[ADd]

http://www.vitalsecurity.org/2006/10...to-adware.html

If you'd created a program that installed Adware, would you be surprised if you were then awarded an MVP Award from Microsoft?

Well, step right up Patchou AKA Cyril Paciullo, creator of Messenger Plus! I first heard about this while stopping over at his website, and was surprised to find him lurking in the Windows Live Developer section on the MVP site.

For anyone who doesn't know about the controversy surrounding this program, its an add-on for Windows Messenger / Live / whatever they're calling it this week. Problem is, it comes bundled with LOP, a major source of annoyance and anger for web-users since, oh, ages ago. Yeah, it now gives you an option as to whether you want to install it or not - but that's hardly the point, is it? There's a long history here of potentially deceptive installs and the standard, yawntacular MsgPlus apologist line of "It doesn't do it anymore, so you have to let him off the hook, lol" is the kind of (amazingly poor) thinking that companies such as Direct Revenue are using to avoid legal smackdowns.

More info about what an MVP is here:
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com/default.aspx

Messenger Plus is bundled with an infection called LOP, which has plagued countless Windows users. I am disgusted with Microsofts money grabbing ethics!

Edit>> More info
http://robertmoir.com/blogs/someone_...ear_2E00_.aspx

http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks...30/103407.aspx
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks...25/102793.aspx
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks.../07/89692.aspx
http://msmvps.com/blogs/spywaresucks.../05/78084.aspx