Slashdot Mirror
Bonzi Class Action Suit Settled: No Foolin'!
An anonymous reader writes "According to this
article in the Toronto Star, a class
action suit against Bonzi Software has reached a settlement.
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user
interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their
banners. This is a big win for the community as it will help to improve the
Internet's ailing perceived user experience.
Most of you have seen Bonzi's banners, and probably most of you won't admit
to having been fooled by them at some point. Well, imagine how many novice computer
users were tricked into installing again, or paying for software they really did not need.
Congratulations and thanks to Lukins & Annis
for a job well done.
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites."
so how does this help those same novice users who had to pay for expensive PC repair because they also didn't know how to remove the software?
Mike
"The San Luis Obispo, Calif., software company has reached a
settlement in a landmark U.S. case that could have far-reaching
impact for companies that try to disguise their online banner
ads."
That seems like a pretty drastic over-statement. This is a
settlement, the judge didn't decide in their favor. I don't
think settlements have any value as far as precedent goes.
That's why so many people settle cases in the first place. To
classify this as a "landmark" case looks like someone is having
delusions of grandeur.
I am happy to see that they'll stop using those irritating
banners though. They don't usually get me anymore, but every
once in a while they'll cause a minor palpitation (unless of
course I'm on a Linux box).
Doug Tolton
"The destruction of a value which is, will not bring value to that which isn't." -John Galt
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites.
Ah...a little thing called justice.
Anyone remember when Bonzi first came out? I was a tech back then, and almost all of the systems on the campus were crashing and experiencing major slow down for a couple of days. I would run the usual gamut of questions: "Did you install anything new? Are you using AIM or ICQ? How many programs do you have open?". Asking these questions over the phone is futile, but you do it anyways, cause you're a lazy tech and you don't want to leave the air conditioned NOC. So I had to eventually turn off the game of Quake, log out of heat.net, and carry my lazy ass down to all of the offices. It was funny to be half listening to the clerk/professor/secretary/manager telling me about how they "never install anything on their computer" and how they "always run scandisk and the virus scanner on Friday at 4:30pm" and bla bla bla, just as their system grinds to a halt with a big purple ape on the screen jumping out at you, and the jarring blare of a long drawn out "uh ohh!!" that corresponds with the reception of 80 new ICQ messages.
I agree, m4d props to L&A for showing them up. I've never actually clicked on one of them (I swear) but my friend, who uses the same computer, does so numerously. I pretty much have to uninstall Gator and such on a daily basis.
When you don't have a leg to stand on, don't even get up.
I thought my OS X aqua icons turned into these nasty, square-shaped, clunky, windows-esch styled buttons.
Seems to be work for me. Maybe your isp blocked that domain on there dns servers. Interestingly anough I got this popup image when I visted the site.
My dad used to use bonzi before I explained what a fool he was for installing spy ware. He like the bonzi-buddy (the little Microsoft Agent Charater) because he could make it talk and it would sing to him.
No.
Their scheme (not to be mistaken for the way more profitable, way more illegal Ponzi scheme) most likely made them enough money to be of value to a lot of other seedy companies.
Still - a milestone !
Except for one thing...parody with intent to defraud is not protected, and never has been (so far as I know, IANAL). Bonzai and other similar UI based ads were completely and totally intended to fool the unsupecting user into taking an action they ordinarily wouldn't, and generally to spend money they wouldn't ordinarily spend. That's fraud, and it's illegal, even if you claim it's a parody.
There needs to be a way for the IP addresses of known bad guys, like Bonzi and Gator, to be filtered out at the ISP level so they do not massively disrupt computers. Perhaps a central authority used to designate spyware domain names and IP addresses...
Bonzi will not pay damages but will be required to stop using fake user interface (FUI) style error messages to trick users into clicking on their banners. This is a big win for the community ...
A big win? What are you smoking? Bonzai duped countless users for years and completely got away with it. They didn't have to pay anything. A big win would be if they got slapped with such a huge fine that it would serve as a lesson to other companies contemplating the same sort of "business model".
GMD
watch this
Bonzi doesn't have to pay any money? I guess Perfect Tommy and the rest of the Hong Kong Cavaliers managed to save the day after all!
