Posted on 06/11/2004 1:33:41 PM PDT by Excuse_My_Bellicosity
The Legislature's Spyware Control Act regulating Internet advertising is being challenged in court, where a "pop-up" ad company is asking a judge to block the law that took effect last month, saying it is "arbitrary and Draconian" and abridges free speech.
In the first of two days of testimony, lawyers for New York-based WhenU.com Inc. on Thursday tried to convince 3rd District Judge Joseph Fratto Jr. to delay the law's application at least until the legal objections are sorted out.
WhenU lawyers told Fratto Utah's statute is the first attempt in the nation to directly regulate how and where advertising may appear on the Internet, which should be a matter of interstate commerce subject to federal, not state, jurisdiction.
Representing the state, attorney Blake Miller told Fratto that in many cases involving spyware, computer users are "tricked" into accepting "bait" software, or are not fully informed of how it will affect their computer. Later, users find the software difficult to remove. The state says some spyware has malevolent intent and may be used to steal computer users' identities.
"This is a very real threat and a real concern," Miller said, adding that because the pop-up advertising industry is reaping millions, "Spyware is only going to get worse, not better."
WhenU maintains its advertising software, which is used by 21 million people each month, is only installed on computers with users' consent and does not gather private information.
WhenU offers computer users useful free software, such as weather monitors or screen savers, in exchange for allowing a "directory" program to be loaded onto their hard drives. The program tracks the user's Web browsing habits, then generates -- or "pops up" -- related ads on the screen. For example, a consumer browsing travel sites might be offered deals on hotels or rental cars.
WhenU chief executive Avi Naidern testified that Utah's anti-spyware law potentially could cause the company irreparable financial damage, not only through its "draconian" $10,000 per violation fines, but by driving away partners and clients out of fear they may be liable for violations of the law.
Two Utah companies, Overstock.com and 1-800 Contacts, already are wrangling in court with WhenU, complaining its software inundates their Web sites with competitors' ads, costing them millions.
As to the state's privacy concerns, Naidern said his software does not track or profile its users and remains unaware of their names, let alone their gender or e-mail addresses or credit card numbers. The software sends only anonymous information back to WhenU, he said, to track the advertising effectiveness and to bill clients.
Miller argued WhenU's "geo-targeting" software already has the capability to inexpensively lock out Utah computers as a group. "It would be a simple matter to comply" with the law, Miller said. "The doom and gloom is overstated."
Death to pop-up and spyware!!!
Death penalty for popup distributers and spammers.
I would love to see the pop-ups go away, I have a slow dial-up and can't use Pop-up stopper, it takes so long for some pages to load.
... under the ever-popular theory that laws do not take effect until judgislators have had their say.
I hate it!
If this where actually true, WhenU would go out of business for a lack of clients...
That ain't happening. Thanks.
Get Spybot and Ad Aware and run them both (separately).
Run Spybot at least weekly thereafter, and Ad Aware daily.
It helps. A LOT!
That said, I ended up having to wipe my HD because I tried to manually remove gator and missed a few files. Reformatted and a NEW XP install, and no more problems.
What a crock!
These slimebuckets expect to sell that argument in court? I know of no instance where they warn users that they are "... allowing a "directory" program to be loaded onto their hard drives." Fat chance of anyone allowing that, once they undestand fully what the consequences are.
Someday...the lure of the penguin...you will find it irresistable.
I agree with Drudge -- as much as I hate pop-ups, they are a miniscule nuisance compared to the havoc which will be wreaked if legislatures use people's hatred of them to have an excuse to begin regulating the 'Net. Grin, click the close box, and bear it. It could be a LOT worse.
Anyuone who loads spyware on their machine has only themself to blame. Since pop-ups are so easy to block, anyone who gets them must want them.
Well, I sort of agree, but...these spyware companies are unethical in their approach. They trick people into installing their software, and then they do really rotten crap, like putting bogus entries in the hosts file, in order to keep the victim from being able to get to websites that offer decontamination software.
Know what I mean?
Thanks!
Drudge, being a well known example, has three pop-ups nowadays on his site, but I never see them while using Firefox. This is better than any standalone pop-up blocker I've tried, including the Google toolbar and even the almost new Yahoo spyware blocking toolbar.
There's no need to throw IE away. I still use IE sometimes, such as with NOAA radar sites, which uses that dang Java. (I found Java for Firefox/Mozilla a crash prone mess, and do not recommend it).
I ask you to give it a try "straight out of the box" with sites that give you trouble.
I had problems with Gain/Gator. I could always tell when it was loaded without my consent onto my machine, because it would slow me down to a crawl. SpyBot Search and Destroy did a very good job in removing it, but soon I would go to a website that would put it back on my machine again. Since SpyBot added the "immunize" feature, I haven't had the problem again. So get SpyBot Search and Destroy, scan for and delete the spyware, and then click on the "immunize" button.
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