FTC Shuts Down 'Pop-Up Trapping' Sites

Masem writes: "The FTC today ordered the shutdown of 5,500 sites owned by John Zuccarini, all of them the so-called 'typo' sites that common mis-entered URLs for popular sites (such as Annakurnikova.com); when the user visits these sites, their back button behavior in most popular browsers is modified as to open multiple pop-ups featuring ads for adult entertainment and gambling sites when pressed, and uses other technology to basically 'trap' the browser until the entire application has to be closed. While some sites are still operating, the FTC is going to take this matter to court, which may decide exactly how much control a web site can take over the end browser using JavaScript and ActiveX. CNet has the full story." Le Marteau contributes a link to the same story at the Washington Post.

Comments

Wow!

[Red Aardvark House]

And I thought X-10 was bad!

This type of advertising only frustrates users and creates animosity between advertiser and potential customer. This is an obvious and sometimes extreme nuisance, having to shut down your broweser at times!

Alienating your audience is not a good business practice.

Re:Wow!

[K8Fan]

I complained to the people manning the X-10 booth at CEDIA (Custom Electronics Design & Installation Asssociation - home theater and whole house electronics) convention. I tried telling the booth weasle how hated their ads are, and the smug jerkwad just kept repeating how many million "page views" they kept getting. I told them they could just as effectively get their logo tattooed on frat boys ass cheeks and pay them to drive around mooning people. Or use a soldering iron to burn the logo into a 2" by 4" and run around wacking people in the face with it.

Unclear on the concept does not seem to even come close to describing these morons. We have to do something more.

Does all this really work though?

[GreyyGuy]

One thing that surprised me is that this slime ball has been sued for this before and lost 57 cases tied to 200 domain names and been fined $800,000 to $1,000,000. And he's still doing it. The only reason he would still be doing this is if it is profitable, above and beyond court costs and fines.

Who is falling for all this and patronizing the sites that trap you like this?

Re:another step towards the ruin of the web.

[lizrd]

By lazily handing this problem over to the government and allowing them to "solve" it, we are setting more precedents which erode our First Amendment rights. Honestly, do we really want the government telling us how we can and can't write JavaScript programs?

Fortunately, what's happened isn't that the government has decided to regulate javascript, the FTC is just making a reasonable application of existing laws against deceptive business practices. What we're seeing here is legal action against deceptive practices. We are not seeing action to outlaw the use of a particular technology, or any restriction on your right to write and distribute any sort of javascript tool that you like. What we are seeing is a crackdown on a business practice that was already unethical and illegal.

Be very wary of falling into the trap of thinking that adding 'and do it with a computer' to the end of some already common thing makes it new and different. That's what Amazon did (We're going to keep our customers address and credit card number in a rolodex 'and we do it with a computer') and we all hate them for it.

Also be wary of falling into the trap of thinking that because the Internet is international no one can exert any authority over it. While it is certianly true that the US FTC has little to no authority over what foriegn companies do with offshore servers, there is still a responsiblity to put a stop to illegal actions when you are able to do so.