So do we know if they've only recently starting breaching their own policy or have they been doing it all along despite the 2005 policy implementation?

Does anyone willingly download toolbars like the ones that come bundled on download.com? Anyway, I've steered clear of CNet downloads for years now. Even before they began doing this and you had a chance of actually getting a download that you knew was clean the whole thing started feeling kind of spammy and shady.