The really sad part of malware that is tied to freeware or shareware is that the whole thing is a self-inflicted downward spiral. The software authors will tell you they need that malware money because nobody pays for shareware anymore. You know why I stopped downloading and buying shareware years ago? Malware.

And the really unfortunate thing is that a few big bad apples can and did ruin it for everyone else. I don't have time to figure out who is going to install shit on my system vs who isn't, so I just assume everything is bad and avoid it all, with the exception of a handful of known-good products (like VLC) from known-good sources (the author's own websites).

The end result is an ecosystem in which new useful tools (even ones that aren't malware peddlers) now have a near-impossible time creating a critical mass of users, so any money to be made in that market can only come from these terrible spammy practices, which is just sad.