Anti Virus Community Creates False Positives For Fun and Profit

Update: Another example: http://www.sevenforums.com/music-pictures-video/39095-animated-gifs-windows-photo-viewer-5.html

I’ve always believed in fair use. And as such I often acquire the “warez” community versions of software I legally own because they often have abilities (such as portability) the “legitimate” versions lack. Considering I own the licenses to the relevant software I consider this to be squarely in the fair use category.

In doing this I often have encountered worms and other malware in keygens. But after a while you get a feel for what is obviously fake, used to spread bad code, and what seems like false positives.

Well, I found a case in point. An instance of strong evidence that the commercial AV community is abusing our trust in order to police a Corporate agenda.

If one runs “Office 2010 Toolkit and EZ-Activator”

Instantly MSEA balks. Crying “severe threat” and I couldn’t help but add in my mind “… to our pocket book.” Which of course is itself a fallacy. Piracy no more harms the software industry’s earnings than libraries and xerox machines destroy book sales. People who pirate do so because they are poor. Poor people aren’t buying software either way. People with money buy the software because it’s easier.

So anyway, I dug into the problem of false positives a little bit. I figured if it’s a “severe threat” then I can find a record of just exactly what it’s doing to my system and in this case I could prove or disprove my hypothesis.

And check out what I found. First of all, here is MSE’s report. (Microsoft Security Essentials)

Category: Trojan

Description: This program is dangerous and executes commands from an attacker.

Recommended action: Remove this software immediately.

Security Essentials detected programs that may compromise your privacy or damage your computer. You can still access the files that these programs use without removing them (not recommended). To access these files, select the Allow action and click Apply actions. If this option is not available, log on as administrator or ask the security administrator for help.

Items:
file:C:\Windows\AutoKMS.exe

Get more information about this item online.

Yet when I scanned the item with Clamwin (Open source AV.) I get the following…

Scan Started Mon Apr 04 13:27:38 2011
——————————————————————————-

———– SCAN SUMMARY ———–
Known viruses: 938128
Engine version: 0.97
Scanned directories: 0
Scanned files: 1
Infected files: 0

Data scanned: 1.36 MB
Data read: 0.62 MB (ratio 2.20:1)
Time: 3.827 sec (0 m 3 s)

————————————–
Completed
————————————–

So, either commercial AV software lies, or Clamwin sucks.

Here is the forum where in the authors of the toolkit comment about this very issue.

http://forums.mydigitallife.info/threads/18746-Office-2010-Toolkit-and-EZ-Activator./page97

Here are a pair of relevant comments from the linked thread, but I suggest reading the whole thing.

Hey Sherlock Holmes, CODYQX4 and I wrote the code of AutoKMS.exe and it’s NOT a virus, it’s not even close of being a trojan. The Keygen.exe (which is a different file) opens a port because it’s a KMS Server emulator, yes, Office needs to conect to a port of the KMS Server to activate.

Hope it’s clear

Later on…

Here’s what the Keygen.exe does.

(Log window showing the file’s activity.)

As you can see, the “Create File” operation is made only with read attributes, which means that the Keygen.exe is reading/using the file. There are also the TCP operations made in the activation attempt using the toolkit “Activate” function.

Here’s an xlsx file if you want to view it in excel as a table:
Keygen.exe Activity Report

I used process monitor, added the filters:
– “Process name” –> “Keygen.exe”
– “Operation” –> “CreateFile”, “TCP-” (all of the TCP operations available to filter)

This is important because while the toolkit may be illegal (I believe it isn’t but that’s a fair use debate) it is NOT malware by definition.

It is Not the AV communities job to police the Internet for piracy. What’s next? False positives on downloaded mp3s?

Also consider that while a false positive might be in a sense harmless, a false negative would be far more dangerous.

Sony’s infamous root kit taught us that The Company is more than happy to invade our systems and privacy to protect its profit margin. If the AV community has betrayed us on the issue of false posatives, who’s to say they aren’t doing so for false negatives?