:)
Bad joke, I know but it had to be said, err... written.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Your operating system sucks. Click here to install Linux now! [Ok]
You're either trolling or smoking something, but I'll bite. These are not 'similar' interfaces to encourage familiarity and comfort. These are 'similar' interfaces to deceive "customers" into thinking that it's not an advertisement but rather is part of the system's normal warnings.
It's kin to the full-page magazine ads that look just like stories - which have been found to be deceiving, which is why they all have to have 'advertisement' printed at the top and bottom.
Also, parodic uses of common UI's do occur. These are protected under the first amendment. Just for civil liberties in general this is a bad court case. It's similar to the Nike free-speech/commercial speech court case recently in the US supreme court.
This was not a parody. This was not a satire. This was intended to deceive viewers into thinking it actually was the original art, thus violating the protections given to parody and satire.
-T
Whenever a Java applet wants to create a window it will have a prominent border saying 'Warning: applet window'. This is so that applets can't spoof dialogue boxes belonging to other applications.
Web browsers ought to do the same, although sticking a border round every image might be overkill. Perhaps some hairy heuristic could work out what looks 'rather like' a system window and disguise it appropriately. I'm talking here of images embedded in web pages (which can still look near enough like a dialogue box to fool novice users). Popup windows, of course, are the spawn of Satan and should be blocked by default anyway.
-- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
I will admit up front that I am not terribly familiar with this case, but I have to say that I think you are wrong.
Don't misunderstand me, I am a HUGE fan of the first amendment (and an ACLU member). But I believe that the Bonzi ads are fraud. Fraud is not protected, not should it be. They are trying to trick people into clicking, not entice people into clicking, a very important difference. I don't think that this adversely effects the 1st, even in cases of interface parody... (esp. since it is a settlement, not a decision).
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
... Your system apparently is also in need of a decent spellchecker. Please go here for more information.
"We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars." - Oscar Wilde
Will EVER beat the Window Messaging Service pop-up I got selling a program that blocks Windows Messaging Service. They never responded to my emails as to whether or not they offered "change your windows background" or "how to change your boot-up wav" software.
Finally, math books without any of that base 6 crap in them.
What in tarnations are yall talkin about. I use Mozilla everyday, I never seen one of these Bonzi Gorilla Men!!!! What is the big hullabaloo about:)
HenryJamesFeltus.com
Bonzi's popups do have "Advertisement" up in the "title bar".
So I guess there should be a different litmus test for online ads than for print ones?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Seems like someone would try to create ads that follow the Aqua L&F...at least if they are selling their 'goods' to a Mac crowd.
On the other hand, Apple may not like that, and be more proactive than MS in stopping this kind of thing.
Practice Kind Randomness and Beautiful Acts of Nonsense.
### GIVE ME A BREAK! ### Has anyone noticed the guy (Philip J. Carstens) who is suing Bonzi Software also sued his "former employer" after he sustained an "injury" of a "traumatic nature" when he bit into a piece of "Halloween Candy" taken from a dish located on the reception desk of his employer and "broke loose a dental crown."
It's kind of like the story about the burglar who sued for being trapped for 8 days in a garage of a house that he burgled -- with "nothing" to survive on, except a case of soft drinks and a bag of dry dog food.
You should read his legal arguement: "The candy was either furnished by Mr. Carstens' employer, or by the receptionist employed by Mr. Carstens' employer, with full knowledge of the company's management and because the injury occurred in the course of his employment, Mr. Carstens had clearly sustained an injury compensable under the Industrial Insurance Act."
Compensable? What does that word mean? Do they mean like... as in... compensation? Do they mean like... M-O-N-E-Y?
But the really shocking thing is: HE WON THE CANDY LAWSUIT AND ACTUALLY GOT MONEY FOR HIS "TRAUMATIC INJURIES"! You can read all the "traumatic" details of that fateful day at: http://www.wa.gov/biia/890723.htm
However, there's one more interesting twist to this story. It turns out the "businessman" who filed the lawsuit is not really a "businessman" after all, but a lawyer who is just pretending to be someone else -- and it gets worse -- the "employer" that Mr. Carstens sued was none-other-than the law firm of "Ludkins & Annis" -- that's right, the same law firm who is now suing Bonzi Software on Mr. Carstens' behalf.
