The honeymoon came to a screeching halt on February 28, 2006, when PeerFactor and µTorrent announced a six month deal to distribute authorized content online. This drew the ire of the µTorrent community, who remember the days when PeerFactor was affiliated with French anti-piracy company RetSpan. The two companies separated in late 2005 however, and the newly formed PeerFactor SARL are now working on P2P distribution software rather than anti-piracy technology, (although their website is still linked from the RetSpan homepage.)

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We’re really excited to tell you about StopBadware.org, a new initiative aimed at combating the growing problem of spyware and other deceptive software. This project is led by Harvard’s Berkman Center and the Oxford Internet Institute to independently evaluate downloadable applications, publish objective information for consumers, and provide an easy web-based way for users to describe problems they’ve encountered. Consumer Reports WebWatch is serving as an unpaid advisor to the effort. Google, along with Sun Microsystems and Lenovo, are co-sponsors.

http://googleblog.blogspot.com/2006/01/putting-stop-to-spyware.html