Free Software Fear Factor

As I mentioned before, I have started paying for Free Software, specifically the Joomla! extensions sh404SEF, JXtended Labels, RSForm! Pro and JEvents. All of these examples use the subscription model, whereby you pay a yearly subscription and then receive access to the download area, with maybe more recent releases and technical support.

This is all well and good, because Free Software refers to freedom, not price. And I am at liberty to share these Joomla! extensions with whomsoever I please, if I don't want to support the authors of the software by paying for a subscription.

Which leads to an interesting and new phenomenon -- Free Software on bittorrent and warez sites. The download of RSForm! Pro came with a warning:

Never download our products from file sharing websites like rapidshare, torrents or warez forums. We have received reports of modified versions of our products that, once installed, steal sensitive information such as passwords, credit card information and more.

Ahh, the Fear Factor!

I saw this shortly before receiving some TwitterSpam; some automated bot keeping track of tweets in the twittersphere led to me being followed (stalked?) by joomlatorrents. Now, I'm no Einstein but I'm sure as eggs is eggs that they don't just want to be friends...