I think it’s clear that this seriously wounds trust for commercial antivirus software. When I run AV, I’m not scanning for contraband, I’m scanning for infection.

It would seem that even the commercial av ware, at least in the case of MSE, knows that false posatives are common. It was trivially easy for me to “allow” this “threat” to persist on my system. Which begs the question, if they are so good, and these really are threats, then why isn’t allowing a threat more complicated?

And why is their language so ambivalent and cautious? (…programs that may compromise…) Smells like CYA to me.

If anyone has any more proof one way or the other, I would like to see it. If this activator is really dangerous then it undermines my point, not that it applies to me one way or another. But on the other hand, if there is some third party proof that the toolkit is not dangerous, then a wider investigation is warranted.

Tear down of the first hour of “In Lies We Trust.”

This video was sent to me twice, once by my dad and once by an online friend.

I figured it was time for a review/response.

I’m going to forgo the expected attack on the man personally. I don’t care if he’s a child raping schizophrenic alien for the purposes of this essay. His claims and approach will be examined at face value.

Ironically his first claim is about himself. So I guess his background is unavoidably involved.

Wiki tells me he’s a former dentist, and an AIDS conspiracy theorist. He believes AIDS was invented by the government. It doesn’t mention the PHDs he claims. But whatever. I don’t care if he’s got a Nobel, that wouldn’t make him right or wrong.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Leonard_Horowitz

And yes I use wiki as my primary source here, if you’re going to take this dude’s word for it, you should trust wiki just as much.

Could we dispense with the music? Please? The presence of music indicates an attempt to manipulate my emotions. Not a good start.

We get the question, if we’re advancing technologically why is quality of life not being improved?

It may merely be the result of the population expanding faster than the technology. It may also be that like a frog in a slow boil, we’ve just grown accustomed to what we have.

Once he starts talking about the video “History of bioterrorism” we start to see some of the problems I have with this video. He just name drops the CIA. “This program.. Was co-produced with the department of homeland security, with the CIA’s involvement.”

Oh yeah? What kind of involvement? Check this out. I wrote this essay “with the CIA’s involvement.” How? I went to the CIA’s webpage and looked up the first word. Depending on how you define “first” it’s probably “DOCTYPE” or “Mission”, or maybe, “About.” Does this mean I’m working for the CIA now? Are they “involved” in my website? No.

He’s clearly trying to imply some ominous connection, but he fails to show it. This is a common theme in this video. Lots of implication, no documentation. Indeed precious little explanation.

However, his use of the film as a representation of the government’s position, is a valid one. The CDC for example has a page sharing this video as fact. http://www.bt.cdc.gov/training/historyofbt/

Moving on…

He then spends a lot of time talking about how important and controversial this video is. I don’t like being explicitly told how I’m supposed to feel. Especially in the context of a film that’s supposed to provide me with the data I need to make informed decisions.

Then we get a cartoon from the 50s of a turtle talking about duck and cover. He then vaguely explains some link between “duck and cover” and industry. Again, just what link? What’s your point man?

The whole concept of duck and cover is not and was never meant to imply that hiding under a desk will make you nuke proof. It’s simply about preventing panic, and making yourself a smaller target for debris. Hitting the deck IS a good idea around an explosion. It’s just that with nukes we actually have the potential for a time lag between the light of the blast and the shock wave.

Duck and cover is not famous because it’s a bad idea, its famous because it shows how paranoid we were about nuclear war.

He then explicitly links the government’s current position with duck and cover. Oh I wish. Duck and cover at least is harmless.

And now the hate begins. We get name calling and hyperbole. Not very documentary there Leo. Yes yes tell us more about how awful they are and how they are lying.

Oh boy! A full screen definition of genocide with elevator music! Gee thanks Leo I had no idea what genocide meant… But wait a minute, that’s not the definition of genocide. Genocide does not relate to slavery or profit. It relates to killing. And the fact that his definition is in quotes and yet fails to state what he’s quoting is pretty well the theme of this video.

