I've been using RealOne for about a year, I pay for the SuperPass so I suppose I am one of the 'bad guys'
. I personally have no problems with spyware with them, I keep ad-aware installed, but I don't know if the pay version takes all of the spyware out of the equation.
As far as the email spam goes, more likely you entered it somewhere without thinking or someone else used it somewhere. I generally don't unsubscribe from spam lists unless they are from a known company, because that just confirms someone read the spam and gets you on other lists. Unsubscribing from Realnetworks would probably work.
As far as the software goes, it is a bit bloated, but I used it to manage all my music, and also get all my video news from it. They carry the ABCNews 'live' internet channel; and also a bunch of other streams.
I'm probably doubly bad because I pay for the Real Rhapsody service. I swear by it because you can stream over 500,000 songs on demand and the quality is great. Anyway, bring on the flames