Virus Removal Without Breaking EULA

Would a written and signed agreement between the tech and their customer perhaps give explicit permission for the tech to install software on the customer's behalf? Thats done in the medical and legal fields all the time, where other people are allowed to make medical and legal decisions for another person. Perhaps just a line like "By signing below, I agree to give explicit permission to Tech Company to install software and accept any associated licensing agreements on my behalf."

As I finished typing that last sentence, I thought it sounded familiar, so I looked through the Technibble Business Kit and found this paragraph in the Computer Pickup document.

You agree that we may download and utilize Software from third party web sites or CDs and accept any applicable license agreements on your behalf. You acknowledge and agree that we may download and install trial versions of Software that will expire and cease to function after a certain period of time (usually thirty days) unless you purchase a license to continue using such Software.
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Krynn72 said:
Would a written and signed agreement between the tech and their customer perhaps give explicit permission for the tech to install software on the customer's behalf?
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I think this becomes a grey area. If you look at MBAM, they are looking for personal use:

“Your license permits you to use the Software solely for your personal, non-commercial purposes; the Software may not be used on any Device that is used in a business.”
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While the customer might agree to let you install software and agree to licenses on their behalf, you're still using that software for commercial use (assuming you're using the free version). This is more-or-less redistributing the software, which you haven't been given permission to do. I don't know how'd this would play out in court (I'm no lawyer), but I wouldn't want to have a little document like that signed by the customer protecting me legally.

As mentioned in the article, you could get the paid version which would be a better tool, or (for other tools) you can find open source tools which are equivalent. You don't need to dodge EULA's.
 
Keeping with MBAM. The problem is not installing the software. It is when you the PAID tech scan with the free version to clean the computer for MONEY.
 
It could also be looked at this way:

The home user pays a tech to install MBAM and remove malware on their behalf. The home user isn't making money out of their computer, so installing and using MBAM Free on that computer is legitimate.

Connecting the customer's hard drive to a workshop computer to do an MBAM scan might not be legitimate.
 
Porthos said:
Keeping with MBAM. The problem is not installing the software. It is when you the PAID tech scan with the free version to clean the computer for MONEY.
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Since the EULA says "use," I believe you are technically correct. You could install the software, just not run it.

fincoder said:
It could also be looked at this way:

The home user pays a tech to install MBAM and remove malware on their behalf. The home user isn't making money out of their computer, so installing and using MBAM Free on that computer is legitimate.

Connecting the customer's hard drive to a workshop computer to do an MBAM scan might not be legitimate.
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This is "using" the software. Paying someone to do something for you does not necessarily make it legitimate. If I run a document scanning/copying business and someone wants me to photocopy and bind a book, I do not become any less guilty by accepting money to break the copyright laws -- it actually incriminates me more. Claiming that I was just doing what the customer wanted would probably not protect me legally.
 
OaksLabs said:
someone wants me to photocopy and bind a book, I do not become any less guilty by accepting money to break the copyright laws -- it actually incriminates me more
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Fair enough, but installing software that's allowed to be dowloaded (i.e. copied) doesn't have anything to do with copyright laws.

Also, I doubt the software publisher would care as they're getting good publicity and the opportunity to up-sell to the paid version.
 
fincoder said:
Fair enough, but installing software that's allowed to be dowloaded (i.e. copied) doesn't have anything to do with copyright laws.

Also, I doubt the software publisher would care as they're getting good publicity and the opportunity to up-sell to the paid version.
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If the publisher did not care, then I imagine that they would not put stipulations in the EULA about it. While MBAM does not regulate distribution of their software (to my knowledge) some companies (like Adobe) do, (see Adobe reader discussion in the article). So, depending on the circumstance installing software can violate copyright laws.

I know that EULA requirements are no fun, and they are a pain. However, we (as computer professionals) should be aware of them and comply with them (AV/anti-malware is hard to find open source, but otherwise most programs can be swapped out for open source ones).
 
