RSSZango Drops Lawsuit Against PC Tools
By Nate Mook | Published August 28, 2007, 12:09 PM
Adware company Zango has voluntarily withdrawn its lawsuit against security software company PC Tools, which Zango accused of illegally removing its software from users' PCs without their express permission. The move follows a court's refusal to grant Zango a temporary restraining order.
The company had asked a court to prevent PC Tools' Spyware Doctor software from detecting and classifying Zango as potentially harmful, but a judge ruled it was "unlikely that the Plaintiff will be able to prove that the Defendant's software was unfair or deceptive."
Zango sued PC Tools in May, after filing a similar lawsuit against Zone Labs -- the maker of ZoneAlarm -- in 2005. PC Tools had rated Zango an "elevated" threat currently, but is in the process of reclassifying the software, perhaps to a more critical rating.
Zango demanded $35 million in damages from PC Tools for causing "irreparable harm."
"It appears that Zango has realised they were not going to prevail in this matter and the case has been withdrawn on this basis," said PC Tools CEO Simon Clausen. "We believe the case should not have been brought in the first place. The outcome sends a strong message that PC Tools will not be changing their classification of programs as a result of the threat of legal proceedings."
The move by Zango is not unexpected; the company dropped its lawsuit against Zone Labs in 2006 after coming under fire by the media. Zango claims its software "has been consensually installed by millions of users," but most security experts dispute this claim.
It took me three days to remove this piece of garbage-ware from my daughter's system. It put hidden files with obscure names in her directories to re-install the bull excrement each time she booted up. I finally had to remove several registry entries and every file created on the day that Zango was initially installed WITHOUT our permission. We had to reinstall the operating system before we did the registry hacks (I am A+ and MCSE certified) as Adaware and Spybot were unable to fully remove the garbage setup in the OS directories without crippling the system. If this software is harmless, then I'm Moses and I part the traffic on I-84 every morning to get to work faster! BTW, she still has problems with her system -- can I sue Zango in her behalf? (I think not as I cannot afford the attorneys and the time off from work)
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|Honestly, this part is truly hilarious.
which Zango accused of illegally removing its software from users' PCs without their express permission."
without their express permission."
Hypocrites? I don't think so. How dare they say without user's permission? This is so dumb, honestly. I have never heard anything dumber in my life.
Obviously the user has to click "Remove Selected" or similar for it to remove their software and that IS giving the software permission to perform the action. Talking about "without user's permission". Do THEY ask the user for their software to get installed at the first place by first clearly stating what the software really does in plain English?
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|"...which Zango accused of illegally removing its software from users' PCs without their express permission."
Yeah... because that's completely different than installing it illegally without the users' express permission. How dare they!
All these malware cretins should hang by the neck until dead... or at the very least we should find a way to deliver every instance of malware known to the civilized world onto their workstations. Let them try to be productive after that!
My job as a PC tech used to be fun until about 3 or 4 years ago. Now it's just so mundane.
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|good news for PC_Tool i guess.
congrads man!
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|*laughs*
I knew someone would hit that one.
I wasn't even aware until recently that these guys were still around.
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|As sue crazy as everyone is these days they may sue you for copyright infringement, even though its not spelled the same. Or maybe you could sue them, who was first, you or they?? LOL
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|They, I am sure.
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|Zango is crapware, I DON'T want it on my system. No one wants it on their systems. They neeed to STFU and die.
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|Ok, ok, calm down. Go grab a cheeseburger or something.
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|MMmmmm, cheeseburger...
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