Every once in a while, I come across a site (Angelfire sites, most notably) that have pop-up ads from which you can download a ‘free’ screensaver (a winter landscape, a babbling brook, whatever). I’ve never done this out of mistrust, but I do wonder what the ‘catch’ here might be (note that I’m so jaded that I naturally assume there will be a ‘catch’). Do you automatically download some ‘ad-ware’ as well? Do you have to give a valid e-mail address, only to be engulfed with spam? What’s the straigth dope on this one?
I think you’ve just answered your own question. There are sites out there that make a buck with ad-progs and adding your email to junk mail lists. Others, though, offer only a limited version as freeware, and then constantly tantalise you with ads on your screen for the fuller, far more cooler versions (at least, so they say).
Advertising with pop-up ads, especially on big-name sites like Angelfire, costs money. Obviously the purveyors of these “free” screen savers need to be making money somewhere along the line, or they wouldn’t be able to pay their advertising expenses. You and Ice Wolf have already correctly noted that their revenue comes from using the screensaver or your e-mail address to garner further opportunities to advertise to you.
I just wanted to point out that there are free screen savers readily available from a variety of sources. Such screen savers don’t have any hidden adware or spyware and are written and distributed by their authors simply because they enjoy writing programs that make nifty graphics. You will never see these programs advertised in pop-up ads, or almost anywhere else, for that matter. Usually the only “catch” is that if you want to redistribute the screensaver, you have to do so under the same terms it was distributed to you.
Some viruses be sent with *.SCR files. I found a list of some that can: “WORM_BLINKOM.A, Worm.P2P.Blinkom, W32/Blinkom, Win32/Blinkom.worm, Win32/Venzu.Worm, Win32.Venzu.A”
I would be careful what you download & use. esp. scr, pif or exe files
A lot of free screensavers come with spyware attached. Nothing underhand about it, they are usually quite upfront about it. They’ll give you waffle about “targeted marketing” etc, but they’re ultimately after your email address and a look at your surfing habits. It’s up to you whether you want to oblige them or not.
But for the sake of just a screensaver, I’d pass on their kind offer.
In the cases that you have mentioned, I believe that there is a catch of some kind. Adware or whatever. However, not all free software has a catch. I have distributed software for free for a number of reasons:
I didn’t think it would sell, but wrote it so I could learn something
I thought it might sell, but not enough to make support worthwhile
I was targeting a market where it would be worthwhile to have people know my name
I was really interested the product and wanted to share it with others who shared my excitement.
For screensavers that are cheap or free check www.download.com