em>
\n(Read the entire letter to developers here: http:\/\/nl.com.com\/view_online_newsletter.jsp?list_id=e482&send_date=12%2F07%2F2011<\/a><\/strong><\/span> )<\/p>\n