One of the most amazing things to me about the typical adware scumbag is their desperation to justify their own behavior.  An interview with such a person just went onto slashdot, in which in the site afterword, he attempts to compare his choices to the Millgram Experiment.

Of course, anyone with half a clue will remember three things:

1. He was not being instructed by an authority figure that adware was in the victim’s best interest
2. His goal was making money
3. He had months, including time away from the authority figure, in which to think it over

The dirtbag goes on to talk about how difficult it was to ignore a challenging occupation when one doesn’t have many other options.  Thing is, I could be making tons of money as a pirate, or writing malware, and I manage to get through my day without doing it.  I’m also willing to bet that Drew Peters wasn’t actually looking for other jobs at the time.

“It’s even harder if the bad starts out small and slowly gets bigger.”

Horseshit.  The second you do something bad, you object, and if they try to force you, you walk away.  That’s why when I found out my old boss Russell was triple- or more billing his clients in my name, I told him that he stopped tomorrow, or I walked.  Did I get fired?  Sure, but I told the client what happened, so so did Russell, and I ended up getting the job back with a different boss and a much larger hourly billable.

Oh, and I had my honesty and decency intact.

Go to hell, Matt Knox.  It’s not that hard to not write malware.  It’s just hard for people like you.  I hope that eventually you find yourself the victim of the things you’ve done to others; you’ve almost certainly caused far more damage than you’ll ever understand, during a time where it was extremely easy to get other work.

Disgusting.