If you are scratching your head, so am I. I don't get it. What's really going on here? This lawyer claims he does not work for the law firm of Ludkins & Annis -- yet, their website in Google's "cache" says: "Philip J. Carstens has been a principal at the law firm of Ludkins & Annis since 1974."
SO LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT. YOU HAVE A LAWYER -- WHO SUID HIS OWN LAW FIRM FOR BEING "TRAUMATICLY INJURED" BY A PIECE OF HALOWEEN CANDY -- AND NOW THIS SAME GUY HAS BEEN "INJURED" BY INTERNET POP-UP ADS TOO.
The poor guy. I guess some people just have all the bad luck.
Not just Bonzai, but all of those ads that try to 'trick' users into clicking through: fake 'X' buttons, bogus radio buttons, etc...
How many people, once fooled into the company's web site, decide "Hey, I'm already here. Why not give them my credit card number for some useless piece of shit I don't need."
?
I'm serious. Has there ever been a study on this sort of thing?
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
Liars. They think lying's an OK way to make a buck. And like all liars, they think everyone else is a liar, too, which makes it OK.
They have no idea that the content of one's character is the most important thing in the world. Contrary to what the religions of mammon would have you believe, the ONLY truly holy thing there can ever be is an impeccable character. I'd much MUCH rather sleep in the gutter with a sparkling character than be a Banzi executive.
Bunch of animals, those Banzi creatures, and everyone like them... no, I take that back... most animals are sincere... humans have the corner on the liars market.
Mod down people who tell people how to mod in their sigs
These banners aren't fraudulent just because of what they say -- although what they say is certainly deceptive as well. My most serious objection to them is that they are deliberately designed to look like something much more important than advertising. If a company started putting up roadside advertisements made to look like road construction signs, little carts with blinking arrows made of individual lights (such as the DOT uses), and so on, in order to convince drivers that their driveway was the next exit, or that it was imperative to get off at their exit as part of a detour due to road construction, would we allow that? (Okay, Microsoft is not a government agency, but the importance of operating systems error messages on a computer is very similar to the importance of highway department messages on a highway.)
WARNING Linux user! You have some Micro$oft webpages in your browser's cache! We can help you remove them safely!
Open up a shell and type: apt-get install hitthemonkey
K THX!
\\ Mitch
If you're an admin, you got the power. If you own your PC, you got the power. The last thing the 'net needs is some "central authority" to determine who gets to talk and who doesn't.
Spyware Blaster (http://www.javacoolsoftware.com/spywareblaster.ht ml) is nice because it prevents spyware from installing by fooling Windows into thinking its already installed by making regisitry keys with the spyware ClassIDs. It also prevents you from seeing ads and spyware by changing IE's privacy host to reject anything from a list of spyware domains. (even doubleclick.net so about half the ads on the internet disapeared in IE for me) It also auto-updates its known host list. This will only help you prevent spyware, but it also comes with a tool for reseting your browser pages. (So if you installed yahoo bar and can't figure out where it reset your default search page and error pages at in the regisitry this will help).
Ad-aware (http://www.lavasoft.de/index.html) is a nice client side product for scanning and cleaning out spyware from your system. Its free version will do almost everything the paid version will but it won't doing anything automaticaly.
mynetwatchman.com does a very good job at listing bad hostnames and ips so if you want you can check that site for more info.
Hope that helps!
No.
I'll admit it, they got me once. I don't think the company was Bonzi, but this company had a really dirty trick :) They had a regular FUI, then an extra control menu graphic on top of the regular FUI, in a window with no menus. I instantly recognized it as another fake windows popup, and as I have been so accustomed to doing, I went to close it down, and clicked on the added destroy window button graphic and was of course taken to some site with no interest to me.
That's just dirty..
Everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It's just that yours is stupid.
gimme an 'R'!
gimme an 'E'!
gimme a 'C'!
gimme another 'E'!
gimme a 'D'!
gimme yet another 'E'!
gimme an 'N'!
gimme a 'T'!
What's that spell?
PRECEDENT!
