You're all paranoid. When you install any browser it automatically will install the Real Media Player, the Flash Player and the Viewpoint Media Player. Why does the Viewpoint one get singled out as spyware? Here's a list of the places I've seen it bundled:
AIM 5+
AOL 7
AOL 8
AOL 9 (won't work without Viewpoint Media Player)
Netscape 7
CompuServe 7
Adobe Atmosphere
Adobe Photoshop 7
It's also pre-installed on brand new PC's from:
Sony
Dell
Fujitsu/Siemens
Compaq
HP
and no doubt many others. So when you're complaining that it somehow got installed, try comparing it against the list of installed software on the day you got the computer. You'll find it had Flash, Quicktime, Real and Viewpoint media players .... FOR YOUR BENEFIT !!
There are also elements of Viewpoint software built into all versions of Windows from 98 onwards.
Viewpoint Media is also used on websites of Sony, Dell, HP, Compaq, IBM, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Samsung, BMW's Mini, Microsoft, CNET, and the list goes on and on.
One question for you conspiracy theorists out there : Do you think all these fortune 500 companies would be using or pre-installing the Viewpoint Media Player if it was some two bit piece of Spyware?
Go ahead uninstall it but you're crippling the software that went to the trouble of designing part of their functionality to work with it. While you're there, delete all the library function DLL's that these companies licensed and installed also as part of their program without telling you.
The definition of Spyware is not software that you found on your computer and you didn't necessarily put it there. That's called unknown-to-me-ware. I found some of that in my Windows folder called CTFMON.EXE. I didn't install it so it must be spyware, right? No, it's a program that was installed by Microsoft Office. If I was as paranoid as you lot I would have deleted it and probably broken Office.
Spyware is defined as programs that spy on your files, activities, keystrokes and behavior. The point of spyware is to use that information in some way. In the worst case that would be stealing personal information from you, in the most trivial case it would be to profile you.
Adware is defined as programs that put ads in your face when they feel like it.
Viewpoint Media Player fits neither of those profiles. It's a media player. You go to a website that has Viewpoint media on it and it plays it for you. It's as simple as that. Or you run a program (AOL, AIM, CS etc) which directly use the media player to offer you fancy features/interfaces. Uninstall it and cripple those programs. Uninstall it and see no fancy Viewpoint Media at the website you're visiting. Some of the programs that use it, require it criticially for their operation (like AOL9) so if you delete the media player you'll break the program so obviously the programs requiring it will do their best to re-install it because clearly some idiot uninstalled it. It's not that the Viewpoint media player is uninstallable, or virus-like in coming back. It's simply that some program needs it, you uninstalled it, it re-installed it because you wanted to run that program. Try deleting the hidden files in the root of your C Drive and see if you can get Windows to boot. It's the same thing.
Just like all other media players, it will try to keep itself updated so that at the point when you need version Y, you're not stuck with version X and have to wait. So if you see it doing an asynchronous IP call to the viewpoint server it's checking you have the latest version.
All this information is available on the viewpoint website if you bother to take off the "trust noone xfiles blinkers".