The video then asks could this be happening in America? Well sure, someone could be killing all the protestants in Nebraska right now, how do I know? The question is invalid and sneaky. I agree we are enslaved, but again, that’s not genocide. And to misuse the word is intellectually dishonest and in unbelievably poor taste considering that genocide actually happens.

The man also doesn’t know what propaganda means, considering that’s exactly what this video is by definition.

He then talks about “real villains” and his definition is jam packed with negative subjective terms. He’s in effect defining terms with synonyms almost exclusively.

You know I’m just going to stop commenting on all the horrific video editing work. This video is awful, I’ll leave it at that.

I really wish he’d stop asking loaded questions. Could this could that. Well yes if the event in question is permitted by the laws of physics then yes, they could. But is that the case? Implication is not enough Leo. Make a positive statement.

Finally! Something I can look up. “The Report from Iron Mountain.” Shitty for Leo, this book is apparently just a satire. Does it contain truth? Probably. Most good satire does. But presenting it as unchallenged fact is yet more intellectual dishonesty. If you want to read something that will break your mind regardless of it being real or not merely because it very well could be, check out Silent Weapons for Quiet Wars. (Best version here: http://www.lawfulpath.com/ref/sw4qw/)

He talks about “the participants of iron mountain” and then behind him is a graphic with Rockefeller and Kissinger. That’s yet more intellectual slight of hand. Taken as fact the book doesn’t even say who was at the meeting.

Granted the concept of threat fabrication for power purposes is a valid one, but man if you’re going to use tactics like this to sell it, get off my side. Its like Alex Jones and his satanic psychosis, or Jim Marrs and his aliens. He’s quoting something that may very well be a satire as fact. Why not instead raid it for ideas and restate/attack them on their own merit? Why the argument from authority?

If there’s any conspiracy to be revealed here, its that the other team hires fruit-loops to make rational dissenters look bad. A sort of rhetorical agent provocateur.

He’s seriously going to sit there and say NASA and public welfare programs are a substitute for war spending? Oh my god, don’t we all wish.

Here’s a bit about the reality of the situation from http://dailycensored.com/2010/03/30/there-is-a-thing-about-opinions/

about defense spending– True, Social Security and Medicare are about the same size as the amount we are told is spent upon defense. The difference is that Medicare and Social Security are governmental TRUST funds. They are NOT paid for through income tax. They are supported by direct contributions from those who benefit from them. [Except that is for illegal aliens using someone else’s social security number. They pay but do not collect]. Hence, Social Security and Medicare do not belong in the Federal Budget Allocations, whereas Defense spending is an appropriation and is 60+% of our budget.

If our spending was in line with the rest of the world we could easily balance our budget. Just about every country in Europe, for example, spends less that 2% of its GDP on defense. Most are around 1% and the whole European Union together only spends 1.69%. We spend 4.65%. It is this imbalance that makes it easy for the top 1-2% to keep us busy fighting each other, rather than focusing on them, the real cause of the problem.

I guess we can add economics to the list of things this guy is misrepresenting.

That The Company invents bogeymen for power and profit is no shock to anyone. That illness and terrorists generally are such bogeymen, is also not shocking. Is that all you’ve got Leo?

Where are my facts? So far we don’t have one verifiable specific claim. We don’t even have an original statement of trends. Let’s hope you’re going somewhere with all this rhetoric.

Wow, let’s just show a bunch of injuries and genetic and toxic developmental damage with no indication of how they fit into the narrative.

Oh god the eugenics drum gets a beat too. I guess we can add Luddite to the man’s list of accolades. Genetic research is NOT synonymous with eugenics.

Oh man he’s actually including footage of Jim Marrs. Who is a competent historical annalist, but who also thinks lizard aliens are running the show. πŸ™ I’m quick to add Rule by Secrecy is an awesome book JAM PACKED with verifiable facts.

