According to Reuters, the US House of Representatives is introducing new legislation against those who pursue activies that monitor users' activities, hijack homepage settings, and unwanted solicitation.

"It (spyware) can sap computing power, crash machines and bury users under a blizzard of unwanted ads. Scam artists use spyware to capture passwords, account numbers and other sensitive data."

"The House voted 395 to 1 to impose jail sentences of up to 2 years. Violators could face fines up to $3 million per incident. Those who use spyware to commit other crimes, such as identity theft, could have an additional 5 years tacked on to their sentences."

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MZ Commentary:

With the number of threats to Windows based computers growing exponentially every year, we, as users of an alternative platform, should be very happy to have some level of seperation from such activities. However, we should also remain vigilant, as such activities by malicious people never stay restrained to the mainstream forever.

Governments around the world are finally recognizing Spyware, Virii, and other computer wrongdoings as criminal activities. This is a good thing. We can only hope that these same governments will be able to understand the fundamental differences between illicit activities, copyright violations, fair use, and free speech.

As users and developers we owe it to ourselves to keep abreast of such changes in the networked world, and how those changes affect each of us. Most of us do have computers other than our MorphOS or Amiga based systems. Those other computers are at risk, and we should remember that given any success our "alternative" may not remain spyware, adware, and virus free forever.

For now, we can feel happy that most of these harmful activities are passing us by; their authors preferring to haunt the Windows world. Just remember that sooner or later--it won't be them, it'll be us.