Ethics in Information
Paid sponsorship displayed as organic popularity on free software sites

Through submitting software manually to various download sites or free software directories I have noticed, below the surface, only a slim few are operating in an ethical manner.

For instance, after submitting "free" software you often get an email, each one different, asking you to play along with some scheme they are running.  Usually it is in the form of you paying them to represent your software as an "editors pick" or "popular download" without so much of a hint to users that these "free" software packages have paid propaganda enforce.

Normally this is considered illegal and unethical to say the least.  If you do this with someone who is paying you money for your product you could end up in jail but most likely ordered to repay what you have stolen. Of course this is a detriment to the whole lot of software distributors, good or bad.  Anyone can make website look reputable or nice.

• When you come upon an internet site that espouses something free you need to ask yourself, who is this?

• Immediately look for valid contact information.  Perform a whois on the web address or domain such as datavirtue.com; it only takes a second.

• Nothing is free, ask yourself, how are they generating money for expenses?  It should be clear that they offer some other products that are enhanced or perhaps service & support.

Assume "editor's picks", "Popular Download" or any similar label is a paid advertisement!

Believe it or not, high-quality websites are harder to find than unscrupulous ones.  Most download sites just monitor the good quality sites and assimilate the same downloads.  Then they spend a few thousand dollars to properly promote their site (money that legitimate free sites usually do not have ). 

Another example is the ones who talk about how they virus scanned each download and guarantee 100% clean.  This is completely false!  Any of those files can be changed after the scan without any scrutiny.  Often times the same site has adware or spyware listed in their software directory (for a fee of course).

High quality sites do not do spyware they avoid it like the plague.  It would potentially ruin their site's ranking if they kept that stuff around.  How come it doesn't do the same for the ones who do proffer it?

The very nature of free software lends to this behavior; free sites who have not been submitted to can grab from sites that have been submitted to by the authors.  Freeware authors really do not want unethical sites distributing their software though.

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