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Help shine the light on McAfee
By Dave Winer on Wednesday, June 29, 2011 at 6:16 PM.

Exec summary: I'm looking for legal help to get McAfee to stop blocking this site. #

Details follow... #

Yesterday I got a tweet from Kiran Patchigolla asking if I knew that McAfee is blocking my site.  #

I responded that I knew, and when I was reminded of it, I had a different feeling about it this time than I did about it the last dozen or so times I've had readers tell me about this. I felt like it's time to do something about it. #

First, here's their report#

Yes, it's a problem -- because this software apparently ships with Windows. I've received the warning myself from their software on one of my own machines running Windows. #

I thoroughly investigated their concerns in November of last year.  #

The files they claim are trojans are actually archives of back-issues of this site. Snapshots taken on the 10th anniverary, in 2007. They're lying when they say they looked inside these files. They couldn't possibly have. All they contain are text files. #

The other file, one that they give a green light to, FrontierPsapiInstaller.zip, is the only one that actually contains executable code. You need it to get certain features to work with Frontier on Windows. #

I suppose their defense is that their claim that "some people" consider these adware, spyware or potentially unwanted programs. I wonder who those people are and what their opinion is based on? (Obviously that's legalese to cover their ass in case anyone wants to sue them for libel or defamation, or whatever.) #

Meanwhile they're lying about my site and keeping people out who want to read it. #

This is unacceptable. #

Any lawyers out there with some advice for this simple blogger? #




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