Adware Pop-Ups Found To Be Legal Again
from the legal?--yes.--annoying?--yes. dept
A couple months ago a judge determined that adware company WhenU (who is very similar to Gator) was perfectly legal in having their software pop up ads on the computers of those who installed the software. WhenU was being sued by sites who were pissed off that WhenU's ads were blocking their own. Now, in a different case arguing the exact same thing, the judge has read the law the same way and said WhenU does nothing wrong in putting pop-ups in front of others' websites. Whether or not they're sneaky and confusing to end users who are installing the software is a different matter altogether. But, it seems clear that websites who find that adware pops up new ads over their website have little legal recourse. As annoying as the adware is, this is the proper legal decision based on what this case was about. What might make more sense, though, is to have companies like WhenU and Gator be much more explicit about what they're doing to your computer.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
This is a good thing
It's your browser, not the sender's. They sent you HTML; you get to display it however you like, including not displaying part if you want. If you want to download some software that pops up different ads, that's your business.
Don't forget that there's a segment of the "entertainment" industry that disagrees: they want you to have to watch ads, and don't want you to time-shift or make copies for your own use.
There is a separate problem with software like Gator -- it's deceptive towards the end user. But that can be handled on its own merits. It's none of CNN's business how I choose to view it.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Registered criminals ?
Mike, with all due respect, that is the equivalent of asking all criminals to register their firearms and alert homeowners as to when they intend to rob them.
In theory, your idea makes sense, but Gator, Xupiter, Alexis, etc do not care to play by the rules to begin with or they would already do as your suggesting.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
"a couple of months ago..."
this is not:
"a couple months ago..."
Knock it off! Your grammar sucks.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
No Subject Given
http://www.winternet.com/~mikelr/flame31.html
[ link to this | view in chronology ]