Use him but don’t include him man. Use his research, verify it for yourself, and include THAT, don’t make an argument from authority and use a ufo guy as the authority.

Still, the assertion that the de facto governmental form today is akin to socialism with corporations being the real citizens instead of individuals, is tremendously useful and fairly unique. Then linking that to the obvious patriotic element of control and you get Nationalist pride driven corporate Socialism. Like I said, I like Jim and his work, he’s just not the guy you want on your poster, if you know what I mean. (Neither am I I’m quick to add.)

What’s that Jim about the word Nazi? From the wiki… https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Nazi

Nazism (Nationalsozialismus, National Socialism; alternatively spelled Naziism[1])

See Leo? Say something we can check on.

I suspect that this tidbit of information is the best thing about this documentary.

Jim also goes on to talk about “Corporatism” and fascism, and again, his statements are verifiable. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Corporatism#cite_note-doctrine-40

As Jim’s face fades from view I realize I’m going to miss his rationality as I watch the rest of this farce.

Hmm ok NSSM 200. Checking…

Well there is this NSSM 220, a 2 page request for a study.

http://www.fordlibrarymuseum.gov/library/document/nsdmnssm/nssm220a.htm

NSSM 200 Apparently being the study that was called for…

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/National_Security_Study_Memorandum_200

Yup it exists. But no it does not “call for massive third world depopulation.” what is says is that exploding populations are a threat. Which is VERY different. I grow SO weary of this intellectual slight of hand.

And then we have this crazy blunt non sequitur about the US having biological and nuclear weapons “deployed around the planet.”

I have no doubt that we have biological weapons in secret. But the image behind him of a man sorting bombs, does not contain nuclear or biological weapons. It would be absurd not to have bioweapons however, at least for counter study purposes. Besides the CDC is packed with what could be called bioweapons. You could easily have a purely paper based administrative bioweapons program using immunological data applied to military strategy.

But that’s a far cry from smallpox in every armory, ready to wipe out the third world’s poor, which is the clear implication. Besides this study was don in the 70s, they’re moving a little slow.

And here we have some quotes. Lifted completely out of context. (I’ll bracket what he put on screen.)

19. The political consequences of current population factors in the LDCs – rapid growth, internal migration, high percentages of young people, slow improvement in living standards, urban concentrations, and pressures for foreign migration ── are damaging to the internal stability and international relations of countries in whose advancement the U.S. is interested, thus creating political or even national security problems for the U.S. In a broader sense, there is a major risk of severe damage to world economic, political, and ecological systems and, as these systems begin to fail, to our humanitarian values.

20. The pace of internal migration from countryside to over swollen cities is greatly intensified by rapid population growth. Enormous burdens are placed on LDC governments for public administration, sanitation, education, police, and other services, and {{urban slum dwellers (though apparently not recent migrants) may serve as a volatile, violent force which threatens political stability.}}

He actually changed the beginning of the quote on this one to hide the fact that it’s ripped from context.

22. {{In international relations, population factors are crucial in, and often determinants of, violent conflicts in developing areas.}} Conflicts that are regarded in primarily political terms often have demographic roots. Recognition of these relationships appears crucial to any understanding or prevention of such hostilities.

26. {{There is no single approach which will “solve” the population problem. The complex social and economic factors involved call for a comprehensive strategy}} with both bilateral and multilateral elements. {{At the same time actions and programs must be tailored to specific countries and groups.}} Above all, LDCs themselves must play the most important role to achieve success.

At this point we are flooded with he said she said… First about Walter Isaacson speaking about Kissinger and some shadowy decree to spare all Nazi. When that’s not what paperclip was about at all.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Operation_Paperclip

And yes many industrialists had close ties to the Nazis because hello we weren’t always at war with them. Just because someone sold a gasket to the Nazis by mail doesn’t mean they secretly want to kill Jews.

