WARNING

Attention ALL Web Users:

We'd like to bring your attention to an issue that has the potential to affect the entire Web community. There's a new form of technology that alters webpages without the knowledge or permission of website owners. The most widespread version of this technology is a program called TopText. TopText comes bundled with the popular file-sharing programs KaZaa & iMesh, as well as several other freeware programs.

If you've noticed yellow underlines with green edges showing up on a lot of the pages that you visit, you have installed (intentionally or otherwise) the TopText application. These underlines are not the work of the people who created the pages, but are added when TopText alters your browser settings without your knowledge. If you click on one of these links, you'll be taken to the website of an advertiser who paid the makers of TopText (eZula, Inc.) for the underline.

This raises a number of concerns. For example, the page that the link leads to may not be appropriate for children. Furthermore, unreviewed links may be introduced into shopping cart links, product recommendations, editorials, online legal documents and posts to online forums, adding confusion and potentially misleading you, the user.

But perhaps the most frightening concern TopText and similar applications raise is that they may spell an end to the free Web. A huge percentage of the Web's most popular sites owe their very existence to advertising dollars. TopText steals those dollars away from them without any compensation.

If this technology is allowed to spread, free sites will be forced to charge fees for their use. And this will dramatically limit the number of people who will be able to afford to use the Internet as a resource.

To remove TopText from your system, go to:
http://www.thiefware.com/ - or -
http://www.scumware.com/

Also be careful to avoid a similar and much more sinister software called Surf+, which uses green highlighting, and takes your surfers to porn and gambling sites. If the pages you view are already being altered by Surf+, you can find uninstall information here:
http://www.filemix.net/surfplus/s_faq.htm#13

If you're a website owner or maintainer and would like more information on the fight to stop TopText, see the links below:

http://www.thiefware.com/

ATFIA (Advocates for Truly Fair Internet Advertising)

WUAS (Webmasters United Against Scumware)

Free Search Engine Discussion Forums

http://www.scumware.com/

Get High (rankings) Forums (thread one)

Get High (rankings) Forums (thread two)

MOR Designs Scumware Legal Disclaimer

Surf+ End-User Concerns:

Makes "Kid-Safe" sites UNsafe
Creates "rotating" links leading to porn and gambling sites
Creates "rotating" links to other advertiser paid sites
These links are found on EVERY site on the Internet

TopText End-User concerns:

Uses vague opt-out language in Kazaa's installation dialog and an inaccurate TopText application description, ensuring that only those with prior knowledge of TopText will know to avoid installing it
Confuses, annoys, angers and/or frightens software users, who often think they have contracted a computer virus
Average users may believe that TopText is necessary for Kazaa to function
Does not provide users with disable/delete information in the Kazaa help file
Is difficult for many users to delete from their systems
Leaves trojan-like components behind after uninstall

Website owner/maintainer concerns:

Alters copyrighted site content without permission by adding links
Alters copyrighted site design with yellow highlighting and underlines
Places text link advertising on websites without compensating the sites' owners
Turns companies' own websites against them by adding text link ads that lead to their competitors websites
Hijacks websites' visitors by adding external links
Alters the intended click flow of a site by turning links into dropdown boxes that promote links out of the site
On sites that use the common design convention of yellow highlighting for words and links, masquerades as part of the intended page design
Adds links that may not be appropriate for a site's intended audience
Breaks the common policy of keeping editorial content separate from ads, calling a journalist's and/or site's ethics and integrity into question
Insinuates links to products & services into "recommended" lists, putting the page author's reputation at risk and making them a liability target
When a site's users are ready to buy the site's product or service, clicking on 'Shopping Cart' or a similar link may show users a link to another site, causing the site to lose revenue
Text link ads show up in online legal agreements like privacy policies and terms of service, bringing their strictly legal purpose into question
Forces web authors to expend precious time and energy trying to minimize TopText damage to their pages

Advertiser concerns:

Causes websites to break any exclusivity clauses they may have with advertisers by placing text link ads from other advertisers on the same page
Stabs Ezula advertisers in the back by doing the same thing to their sites once users click on a link to get to them
On sites where advertisers pay for listings, particularly those with descriptions, alters the text of their paid listings by inserting links to their competitors

Web User concerns:

Text link ads invade the signature files and comments of participants in online forums, insinuating a connection to the product or service advertised
The end result of widespread use of TopText and similar applications will be a mass movement from free content to paid content by website owners, since they will be deprived of advertising revenue

We, the members of the webmaster community, ask for your assistance, although our numbers may be high our resouces against larger companies such as this do have limits. We are taking a stand, we are contacting advertisers and we are making progress. In the meantime we are still losing revenues, and in the time of the dotcom crash we cannot afford to have what we have worked for stolen from us.