I have a suggestion. Why not try to upsell your clients to a managed AV solution. With this option you can offer a subscription AV monitoring and removal service. I started doing this about 1 year ago and my clients are about ready to start renewing their subscriptions for another year. This method allows me to use all the authorized removal tools offered in the program to use on my client pc's. Of course to do this, I am paying a subscription to my provider to satisfy the licensing requirements. The structure is very affordable to me as a tech/owner and alliws a nice profit to be made. If you would like to find out more information on this, you may contact me privately. I just dont want to give away to many specific details in a public forum as I like to maintain a low competition rate. Lol I will still talk in general terms about it here though. Here is a link where you can contact me through my website. Just mention in the subject "Managed A/V info"
http://goldstarcomputers.com/subscribe
Admins- please let me know if this is not allowed and I will remove the link.
 
ccritchie said:
Don't assume that Malwarebytes is the be all end end all of malware removal tools. Don't get me wrong, it's consistently been a good product for some time, but consider other tools, such as Roguekiller (which has a technician's version available at a very reasonable price - with Technibble discount) or Emsisoft, etc. Also, consider making your removal tools separate from whatever antivirus/antimalware software you offer to the client to keep their system clean after the removal. Be willing to upsell a client on things like Managed Antivirus after an infection. Legit techs are willing to pay for good tools that help them do their jobs, as they realize that the cost of a good tool will be made up in profit in a short time. With malware removal, don't become beholden to one particular tool or process. Things evolve too quickly in the fight against malware to be stuck with one particular tool expecting it to do everything.
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Well said!
 
When I was at FutureSHOP, Best Buy legal required all PC's that were to be setup by the techs to have a sheet to be signed. If memory serves, legal quoted a court case where it was deemed power of attorney could be granted to the technician for the purpose of this. Also keep in mind that Best Buy was a vendor/seller of multiple software projects and no doubt had agreements in place with rights holders.

If the sales person didn't have a customer sign the sheet, we were within our right to refuse service. We were audited on these sheets. So if we sold 100 Setups, we were required to have 100 signed sheets.

So to some extent depending where you reside and how local laws apply, certain portions of a EULA would be invalid. In fact, in some EULA's there is mention of this, just like it is mentioned on warranty sheets that local laws may give you additional rights.

The best way to get people away from free is to bundle. If you provide service, they get AV. Simple as that, non negotiable. That puts you in a better light than a pizza tech as you provide more value add on.
 
ohio_grad_06 said:
I think you can use this one as well.

Adware removal tool
https://www.techsupportall.com/adware-removal-tool/

As an alternative to CCleaner, here is one I came across, but I am not sure it's being developed, it's not listed on the company's site that I saw.

Toolwize care-does a basic cleanup of clutter and registry cleaner, states it's free for anyone for any purpose, and you can run it without installing.--Edit here, strange. I thought I looked at the EULA a few minutes ago and it said something similar to the above. Now it reads differently. It does say

"
Installation and User Rights

You may install and use any number of copies of the software on your devices." So not sure if commercial use is ok or not now for this one. But maybe someone else have a look.

http://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/toolwiz_care.html

I'm also a fan of auslogics disk defrag portable. Their site states that the defragger is free for home or commercial use, so I'd assume the portable version is covered?

http://www.auslogics.com/en/software/disk-defrag/

One other tool to help supplement cleaning junk files, maybe check out bleachbit. I think it's open source. It looks like it may be what people used when they were trying to delete Hillary's emails, but that's a discussion for another day.

http://www.bleachbit.org

I'd be interested if anyone knows of any open source/free for commercial use registry cleaners you can use in order to help replace some CCleaner functions. I think they used to be free for tech use a few years back and changed it, but had good functionality. Plus, with the toolwiz tool, who knows how long that will stay relevant if they in fact are not developing it.

As the above poster said, I would think if they don't say commercial use is prohibited then they are ok with it, but I'm sure they would appreciate donations.

*Edit* Does anyone know if Clamwin is decent? Apparently you can make a portable version of it.

http://www.clamwin.com/content/view/118/89/
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CC Cleaner has a technician version now.
http://www.piriform.com/business/ccleaner-technician-edition

Is malwarebytes doing their tech version anymore, last time I checked they discontinued it?
 
trevm999 said:
Do people use registry cleaners anymore? Tell me what you expect a registry cleaner to do and maybe I can do a Powershell script for it when I'm bored, but I'm not sure it's really worth it
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@trevm999 has a point. I can't remember the last time I used a registry cleaner. I always associated them with Pizza Techs. If a repair I have has registry issues it's usually time for a clean install. I have the occasional repair come in from someone using CCleaner on an 8 year-old machine for the first time and wondered why it wouldn't reboot? Not something I want to repeat.
 
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