I hate the rich as much as anyone, read my work, but hate them for valid reasons. There are plenty I assure you without making them up.

Allen Dulles, Paul Manning, Martin Bormann, Herman Schmidtz, Eric Troube, Ann Burger, … Lets drop a few more names and hope no one asks us to explain why they are significant or god forbid how they relate to my core assertion. And to complicate any effort to do so lets for once desist from our obnoxious constant on screen text so no one can get the spelling right, I know I couldn’t, and there is no official transcript of this video anywhere. Where is all that documentation?

Kissinger is a horrific man, no doubt. But still, how does that relate to the core point? NSSM 220 is still not about exterminating people.

“directed secretly, though covert intelligence” If it’s a secret how do you know? Because Operation Paperclip and NSM 200 are declassified? Do you know why? Because they are harmless.

Oh what is this? A clip from outbreak? What in the world does that have to do with anything? Why not one from The Stand as well? Or Home Alone while we’re grabbing random movies.

24:49 And now magically we’re back to The History of Bioterrorism.

“Just two decades after the report from iron mountain was released and it’s policies enacted.”

Heh, “Just?” Really? 20 years is nothing huh πŸ˜› And again it was fiction, no one enacted it as policy for the same reason no one enacted alice in wonderland as policy. πŸ˜›

Now that’s not to say elements of it aren’t mirrored IN policy, but again that’s true of any good political satire.

Another non sequitur into the military concept of Revolution in Military Affairs which is basically just a fancy way of saying “update how to wage war in the face of new technology.”

“In this publication from the 1960s.”

Heh, what publication? From where? Who wrote it? Why does it matter?

Now we get into the really sneaky shit.

Let’s fill the screen with text and keep running my mouth, like an old friend told me, if you can’t dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bullshit.

And, we shall see, the manner in which we use our resources undoubtedly has a great influence on the thinking of millions of people throughout the world. The thoughts and attitudes of these millions are of paramount significance since the mind is one of the most important battlegrounds of the Cold War.

What is he talking about? What’s content? This mystery 1960’s document, or the RMA?

And he’s wrong about the war college also.

From the wiki… https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Revolution_in_Military_Affairs

The original theorizing was done by the Soviet Armed Forces in the 1970s and 1980s, particularly by Marshal Nikolai Ogarkov.[1] The U.S. initially became interested in it through Andrew Marshall, the head of the Office of Net Assessment, a Department of Defense think tank. It slowly gained credence within official military circles, and other nations began exploring similar shifts in organization and technology.

Cancer viruses? Hmmm. https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Oncovirus

Again a video non sequitur, of one guy hating his meds. Which no doubt cost way to much and do more harm than good. I stipulate that, but where is the point?

More gene/sci/tech fear. Every time I get sick it’s the government that did it with their fancy plastic suits. Godless bastards. *facepalm*

Quote, unconditioned individuals…

Quote from what? He’s ALWAYS doing that.

And I hate how he can’t even pronounce anything. He actually says “plausible denial-ability” around 28:30 It’s “deniability.” Only one L sound. And the concept applies to everyone. Encryption systems like TrueCrypt employ plausible deniability features.

…experts say…

Wiki has a term for phrases like that. “Weasel words.”

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Weasel_word

The dude actually goes on to make fun of the lady’s name. Yeah that just SCREAMS professionalism. Now I make fun, I’m a huge smart ass, but I wouldn’t do it in my freaking “documentary.” I mean, do I give Leo shit for his TelePrompter and his complexion reminiscent of the new Jersey fake bake epidemic? No, because they aren’t relevant.

The guy once again shows clips from a movie (The Manchurian Candidate remake, good movie though) to refute the CDC doctors… Really? Leo? Really?

