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

Update:

[linux4life]

I'm not sure if he was taken in for questioning or if he was actually arrested for this. I didn't know that this was an actual arrestable offence, but there's an image of him being (what looks like) actually arrested on Linux Today.

Re:How cool can it be?

[MadAhab]

Offtopic? Give me a fucking break. Slashdot has always had some bug that causes posts to end up on the wrong article now and then.

Re:another step towards the ruin of the web.

[Alsee]

Yep, it's a broswer problem.

Anyone adding features and creating standards needs to be more careful. Before adding a new useful feature the possibilities for abuse need to be carefully considered.
Heck, having the operating system constantly listening to download and run arbitrary code could be useful for automatic updates and such.
Oh, wait a minute - that already exists in several Microsoft products to recieve the free CodeRed and NIMDA patches.