If you haven't caught up with this topic yet, prepare to be horrified.

When I checked CNet's Download.com this week, eZula's KaZaa had been downloaded 7.4 million times.

Many of the 7.4 million people who downloaded KaZaa -- a Napster-like file-sharing tool -- apparently didn't even realize that they were also installing TopText.

TopText, like Microsoft's widely denounced SmartTags, works through your browser. It modifies your web page, highlighting in yellow all the keywords which eZula has sold. Advertisers pay per click for the keywords.

What it's doing is inserting advertisers' hyperlinks in YOUR pages.

For example, if you have used the phrase "car loan" on a web page, TopText could turn that phrase into a hyperlink which your visitors click on, robbing you of potential sales or commissions.

As Danny Sullivan of Search Engine Watch says:

"As a result, potentially Coke could advertise so that any time 'cola' appeared on the Pepsi site, the word would have a hyperlink leading back to the Coke site. Similarly, Ford could advertise so that the word 'car' on any pages across the web - including those at the General Motors web site - would link to Ford."

It doesn't matter whether you're the FBI, the White House or a children's charity, advertisers' links are being added to your pages.

That stinks. It looks remarkably similar to breach of copyright and unfair competition.

A really nasty side of all this is that if you run a children's site TopText or Surf+ could overlay links on it to "adult" sites. It could be happening to YOUR site right now.

About the kindest conclusion I can come to is that it's unethical.

Jim Wilson, who created Scumware.com , says:

"The stealing of traffic from independent web site publishers has become the biggest threat to the survival of the Internet to date."

Steve Shubitz of StopScum says:

"In some cases, they alter the contents of a PG site with adult and or gambling links which the owner of the site would never permit. We find all of these actions morally reprehensible."

Paul Myers of Talkbiz News, in an article titled "Who Owns Your Business?", says:

"There is a word for taking a valuable commodity from its creator without their permission and without compensation. Theft."

I was so impressed by Paul's article I asked for permission to help publicize it. To get it, just send a blank e-mail to linktheft@talkbiz.com.

I hope you already subscribed to Paul's newsletter. It's an absolute must -- hard-hitting, original thinking.

Other software products which lure away your hard-earned traffic by adding additional linking options to your web site without your permission include:

• Surf+ - http://www.filemix.net/
  
• Gator - http://www.gator.com - Which boasts that it allows you
  to advertise even on sites which don't accept advertising.
  
• Melting Point - http://meltingpoint.com/pressmirazolaunch.html

All these companies can sell advertising on YOUR site to your competitors.

Useful resources:

Sunil Tanna outlines the problem, suggests legal issues you can explore with your attorney, and provides useful links.

Forums:

http://gethighforums.com/Forum10/HTML/001386.html
http://66.33.83.213/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12175
http://66.33.83.213/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=12048
http://slashdot.org/features/01/07/31/2015216.shtml
http://www.revenews.com/archives/00000139.html
http://www.revenews.com/archives/00000138.html

Jim Wilson's rant, with plenty of additional info and links:

http://scumware.com/

Steve Shubitz's campaign against contextual advertising:

http://www.stopscum.com/

Take Back The Web

http://www.takebacktheweb.com/

Links to "other offenders":

http://www.freegraphics.com/zz-scumware/06_Known_Offenders/

Articles:

"Forget Smart Tags; TopText Is Doing What You Feared"

"Web sites prey on rivals' stores"

"Peer-to-peer exchanges court advertisers"

"Who Owns Your Business?"

More useful links:
http://www.dmoz.org (Search for "ezula")