Now there's a definition of "friend" of which I was previous unacquainted with.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
It took me days to convince my girlfriend that bonzi buddy was not her friend. The same thing happened with comet cursor. I had to explain to her that you can get southpark cursors without a special program. It is just too easy to fool people into installing this software. I basically do the maintenance on all of my friends' computers (for free), and this spyware stuff is getting out of hand. In my opinion it is already more hostile to the average user than spam and viruses combined.
Slashdotter are stupid and biased.
nope -- I don't see any of them anymore thanks to the userContent.css style sheet.
it will match urls for ads and replace the image with nothing. So, you get the web page without any irritating ads at all.
The css lines are customizable as much as you like. They look like this:
A:link[HREF*="?click"] IMG { display: none ! important }
A:link[HREF*="?banner"] IMG { display: none ! important }
more details and the file at this url:l laCustomize
http://www.fogcat5.com/twiki/bin/view/Fogcat/Mozi
I worked at a corporate office for about a week before everyone got laid off. Naturally, they learned of my skill with computers and wanted me to fix them during breaktime and such. Being nice, I did. AOL Companion. AOL. Bonzi buddy. Gator. Weathercast. With these programs and Windows open only, newly booted, the machines had about 20% free system resources. Considering they'd be working and Gator or Bonzi buddy would popup and make noise and disturb them, how much damage is it doing? How much fun is it to be in the middle of a big data entry project, in the 'zone' and you get disturbed by a gigantic monkey with no 'off' button that wants to eat/nap/take your money? Not very much, I'd imagine. So I uninstalled everything. AOL Companion, Bonzi buddy, Gator, Weathercast, but I left AOL on non-startup. Just for their convenience. Next day same thing happens. "I was just clicking the targets and..." The targets. Isn't it illegal to say you've won something and you've really won nothing? Not even a high score on the high score list. But you've just won SPYWARE for your mad banner-clicking skills. Don't get me started on how illegal things like Xupiter should be to put on someone's computer without their permission. Even if their computer gracefully accepts the file and will run it, it still should require the users' authorization. And none of those "Installing.." boxes that just pop up with a progress bar and no cancel button or X, either.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
We know the consumers got nothing, but how many new BMWs are being bought with the settlement cash?
sulli
RTFJ.
Now we just need a suit against Microsoft for that annoying Office Paperclip... I'll get you paperclip! You may have won the battle, but the war is not over! You're dead paperclip! DEAD!
I'm just happy that I got my computer illiterate parents to use Mozilla. When the telco guy was installing DSL, he told them that they'd have to use IE and Outlook. I nearly kicked him out on his ass.
hang brain.
This could have been ended years ago if Microsoft had dropped a Look & Feel lawsuit on them. After all, they defend even their ownership of the word "Windows".
Or was this some secret plan of MS's -- like licensing *nix from SCO when SCO doesn't own it -- to get people to upgrade to XP so these banner ads will appear obsolete? This is how MS protects their users, by changing the whole visual metaphor?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I agree. Whoppdy-do-da-day if my computer is broadcasting an its IP. Any intelegent person would laugh if they seen that. Everyone thinks that if someone knows your IP, its then end of the world because they hear "He got my ip and then hacked me." or something. Its a misconseption about what your ip is for. The only reason anyone would worry at this this level is if you were totally insecure (using windows without any patchs for example) or you were doing something illegal (like on a warez site and since bonzi advertises on warez sites mostly, its a very nice place to put that ad). It doesn't really mater anyways. Very few of us have a static ip address, so it changes all the time so it not a perminate address. I could on and on, and there are so many resources on this (even on slashdot) that I really don't need to say much.
No.
So that their banner look like... stupid banners!
Now, where is the class action suit against stroboscope ones ?
Your computer is transmitting an IP address!
Helpful warning, kind of one the same lines as:
Your epidermis is showing!
TallGreen CMS hosting
so any word on when I get my money for shocking that bouncing monkey thing!
I think every dad in America double-clicks hyperlinks... at least almost every dad of a Gen-X tech worker since we're about that age.
My favorite was him coming to me trying to get the pr0n, complete with dialer, off of the computer and giving the excuse of "I was just trying to see how easy it was to protect your [younger] sister." Tsk tsk tsk.
