Well, it all has to do with greed and people ignoring principles of common decency. Let me explain ...

The fall of Napster has led to the rise of several copycat file-swapping programs. And the makers of some of these music-sharing programs are out to cash in by any means necessary. A year ago, while the dot-com industry was hitting the skids, Napster was drawing millions of young Net users and getting tons of media exposure. Once Napster got tangled up in court battles and cut off most of the brand-name MP3 files available through its service, marketers started salivating at the prospect of tapping into Napster's audience.

Two of the most popular new file-swapping programs are iMesh and KaZaa. Since you're a savvy music lover, you may have already downloaded one of these programs. What you probably didn't know was that you were also downloading plug-ins that came bundled with the program -- plug-ins you didn't ask for.

One of these plug-ins is called TopText (made by a company called eZula). If you have it, as you surf the Web using Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher, you'll notice that certain words have a bold yellow underline. Click on the yellow link and you'll be taken to the site of an advertiser that has paid eZula to insert these links on unsuspecting web sites.

That's how I first learned about it. I was looking at a page on my www.TheBuzzFactor.com site that promotes my audiotape on how to make money in the music business. I was shocked when I saw annoying yellow lines under words like "finance." Clicking the link took me to the site of a company offering Visa credit cards. I was pissed!

Once I figured out these links were being created by the TopText plug-in, I realized that anyone who had TopText on their computer would see these evil links when they were on my site. And a lot of people have it. According to CNet's Download.com, iMesh has been downloaded 15.8 million times, and KaZaa 10.2 million times. And that's just from CNet's site.

This practice is unconscionable! Like me, you work hard to design your web site and get lots of fans to visit it. Once there, you want visitors to focus on you and the musical benefits you offer. But with lowlife scumware like TopText, your musical identity is tarnished and your web traffic is hijacked by these unscrupulous marketers.

On top of that, deleting TopText from your hard drive is not easy. Doing a simple Uninstall often leaves a file on your computer that can reinstall TopText the next time you launch Internet Explorer. In other words, this piece-of-crap plug-in is a dangerous combination of spam and virus rolled into one.

What's also unfortunate is that this spam-virus is being spread primarily my music-related programs. The music industry already has enough of a negative reputation. We don't need this to make things even uglier.

I encourage you to be proactive, learn more about this scam and take steps to help obliterate it. Here are some other info sources you should look into:

• Jim Wilson's scumware.com -- one of the best sites dedicated to the subject.

• Author Mike Alexander wrote two great articles that explain the virus and offer resources to combat TopText and other contextual-advertising programs. Read them at 101answers.com/warnings or get them by autoresponder by sending a blank e-mail to ezula1@101answers.com and ezula2@101answers.com.

• Read the article "Forget Smart Tags; TopText Is Doing What You Feared" at searchenginewatch.com/sereport/01/08-toptext.html

• CNet's "Peer-to-Peer Exchanges Court Advertisers" explains exactly how iMesh and KaZaa are trying to cash in: news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6759036.html

• Steve Shubitz of stopscum.com covers what he calls TheftWare, including other offending companies such as Gator and Surf+.

• Paul Myers wrote an article titled "Who Owns Your Business?" To get it, just send a blank e-mail to linktheft@talkbiz.com.

• Check to see if you have TopText or Surf+ on your computer here: whirlywiryweb.com/q/ezulasurf.asp. This site also provides free scripts you can install on your pages to let your visitors know if they have the scumware.

• Here are some articles that explain how to uninstall TopText:
  scumware.com/user3.html
  whirlywiryweb.com/removeezula.htm
  ahfb2000.com/ezula/ezula.php

• Find out how to install a free script on your pages that prevents TopText and Surf+ from working: searchking.com/ezulakiller

• Take Back the Web is another site that warns people about scumware: takebacktheweb.com/

• "Web Sites Prey on Rivals' Stores" covers the scumware practices of Gator: news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-6797640.html

• Sunil Tanna discusses scumware and suggests actions you can take: suniltanna.com/ezula.html

• There's an online petition to eradicate TopText. Sign it here: petitiononline.com/toptext

Bottom line: Don't continue to use programs that inexcusably sneak these plug-ins onto your hard drive. It's hard enough to market your music online without having to deal with scoundrels who deface web sites they have no business touching!