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Complaint: Freemake

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y0himba:
Freemake, also known as "Ellora Assets Corporation", states on their website"

True Freeware of New Level

Freemake offers freeware in the truest sense of the word: no feature or time limitations, no hidden costs. Download and use our Free Video Converter, Video Downloader, and Free Audio Converter!-freemake.com
--- End quote ---

Yet check out the attached screenshot.


The express install gives you the following wonderful pieces of 'software': The StartNow Toolbar and Dealply, as well as switching your search to Bing and setting your homepage to MSN.

To be fair, one can simply say no to this crapware, however, if you are going to foist your software as 'freeware', then should it not be truly free?

Maybe they should change their name to AdMake?

40hz:
To be fair, one can simply say no to this crapware,
-y0himba (November 18, 2011, 06:38 PM)
--- End quote ---

Yes. You can.

Sounds like a pretty fair deal to me.  :)

Eóin:
Or you could just not use this software which they worked very hard on and give away for free.

Deozaan:
I dunno. I don't think it's accurate to call it "freeware in the truest sense of the word" because it's not free. The cost is living with bundled crapware or having to pay enough attention to the installation process to say no to the bundled crapware. And while that cost may be minor, in my opinion it is not the truest sense of freeware.

y0himba:
I agree 100% with Deo.  Freeware is something that is given freely, no strings attached.  This has too many strings attached to it, and can now be classified as adware.  They are not giving it away for free if they are including adware with it, they are attempting to get money for it in a different way.  So it is no longer free.

They were installing a service in the background without the user's knowledge or permission, and it would run 24/7 even when the software wasn't running, transmitting data over the Internet.  

https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?topic=27434.0

I finally got them to remove it, they claimed it was a 'bug'.  They then removed all references to the 'bug' and all Facebook discussions on it. Shortly after that, they start using this 950kb stub that connects, downloads the program and adware installers, rather than a direct download.

Also, there is the fact that they are using FFmpeg without credit, and trying to profit from it's use:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemake_Video_Converter

Quote
FFmpeg has added Freemake Video Converter to its Hall of Shame. An issue tracker entry for this product, opened on 16 December 2010, says it is in violation of GNU General Public License as it is distributing components of FFmpeg project without including due credit. Ellora Assets Corporation has not responded yet.-Wikipedia
--- End quote ---

The software is outstanding for what it does.  The folks behind it, not so much.  It is not so outstanding that there are not quite a few other TRUE freeware programs that do the same, or more.

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