RSSNY Attorney General Targets Spyware
By Ed Oswald | Published April 28, 2005, 11:55 AM
New York Attorney General Elliot Spitzer sued Internet marketer Intermix Media of Los Angeles on Thursday, over claims that the company installed spyware and adware on computers that came in contact with its advertisements. This included the attempted installation of toolbar items, and programs that delivered unwanted ads.
Spitzer announced the suit had been filed in New York City shortly following the conclusion of a six-month investigation into the company's practices. The investigation found that Intermix had installed its software on computers across the country, and had violated New York's advertising and business practice laws.
Spitzer also is suing Intermix for trespassing under the state's common law. According to the investigation, more than 3.7 million New Yorkers were affected.
"These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers," Spitzer told reporters. "These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce."
Advertisers whose ads were served by the company are not targeted by the lawsuit.
Spitzer has made it a point of his tenure as New York's attorney general to go after what he sees as corporate wrongdoing against consumers. He has successfully taken on Wall Street and several insurance industry firms. Spitzer has now turned his attention to the Internet, as he argues companies like Intermix are a threat to the success of e-commerce.
I am not really annoyed by ad's online, only pop-ups and unders, personally I love to discover new products and I h ave in the past bought many useful things I only discovered via the web.
Score: 0
|Betanews just this week had AD-MUNCHER on file forum.I suggest using it.My feeling is it THE BEST program I have purchased of ANY type.One of its many options is it can be shut down when needed.Also it has proxy and many other options.
Score: 0
|Could be in theory an alright way to combat spam, just get them so scared of being sued out of existence and jail-time that and all American pop-ups would go away.
It still would be super easy to host your files outside of the United States. Even if you remote into that machine from within the United States they still cannot bust you because the physical location of the files being put onto peoples machines is outside the US.
Score: 0
|About time someone went after them...
although there are so many out there that don't have a "legal" company behind them...
But just like the can spam act...Good luck on trying to get people who do it the "illegal" way to follow the rules...:-)
Score: 0
|I know that I myself am tired of pop-ups, pop-unders, silent installers, trojans, adware, spyware and all the like trying to hijack my system
Its time the common-man/woman gets a voice to stop these evil-doers... so where do i sign up at?
Score: 0
|The individual advertisers should be named in the suit as well. They are aware of the practices and are promoting the illegal endeavors.
I am glad to see this happening. It could be the beginning of the domino effect.
Score: 0
|Hopefully if Spitzer, et al can win lawsuits against these companies with some frequency there will be more options for publishers that don't want to submit their users to this garbage. It seems like now days unless you fit in a specific nitch you have to either have ads with spyware, adware, etc. or get paid pennies per cpm.
Score: 0
|Sue AbetterInternet, TVmedia, and 180solutions while you're at it man!
Score: 0
|