The Power of the Boycott

One of the surprising things about the Internet is the power of public opinion. Time and again, things have happened - or rather, been made to happen - because enough people have become indignant about it online.

That fact lends some hope to the following idea:

Anti virus developer Trend Micro accused Barracuda Networks of patent infringement but what they really did was attacking the users of ClamAV free anti virus software with a bogus patent. As a first reaction we feel disgusted about what Trend Micro did: stabbing free software with a knife right in the heart. A company should operate between borders of a certain ethical environment. When a company exceeds the borders of decency - as Trend Micro did by attacking computer users and free software developers - it has become a pariah and should be punished.

You can help by starting to get rid of Trend Micro software in your organization

Will it catch on? Will it have any effect? We shall see? (Via Boycott Novell.)

ClamAV Gets a Supporters Club

On Open Enterprise blog.

Putting some (Source)Fire under ClamAV

The open source anti-virus software project ClamAV is one of my favourite pieces of free code. I've used it for years now, and recommended it to dozens of people. But I've always been a bit worried about its business model: could it continue to grow?

Well, now it looks like it can, since Sourcefire, creator of SNORT, has acquired the project:

With nearly 1 million unique IP addresses downloading ClamAV malware updates daily across more than 120 mirrors in 38 countries, ClamAV is one of the most broadly adopted open source security projects worldwide. ClamAV has also been recognized as comparable in quality and coverage to leading commercial anti-virus solutions. Most recently, at LinuxWorld this year, ClamAV was one of only three anti-virus technologies to provide a 100% detection rate in their live 'Fight Club' test featuring live submissions from the show audience.

Under terms of the transaction, Sourcefire has acquired the ClamAV project and related trademarks, as well as the copyrights held by the five principal members of the ClamAV team including project founder Tomasz Kojm. Sourcefire will also assume control of the open source ClamAV project including the ClamAV.org domain, web site and web site content and the ClamAV Sourceforge project page. In addition, the ClamAV team will remain dedicated to the project as Sourcefire employees, continuing their management of the project on a day-to-day basis.

As the above points out, ClamAV was one of only three anti-virus technologies to provide a 100% detection rate, and this only reinforces my confidence is using it day-in, day-out. If you don't know it, do take a look. (Via Matthew Aslett.)