Spitzer Goes After Nasty Spyware Firm

from the what-took-him-so-long? dept

Spyware maker Direct Revenue has been known for a long time as one of the nastier company's in the space. The whole litany of complaints includes sneaky installs (of course), regular name changes to escape reputation, and uninstalling competitors' adware (not sure why they didn't just stick to that, which people would have liked). Last year a class-action lawsuit was filed against the company, though it's not clear how effective that would be, given that most of the time it's the law firm looking for a payday. Finally, it looks like the book will be thrown at the company as NY Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has announced a lawsuit against them. Spitzer already won a big judgment against Intermix, and he should have no problem doing the same here. Fines and legal fees are becoming just another cost of business for these companies -- if anyone has the power and will to get these guys shut down, it's Spitzer.
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  • identicon
    Brandon Wigfield, 4 Apr 2006 @ 7:31pm

    Get 'em where it counts

    While I'm glad to see these spyware companies starting to get hit where in counts, the pocket book, I don't much care for lawyers making the money off it. It would be nice to see a non-profit fighting this stuff funnelling the money made in one lawsuit into fighting off the next company doing the same dirty deeds.

    --Brandon Wigfield

    link to this | view in chronology ]


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