Why e-mail pests are becoming more polite
By Robert Vamosi
November 20, 2002

A new digital pest acts much like the address book worms of old, but with a twist: It asks your permission before hijacking your Outlook Contacts. Robert predicts this is a tactic we'll see more of in the future.

Ah, the wonders of legalesse. By plainly stating on the fine print of a download's end user agreement that you give its creator permission to plunder your Outlook contact list, a spammer can get a new batch of e-mail adresses to stuff. And since it's all wrapped up in a contractual language that you agree to (even if you probably didn't read that part of the agreement), it's all perfectly legal.

The people behind all this are an outfit called Permissioned Media, Inc. This is how the deal goes: You receive in your inbox an electronic greeting card from someone you know. You open the card, but you're asked for permission to download a software plug-in in order to display your card. If you start the download, your computer will display a digital certificate from Permissioned Media, stating that "Permissioned Media Inc. asserts that this content is safe. You should only install/view this content if you trust Permissioned Media Inc. to make that assertion." It even includes an option to "Always trust content from Permissioned Media Inc." You only have to accept this certificate to complete the operation.

That's when they get you.

If you select Yes on the certificate, the program is downloaded to your hard drive. Then the familiar InstallShield Wizard pops up and automatically displays two standard-looking EULAs. Most of us don't read these lengthy statements, and instead simply click the I Accept button to complete the installation. However, in this case, the second agreement clearly states that FriendGreetings will have access to your Outlook client in order to send similar electronic greeting messages to everyone on your contact list.

Wait a minute! Wasn't this e-mail sent by someone I know? Of course it was: by someone who accepted the offending download and whose contact list was purloined. This is a sneak tactic that can defeat even the best-laid anti-spam strategies.

Bottom line: be wary of anything containing a fine print. Even if it's just a 8pt Sans Serif font on your screen.

"Our readers are interested in reading a sophisticated exegesis of a sociological phenomenon like that." -- New York Times Executive Editor Howell Raines describing his paper's recent coverage of pop singer Britney Spears' "makeover" efforts.

I found the above quote on today's "Kausfiles" entry (Britney's Exegesis) at Slate. Exegesis... Brand-spanking-new word of the day!

Mr. Raines' comment was made during a forum at the University of California, Berkeley, where he was discussing the Times' editorial process. Most of the talk was about their Middle East coverage, and the Britney issue was touched upon when mentioning the paper's plans to "expand international coverage and deepen reporting on popular culture."

Popular culture... is "the pulse of the country," and influences everything from the business world to governments overseas, Raines said, praising a recent front page story about pop idol Britney Spears.

"It was about the fame machine, the economic engine that's behind it," Raines said...

Said "recent front page story" (Britney Spears Aims for a Second Act, as an Adult, by Laura M. Holson and Alex Kuczynski, October 6, 2002) is a deep report on Britney's current image crisis: "The qualities that made Britney Spears accessible and popular as a teenage star may be precisely the ones choking her career as an adult."

In other words, little Miss Spears needs to grow up, lest the "anti-Britneys," "a raft of grittier teenage singer-songwriters who play guitar and wear dime-store T-shirts and ties instead of snug bustiers... [which] include the tough rocker Pink, the soulful Michelle Branch and the skater girl Avril Lavigne, young women who eschew the overt yet out-of-reach sexuality Ms. Spears has cultivated," eat her lunch.

So Britney has begun her makeover with a 2-month break from work to stock on fancy Versace threads, shop around Hollywood for a new starring vehicle and blueprint her next studio recording. But in the end, reinventing herself as an adult may come down to one thing: sex.

There are no set plans for the next album, but [Britney manager Larry] Rudolph said Ms. Spears might take a more overtly sexual approach, echoing songs on her recent album, like "I'm a Slave 4 U" and "Boys."

Unless she decides to tone down her viagric image:

[1980's pop princess Deborah] Gibson said she knows Ms. Spears and believes her challenge is to decide how sexual she wants to appear on stage.

"She's got this Jekyll and Hyde thing going on," Ms. Gibson said. "She plays with her image. And audiences can take that to mean that that is your real character 24 hours a day. The public sometimes doesn't get that the image is just not you. It's a marketing tool."

To me, it would make sense for her to sex her act up. Another notch. Britney's audience of little girls has outgrown her, so maybe it's high time she embraced her creepier fan base, the ones who have that "Lolita thing" for her. As Homer (Simpson) would have it, "Woo-hoo!"

Going deeper into its search to sell their Premium content, Salon has partnered with California-based marketer Ultramercial and put a new twist on Pay-Per-View: non-subscribers can gain a day's worth of Premium access if they browse through a whole 4-screen ad for the Mercedes-Benz E-Class sedan. Of course, the readers could also subscribe to the economy version of Premium (which opens the gates to all the content, with banner-ad dressing) or pay for the complete experience ("Extreme ad free Salon!") instead of enduring four pages of car sales pitch, but this might be an option for those cheapskates who'd really, really like to read the articles but still dream of a free Web.

Of course, some analysts have read this as the latest last-ditch effort to make a buck from David Talbot Enterprises:

Fighting for survival, online magazine publisher Salon Media Group Inc. has introduced an unusual advertising program that waives subscriptions for readers willing to wade through an interactive commercial.

But that's just the opening paragraph! Take a look at the closing five:

Salon's new program is the latest marketing twist developed by cash-strapped Internet companies hoping to drum up more business in the depressed advertising market.

Having lost $79.7 million since its 1995 inception, Salon is particularly desperate.

The company could run out of money at the end of November, according to documents filed last week with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Salon received a reprieve last month when one of its directors, Adobe Systems Inc. co-founder John Warnock, loaned Salon $200,000.

As a last resort, Salon is prepared to raise money by selling the rights to collect bills owed by its customers, according to SEC documents.

Salon would discount the face value of its account receivables 20 percent to 40 percent under an agreement with an unnamed bank, the SEC documents said.

"Fighting for survival," check. "Cash-strapped," check. "Desperate," check. Bingo, sir. Salon's status as last man standing after 7 years of New Economy boom-and-bust has made it an attractive piñata to pummel.