p2pnet.net News:- The eXeem saga has become, well, a saga ; )

eXeem, you’ll recall, was developed to fill the gap left when the Not-So-Magnificent-Seven major movie studios sicced their MPAA (Motion Picture Associationof America) onto certain BitTorrent sites, among which was the popular Sprnova.

It folded to be replaced by eXeem, which hit the road running.

Unfortunately, though, its baggage included an adware/spyware programe known as Cydoor.

p2pnet was caught in a punch-up between two groups which released Lite versions of eXeem. And now to close the circle, Slyck’s Tom Mennecke says eXeem has dumped Cydoor altogether.

Read on >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

eXeem Drops Cydoor
By Tom Mennecke - Slyck

When SuprNova closed its doors on December 19, 2004, many believed this event spelled the end of BitTorrent. Quickly capitalizing on this panic, news began to spread regarding the advent of a new decentralized BitTorrent effort named “eXeem.” Curiosity and anticipation over this purportedly revised BitTorrent protocol began sweeping P2P forums.

However, the initial buzz that surrounded eXeem would ultimately give away to disappointment. News quickly began to circulate that Cydoor would accompany this client. Cydoor is a thrid party advertising program designed send targeted advertising to the end user. From Cydoor’s privacy policy:

“Please be aware that Cydoor advertisers or Web sites that have links in software on our network may utilize demographic information about you. This privacy statement does not cover the information practices of those Web sites linked from software on the Cydoor Network. From time to time, Cydoor works with third-party ad servers such as Valueclick, Commission Junction, Adventures, Advertising.com, RealMedia and BeFree and others to serve advertising to the Cydoor Network. Please visit these providers individually to learn more about how they handle privacy.”

In a nutshell, let’s say an individual frequents sports related websites. Cydoor collects this information, and targets sports related advertising to the individual.

While Cydoor is not as evil as it once was, its less than desirable reputation precedes it. Let’s put it this way, if Cydoor were to change its focus and become a non-profit charity, no one would accept their money.

The decision to add Cydoor to eXeem has indisputable harmed the release and reputation of this client. Few people were willing to accept the fact that it was necessary to add this third party software, let alone actually use the program. Even before the public release of eXeem, spyware-free “eXeem Lite” was circulating around the Internet.

However, after a week of ridicule and torment, it appears Swarm Systems and Sloncek are trying to repair the situation. Today on the eXeem.com homepage, it has been announced that third party software will no longer accompany eXeem:

“eXeem Public Beta version 0.21 has been released. Most of the bug fixes were done to the network system (nodes). We have also fixed the search crash bug. We added a stop function to new files and we are testing out html type of ads in the program. In this release you will not get any mandatory third party software installed with eXeem.”

While some may say “too little too late”, it does appear Swarm Systems and Sloncek are trying to make things right. As an interesting side note, eXeem is the first P2P client pressured by the file-sharing community to rid itself of mandatory third party software.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 8th, 2005 at 7:50 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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