Bleeping Computer Countersues Maker of SpyHunter 43
An anonymous reader writes: Bleeping Computer, a longstanding popular discussion forum that helps people rid their computers of malware, has now countersued Enigma Software Group (ESG), which makes an antivirus software known as SpyHunter. Bleeping now claims that ESG has been violating Bleeping's trademarks by registering new domain names that include "bleepingcomputer" and posting some of the company's webpage's source code on other websites without its authorization, among other allegations. ESG had sued Bleeping for libel earlier this year over a series of messages that it claims disparaged SpyHunter and the company as a whole.From the filing:Enigma's lawsuit is plainly nothing more than an attempt to bully and censor Bleeping Computer, and to deter anyone who might criticize it -- one more attempt in Enigma's long pattern of threats, intimidation and litigation. Worse, however, is that all the while, Enigma has been engaged in aggressive, secretive, and cowardly attacks against Bleeping Computer, including ripping off Bleeping Computer's content and pretending it was authored by Enigma, repeatedly misusing Bleeping's registered trademark to trade upon its goodwill, and publishing blatantly false claims about Bleeping. As the following allegations demonstrate, Enigma conducts its business in a manner that is illegal, unethical and simply immoral, thereby demonstrating that Quietman7's mildly critical statements about Enigma's product, that so enraged Enigma and lead to this lawsuit, pale in comparison to the egregious misconduct Enigma perpetrates on a regular basis.
Where's the smokescreen? (Score:1)
And I thought this lawsuit was going to have to do with smokescreens and driving into the back of trucks while speeding down the highway.
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And I thought this lawsuit was going to have to do with smokescreens and driving into the back of trucks while speeding down the highway.
ah.. the memories... i have the theme from Peter Gunn in my head now!
Who? What? (Score:1, Flamebait)
1. Similar domain names have been a scam vector for so many years, if Bleep Whatever is so popular as to attract the ire of these assholes, maybe they should have been proactive years ago and bought up those domains? It's not a huge cost.
2. To be honest, I've never heard of either of these to groups, though the Scam Wear folks seem to be on a suicide mission. On the other hand, when Bleep Whatever vanquishes them, they will just show up under a different brand.
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I think GP owns a domain name selling company. Otherwise the statement would indeed be retarded, but I'll go ahead and give him the benefit of doubt: he's a shrewd businessman!
Re:Who? What? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Who? What? (Score:5, Informative)
I'm going to presume that you didn't read the actual complaint. This wasn't the competitor buying up bleepingcomputersucks.com or bleepingcomputeralternatives.com, arguably permissible domain names without causing infringement. The two domains that it explicitly mentioned in the complaint were bleepingcomputerregistryfix.com and adware.bleeping.computer.remover.getridofspywareonphone.com. Neither of those domain names would be predictable to proactively register to prevent competitors from using them. Or in the second instance, even could be registered since the 2nd level domain doesn't infringe itself. There would be a nearly infinite number of combinations of domain names and keywords that would need to be registered which definitely would have a huge cost. And both the examples I think do run foul of trademark law as they were designed to deceive legitimate trade.
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". Similar domain names have been a scam vector for so many years"
Antivirus programs themselves are a similar scam vector. When you download one of them, you have to make sure it's not one of those identical-looking clone of MalwareBytes or AdAware that actually spreads malware.
Trademark Confusion (Score:4, Funny)
*sprays oil slick*
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Heh he, yeah, that's what came to my mind as well. What a great game, and the music- classic stuff.
Now I really feel old.
Aaaah? (Score:1)
Bleeping Computer has been a big help to all (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Bleeping Computer has been a big help to all (Score:5, Funny)
Exactly how slim are their balls?
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Exactly how slim are their balls?
According to the mother of Enigma Software Group's CEO, who I had over last night, his balls are slim to the point of nonexistence.
Poor guy, with him having practically no balls it is no wonder he went into scamware publishing.
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Oh, did you mean to have a VERB in there somewhere?
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Do these idiots have names? Who are they?
Let me tell you what I've heard about ESG. People are saying Enigma Software Group is run by ISIS. I didn't say that, but other people are saying it. Some very smart people are looking into connections between Enigma Software Group and the ISIS organization.
How can we "contact" them?
Nothing you can do, folks. Although the 2nd Amendment people, maybe there is. I don't know.
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I have also allegedly heard that the Enigma Software Group is run by ISIS and is used to launder money from their slave sex trade. Personally that sounds unlikely but where there's smoke...
You know who else should sue SpyHunter? (Score:2)
Bally Midway [wikipedia.org]
Small child (Score:2)
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They are run by Congress?
Incompetent lawyers (Score:2)
They also stole the name of my favorite arcade (Score:2)
Windows 10 ComboFix (Score:2)
I just want a Windows 10 version of ComboFix.
Yeah, I realize there are "other tools" but ComboFix was simple, and NEVER burned any PCs I applied it to. It did a very good job of scrubbing those machines clean of the worst, scum-of-the-earth malware imaginable.
I donates to sUBs back in the day, and I'd contribute more if they'd release a version that worked on the Win 10 and Win 8.1