VideoLAN Calls Out for Help to Protect Users from VLC Scams

VideoLAN, the organization supervising the development of the VLC open source media player is calling out for help from the community to stop scammers who bundle malware with its popular program.

"At VideoLAN we’re really fed up with all those websites/companies that are tricking our users to download malware and violate our IP by distributing misleading versions of VLC without conforming to the GPL license," says Ludovic Fauvet, one of the core VLC developers.

"[...] There’s not much we can do about it. They have the money to buy adwords, we don’t. Sadly, as a non-profit organization we don’t have the money to sue them," he adds.

Fauvet published a list of 25 websites currently distributing VLC together with adware and spyware in an attempt to capitalize from the media player's popularity.

The developer complained on his blog that no one is helping the organization to fight this problem, not even the companies that are in a position to do so. "It’s the role of the Ad-companies to filter malicious requests from their customers. Sadly most of them don’t care," Fauvet said.

However, it seems that his call for help has attracted the attention of quite a few people and Google, which previously ignored the issue, has now offered to help. "We now have a contact at Google. The AdWords issue should be resolved soon," the developer added in a later reply to the discussion.

Mozilla's Mike Shaver also stepped in and offered some guidance, as Firefox is targeted in a similar way. He also promised to look into how StopBadware.org can help, since he is a member of the board of that organization.

Fauvet complained that in his previous discussions with StopBadware, the project refused to add the scam websites to their backlist because they don't meet its criteria for badware. StopBadware's lists are used by Mozilla Firefox and the Google Safe Browsing service to block malicious URLs.

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