However, he does have a point about the hazing process of medical professionals, and how it’s entirely possible to convince even experts of a lie. It’s sort of like a post purchase rationalization.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Post-purchase_rationalization

Oh boy after a bunch of rambling crap we have a new name and a new insult! The “prostitute” Abraham Flexner. This title is ironic considering the damage he did to prostitutes generally, as explained in the article mentioned, which is from 1940 I might add and is clearly and editorial piece as much as anything.

He’s the reason we have John’s Hopkins medical center. I strongly encourage anyone to read the article (http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,802061,00.html) and the Wiki about the guy himself. And maybe put “Johns Hopkins” in Google sometime.

I quote from the wiki… https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Abraham_Flexner

After graduating from Johns Hopkins, Flexner returned to Louisville and founded a private school in which to test his ideas about education. He believed that education should be marked by small classes, personal attention, and hands-on teaching. Graduates of his school were soon accepted at leading colleges, and Flexner’s school attracted considerable attention.

He then goes down a laundry list of alternative medicines attacked by the new medical schools. Including “most forms of energy medicine” hehe he means crystals and such in short, quackery and snake oil. I hate the medical establishment as much as the next guy, but this was the 20s. People didn’t know any better. If a guy in a lab coat told them to drink arsenic in the morning to cure stiff knees, people would do it.

(Check out the movie “The Road To Wellville”.) for some idea of the vulnerability I’m trying to get across. It’s not like today where quacks could be crushed by consensus. they were REALLY dangerous back then.

Applying our standards to the 1940s is just insanity.

They were building a monopoly because we needed a centralized approach to medical education because again this is before the Internet. This is like putting up the only lemonade stand in the neighborhood and then immediately being accused of monopoly building. Quarts crystals and acupuncture are not competition for medicine.

The medical industry has huge problems and it drags its feet for profit and stomps on alternatives all the time, granted, but by and large, the old stab still applies most of the time. What stab you ask? “You know what they call alternative medicine that works? Medicine.”

Healthcare became a single entity because the government had to regulate it because people were selling cocaine and mercury as a tooth aid, and the like. In this country you can’t be a doctor without government approval. This isn’t a conspiracy, it’s a license. It’s like saying the government has a monopoly on drivers.

There are issues no question but this presentation of them is flawed and EXTREMELY disingenuous.

This fucker just steeped over the line for me. He has the balls to show a picture of Auschwitz, and then tosses off UNIT 731 as “human rights violations.” Like she was exaggerating. Jesus man if anything she was RADICALLY understating the matter.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Unit_731

This moron actually says that America, in specific reference to Unit 731 with a picture of Shiro Ishii in the background, says we have done “the same or even worse.”

Are You Out Of Your Fucking Mind? Dude, No.

We’ve done horrific shit, no question, but Unit 731 is a God among atrocities. And you clearly have never picked up a book about it. Let me put it this way, most libraries keep the reference material under lock and key to avoid traumatizing people. The Internet has no such scruples. Happy digging, but before you start let just say, some things you can’t unsee.

Are these anglo-American corporations any less criminal than the Japanese military organization Dr. Cono Recalls?

That would be a resounding yes you moron in both substance and legality. 1. Unit 731 was legal according to the Japanese government at the time. But that’s just pedantry. What you meant was a comparison of horrors.

Again, wow. Nothing the pharmaceutical industry has ever done comes close to the mind numbing blinding torture undertaken regularly at Unit 731.

Your insensitivity is matched only by your ignorance.

Oh noes! Her date is off? See above for why you are in no position to complain about someone’s dataset.

He briefly mentions cancer viruses again. And he’s right that people were killed, by a Dr. Cornelius P. Rhoads.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Cornelius_P._Rhoads

But I’m willing to bet viruses were not involved. I would say rather the infection was accomplished by transplantation of cancerous tissue.

Comparing the botched Vioxx painkiller to the Nazi’s medical experiments and Unit 731 is inexcusable and indefensible.

The radical down play of the size of the Bioweapons facility is completely believable but impossible to verify.

