Pop it, no more!!

Pop-Up ads are pesky, if not to all then to most of the people surfing internet. Almost all browsers come with a built in pop-up blockers now & those who don’t then there’s one way or many to get the pop-up blocking feature in them. These blockers work almost all of the times, blocking upto 99% pop-up ads, but then people deploying pop-up ads are also smart, they deploy ways to bypass pop-up blockers & indeed, some of the pop-ups do get pass them!! But this is a problem that programmers are supposed to overcome(to block pop-ups), so what can a lawyer do here? Well, for starters, a lawyer can sue & that can lead to less dirt spreading around.

New York’s attorney-general Eliot Spitzer has sued yet another pop-up advertising company called Direct Revenue LLC which, according to Spitzer, has installed millions of copies of their adware(s) which besides opening pop-up ads also monitor user activities on computers on which they are installed. A seeker of the Democratic nomination for governor this year, Spitzer has in past sued another company accusing them of installing spyware & adware on users’ computers without their knowledge & will. The unfortunate company to cross Spitzer was Los Angeles based Intermix Media Inc. which settled with the attorney general, agreeing to pay $750000 in penalties and another $7.5 million in penalties over three years.

On this new lawsuit, Spitzer has alleged that Direct Revenue or its distributers installed adwares on people’s computers by bundling them with free games, browsers and other software without mentioning the adwares that are installed with the said software. The adwares also thwarted user’s attempts to un-install it and sometimes re-installed themself. Spitzer was quoted saying:

These applications are deceptive and unfair to consumers, bad for businesses that rely on efficient networks to do their jobs, and bad for online retailers that need consumers to trust and enjoy their online experience. We will continue to side with consumers in their fight for control of their desktops.

Indeed it has been an uphill battle for users to keep control of their own computers with adware & spyware authors and distributors trying hard to lure the gullible into installing their doctored softwares!! Hoping that these lawsuits would yield a hope for internet users is folly, only a strict ban on them everywhere can do any good. :think:

Source: Yahoo! News