Dr. Damn Strips Adware From Grokster and iMesh for Privacy

The record companies had their Napster, and the stream of file-swapping companies that followed. The file-swapping companies now have their "Dr. Damn." For the past several weeks, the pseudonymous programmer, a college student who declines to give his real name, has been releasing versions of popular file-swapping programs online with the advertising and user-tracking features stripped out.. . . The record companies had their Napster, and the stream of file-swapping companies that followed. The file-swapping companies now have their "Dr. Damn." For the past several weeks, the pseudonymous programmer, a college student who declines to give his real name, has been releasing versions of popular file-swapping programs online with the advertising and user-tracking features stripped out.

He's done Grokster and iMesh. And he's not alone. His work, now available through the Grokster and iMesh networks themselves, joins that of other programmers who have previously "cleaned" programs such as Kazaa and Audio Galaxy in a campaign against "adware" and "spyware."

"I've never been a big fan of large companies spying on their users," Dr. Damn wrote in an instant messenger interview. "Especially me."

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