Again from the wiki… “SV40 is an abbreviation for Simian vacuolating virus 40 or Simian virus 40, a polyomavirus that is found in both monkeys and humans.”

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/SV40#Theorized_role_in_human_disease

Of course though he’d dismiss this data as propaganda.. convenient.

Why don’t you tell us where we can get he full list of these viruses created by this Special Virus Cancer Program, which I can find no reference to outside the conspiracy media.

And please kill these stupid sound effects.

Heh, oh look NOW he trusts the mainstream science press by quoting nature.

Man this guy clearly has some sexual issues. He loves calling people prostitutes. But like many other words he apparently doesn’t understand the relevant definitions. She’s not sleeping with anyone for money therefor she’s not a prostitute. Case Closed.

(Are you still reading this? Damn, I don’t know why I’m still writing it. I’m only 44 minutes into this 2 hour monster and I’ve been writing for 5 fucking hours.)

Joy, yet more quotes from phantom sources. *sigh*

Oh god, sports metaphors… *facepalm*

Claims claims claims, no defense.

Hmm yeah William C. Patrick III is a liar and the USA bioweapons program continues. Ok. Stipulated. Your point?

Ok, I’m done taking any of this shit seriously. And I’m tired of writing this review and watching this painfully bad lie that like only 4 people care about anyway.

If someone wants to pick up where I left off. (52:09)

Feel free.

I’m not even proof reading this.

Edit: (I did proof read this 4 years later because someone commented hehe.)

Censored at Stumbleupon

Final update!

Innomen’s banned from stumbleupon πŸ™‚

Here is a copy of the email between me and Barry Conway, some yuppy stumble minion.

Hello Brandon.

We write to advise you that your StumbleUpon account – Innomen – has been suspended for a further breach of our Terms of Service.

Your account has previously been involved in a number of incidents which breached of Terms of Service, and has been the subject of a high volume of complaints from other members of StumbleUpon. On the last such occasion, we advised you – in writing – as follows:

As we advised in our previous mail, Brandon: Since your account has
now been repeatedly involved in matters of dispute in which
we have been required to intervene, you are formally advised that any
further breach of our Terms will result in the permanent suspension of
your account.

Since you have continued to write objectionable content on your Innomen account, culminating in a recent review on the StumbleUpon blog pages, we have now permanently suspended your account – Innomen.

Please be reminded that our Terms of Service allow for only one account per member, and that you should not create further accounts on our service. Should you do so, they too will be suspended.

This suspension will not be lifted, and – because you have been formally warned on previous occasions – is not subject to appeal. No further correspondence will be entered into on this matter.

A record of your account suspension will be kept on file, along with those relating to the previous incidents.

Sincerely.

Barry Conway (StumbleUpon Community Support)
[email protected]
http://www.stumbleupon.com

To which I replied…

Oh please. Are you actually so far gone that you believe any of that? No one contacted you. No one complained. I was a valuable member of the su community getting around one fan or more per day. I had 720 followers at the time of my ban. I had regular fruitful correspondence with many members and not one negative private message in over a year.

The only thing I’ve done to get myself banned is fail to kiss developer ass that’s why I’m being banned at 4 in the freaking morning. You’re having a tantrum. You people spammed me your stupid tea party and I wrote my opinion. And it hit a little too close to home.

You don’t want people reading it and so you banned me, plain and simple. You realize how legitimate you’ve made my work right? One is define by the strength of their enemies and I was just unjustly censored by what, the second largest social media site on the Internet?

And for what? Complaints you don’t intend to produce? Heh, I couldn’t have scripted a better exit.

Your rubber stamp TOS gives you the rights to do whatever you want with your ball, yet you feel the need to pretend some kind of due process where no is required or exists.

You may of course take it home with all the maturity of a wounded grade schooler. I’m content with the obvious moral high ground and now the total freedom to publicize this event. Though of course I’m well aware no one will care and those that do, you will ban. Still, it is a thrilling vindication.

