Posted on 09/08/2003 1:42:26 PM PDT by Pikamax
Web users 'must endure' pop-up ads
Owen Gibson Monday September 8, 2003
Internet users will continue to be plagued by unwanted pop-up adverts after a US judge ruled websites can do nothing to prevent companies placing ads on
ADVERTISEMENT
their pages without permission. "Alas, we computer users must endure pop-up advertising," district judge Gerald Bruce Lee ruled in a US court in Virginia.
While this ruling applies only to America, other US-based web judgments have tended to set a precedent on this side of the Atlantic.
The decision is a blow to the owners of websites that have been plagued by rogue advertising.
Over the past two years online publishers have filed more than a dozen lawsuits against internet advertising firms Gator Corporation and WhenU.com.
The companies operate by offering web surfers free software or downloads, such as video players or screen savers, that come with ad serving programmes attached.
Once downloaded they will then be shown pop-up adverts independent of the website they are visiting.
While many of the online publishers complaining about Gator and WhenU.com also deliver pop-up ads to their users, they argue they can limit the number of times they are shown and ensure the adverts are suitable for their audience.
Dotcoms are also concerned the pop-ups offered by companies such as Gator may advertise products and websites that rival their own.
"Computer users, like this trial judge, may wonder what we have done to warrant the punishment of seizure of our computer screens by pop-up advertisements for secret web cameras, insurance, travel values and fad diets," Mr Lee said.
However, he ruled that, while annoying, the adverts did not break any trademark or copyrights laws and consumers had generally agreed to download the ad serving software.
"Ultimately it is the computer user who controls the windows displayed on the computer desktop," he said.
However, many users complain is often far from obvious that they are agreeing to install the "spyware" software on their computers and that, once installed, it is difficult to remove.
The suit was brought by removal company U-Haul International, which said it was considering an appeal.
Last year Gator reached an out of court settlement with a dozen media companies, including the Washington Post and Dow Jones, over similar complaints.
Gator also faces outstanding suits from other online publishers.
After 1.5, the Mozilla suite is being broken up into pieces. The browser will be Firebird, the mail reader is Thunderbird. etc.
If you get the Mozilla Firebird 0.6.1 release I think it uses Mozilla/Gecko 1.4 for rendering. If you download the nightly versions though they use the latest Mozilla/Gecko.
My copy is built with 1.5b from Sept 4th.
Yep, that happened to me, too. :-(
Watch out for a new one called ClearSearch. I spent all day Saturday taking that SOB off my harddrive. Not sure how I got it either . . . Except perhaps it was one of their tricky pop-ups that fooled me into answering incorrectly. It said something like, "Do you want to continue being in the dark about all our great internet bargains?" Answering 'no' downloads and intalls ClearSearch.
I am using Safaria, and usually like it, but some web-sites are not friendly to it!
Tia
Can you tell me where to get a list of them? I finally installed zonealarm pro on my home network. Works great. Blocks the popups, blocks most of the porn, and keeps my kids worked up when they sometimes can't go where they want to go.
Interesting, that. Was your uncle told, as we were, that anti-spyware should NOT be installed on a Dell computer? I thought it odd, but one of the Dell techies told me, at least, that installing any of it might make my warranty invalid. So maybe they have a stake in keeping us loaded down with internet crud?
Have you read the Avant FAQ?
I only run into a couple of web sites per year that I really must use and that really require scripting to function at all. If these sites are frequently visited and you don't want to keep turning on scripting temporarily whenever you visit them, you can configure them as "trusted sites" (see the Tools/Internet Options/Security pane). I give the main internet zone very tight settings; and then give the trusted sites the same security settings as the main internet zone except that scripting is enabled. If you also have a firewall that is blocking scripting, it also needs a manually configured rule for its equivalent of a trusted site.
Anyone running Linux, MAC OS/X, or the Mozilla browser under Windows has escaped the onslaught...
I like the Firebird 0.6.x over Mozilla 1.4. The pop-up and ad blocking are must haves IMO. I also like it's just a browser and not a 5-in-1 suite.
You can download Firebird and try it out without it doing anything funny to your Mozilla/Netscape/IE, if you want to compare.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.