StopBadware.org Tags RealPlayer With "Badware" Label

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February 1, 2008

StopBadware.org Tags RealPlayer With "Badware" Label

StopBadware.org finally said what everyone's been thinking about RealPlayer since, well, forever:

"We find that RealPlayer 10.5 is badware because it fails to accurately and completely disclose the fact that it installs advertising software on the user's computer. We additionally find that RealPlayer 11 is badware because it does not disclose the fact that it installs Rhapsody Player Engine software, and fails to remove this software when RealPlayer is uninstalled."

PCWorld has RealNetwork's reaction:

"'Ryan Luckin, spokesperson for RealNetworks, insists that both versions of RealPlayer are not badware, but acknowledges mistakes and user misconceptions exist in both products. He says changes will be made to both version of RealPlayer in response to the StopBadware.org classification. 'Neither versions of RealPlayer put users at risk. They aren't malware or install third-party programs on your PC,' Luckin says."

...

"Luckin says RealNetworks now agrees with StopBadware.org that all aspects of the program should be removed [during deinstallation]. 'That was a mistake, and we are going to correct it,' Luckin says. He was unable to say when and how RealNetworks would change the un-install behavior of RealPlayer 11."

I think this is the first story about StopBadware that's caused me to pause for a moment and appreciate what I thought was a somewhat condescending and naive naming decision when the group first launched.

By adopting "badware" into its name, it gave itself room to operate with outfits like RealNetworks, who would enjoy a considerable advantage fighting a label like "malware" or "spyware" by virtue of their own aggressive marketing. StopBadware doesn't call these companies "evil," so they can't snort and point to their ubiquitous and respectable brand in the court of public opinion. Note that Luckin's own defense is less a refutation of the label "badware" as it is an insistence that RealPlayer isn't installing full-blown malware.

(Link)