I wouldn’t write back if I were you. It will only make you look worse. And your responses absolutely will be published, consider your reply consent to my terms of service πŸ™‚

And thus ends my time as a stumbler. I am a little angry I suppose but really I’m more flattered than anything else. Honestly this is completely unjustified. I’ve been shut out of places before but never so unilaterally. I wonder how long it will take my fans to realize I’m gone, I know from experience that when a person is banned you can go right on sending them stumbles and it won’t notify you that they aren’t going anywhere.

I wonder if the stumbler I had in the cue to be sent will still be sent. Eh, no big deal. The community will live without me. My stumble upon died before they bent over to eBay’s dollar.

Time to fire up my reddit account or something lol.

It’s been a helluva ride.

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As if their piece of shit service weren’t bloating and fucked up and broken enough, now they insist on putting my sticky post even at the top of direct comment links. So I can’t share comments without forcing my reader to scroll down through something they obviously have already read, so I’m replacing it with a link to here that was they don’t have to scroll down so far.
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Update: To whom it may concern, I can be found here.

myspace.com/brandonsergent [myspace.com]

friendfeed.com/innomen [friendfeed.com]

Where to begin?

Ruled by silly little brats with porn and poetry.

Unconstitutional EULA restrictions.

Inability to introduce a page unless you claim to like it, despite how much people enjoy complaining.

Inability to respond to reviews.

Removal of classic layout.

Inability to archive or backup your blog.

Absurdly small character limits, and dimension limits for images.

Tactical patenting lock down of a profoundly important type of information system.

Update: I was recently told that there are many like me here and that I need to continue writing reviews because they serve a purpose.

I want to explain something because they served a personal purpose as well.

I truly felt free to say whatever was on my mind here. I no longer feel that way.

I feel like a fool for having dedicated so many hours in creating content and introducing so many people.

Literally my entire circle of friends in real life I brought to stumble.

People I don’t even know anymore in real life still regularly use stumble because of me, people I’ve only met once I’ve hooked before they went their way.

And now I regret each and every one.

The ability to randomly serve up the Internet according to human filters is profoundly important, and I helped a company that would see that ability packaged and sold.

These people would charge per line read if they had had the chance to patent reading.

This event reminded me that free speech does not exist, there are merely levels of restriction.

In short my heart just isn’t in it anymore.

If I were to create content for these people again it would be a shallow imitation of what I would actually like to say, because what I really want to say I have been Specifically Forbidden to say.

I might ‘offend’ someone.

In addition, this event was a solid vindication, a complete ‘I told you so’, a total cynical non-shock that confirms every assertion I’ve ever made about the social circles here.

I have said who rules here, I have said how, I have pointed out the total lack of ethics, and the motivation for their abandonment.

I have called out bigots and liars, ageists and hypocrites. But when I dared to demand transparency and integrity, then we see the true nature of things here.

When I asked pointed specific questions, and when I attempted to defend myself I got silence and threats.

It became clear that all my freedom was merely the result of not yet encountering what the mafia charmingly refers to as a rat, and what is known as a tattletale on playgrounds all over the country.

When it became clear that these people feel that they OWN my thoughts and opinions, when it came down to a hostage situation, change what you say or we’ll silence you completely, I lost all respect.

In a country where protection of the law is a direct function of how much you can afford to pay a lawyer, I can no longer afford to be an idealist.

I cannot risk the deletion of what I have already said. We exist at the mercy of a hydraulic despot, with water in this case being the only realistic way for a non media company to talk to potentially thousands of people who weren’t actively seeking their words.

Too often we trivialize, not realizing that information is the most important commodity on the planet, and people like this control the flow of it.

It may be just a blog to you, and if you saturate it with lyrics and porn, that’s all it will ever be, but to me it was the ears of the future, and to protect what I have already said, I shall say no more.

What I’m doing now: http://underlore.com/TBA/?p=1460