But then again my dad is far enough up in management (and has been) that he didn't see ANY humor in Office Space at all. Now THAT is sad.
unf.
I'm happy those bogus errors will finally be put to an end, atleast from Bonzi. I'm rather disturbed that the firm that won this lawsuit is called Annis. Am I to believe that all lawyers are assholes, or just in that one practice?
For those of you who have been connected since the early 90s/late 80s do you remember how the net was friendly place? Fine people mostly academics and uber geeks, no trolls, no hassle, no spam, hardly any banner ads. Not those full size flashes that interrupt your reading.
back in those good old days when the ICQ numbers were less than one million, and the beautiful Netscape animated logo (early browser 2.x & 3.x) distracted you till a juicy HTML downloads. Not the stupid Bonzi shit we must live with, a non-tech friend of mine asked me to help him with his computer and I discovered this Bonzi crap, after hours of registry tweaking I managed to remove it, instead of providing a real valuable service their business model is to fuck their customers and ruin there machines and trick them into installing their crap Bonzi, its like selling pizza by stuffing it in your client throat.
Don't misunderstand me, I am a HUGE fan of the first amendment (and an ACLU member).
You are correct. This has nothing to do with the first amendment, nor do most issues where people cry out about it. The first amendment, with relation to freedom of speech, simply states that the GOVERNMENT cannot prevent free speech, except in the cases of public endangerment, fraud, or misrepresentation. Police may not be allowed to stop a 'peaceful protest,' but Joe Citizen can go down and put duct tape over their mouths.**
This case against Bonzi is purely fraud and misrepresentation. They are purposely deceiving potential "clients" in hopes of gaining something of monetary value.
-Ab.
** Putting duct tape over their mouth to shut them up does NOT infringe on their first amendment rights. Private citizens and entities retain the right to regulate speech. It does, however, break other laws, such as simple assault, unlawful detainment, and generally being a prick.
Nothing fails quite like prayer.
I am not suggesting that I think he was in the right, but the precedent from his case could help others who might be more dramatically affected by similar injuries. Don't be so quick to bad-mouth the guy.
I never would have noticed.
notepad c:\windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts
127.0.0.1 casino.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 download.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 images.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzibuddy.com
...it's good to see the monkey being spanked.
Max
My god carries a hammer. Your god died nailed to a tree. Any questions?
http://www.bonzi.com isn't really down.
Kazaa Lite and other applications come with a modified Hosts file you can use to route a number of nasty sites to localhost.
http://www.bonzi.com is one of the sites that are blocked by default.
Very nice. I like it, and it's funny to see IE open a popup that loads my workstation's custom 404 error message instead of sending me to popup Hell. Doubleclick and other sites are in that same custom hosts file.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
penguin $ grep bonzi.com /etc/hosts
127.0.0.1 casino.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 images.bonzi.com
127.0.0.1 www.bonzi.com
It was a ugly dialog box thingy that didn't really match the rest of my interface. It said that I had to "click to cancel" a theme change in OSX- so I clicked it and fortunately they were not lying 'cause everything stayed the same.
I'm so glad OS X gave me a chance to cancel that, I don't know what I'd do if I had to deal with an interface that ugly!! (Thank You Apple)
I clicked on the http://www.bonzi.com link and I get a popup that states:
Internet Alert
Your Computer is Currently Transmitting An Internet IP Address. With This Address, Someone Can Begin Attackign Your Computer.
Download Internet Alert To Protect Yourself Now!
haha classic. I've seen this one before but in light of the settlement I think its even funnier that I Just got that.
======== In the future, everything will be artificial. ========
I'm usually very much against internet vigilantism, but I would think if any company deserved to have their boxes DOS'd these creeps do.
Having had several relatives fall into one of their traps only to call me pleading for help and explaining how they got this error message that their computer was "under performing" and that this software would fix everything and now windows can't find this "Registry" thing.
Then again, when I worked in the corporate helpdesk I had a user call me one day complaining that his computer didn't work... upon further discussion it came to light that he ran out of disk space so he deleted all his (we'll as many as he could before his computer started freaking out) DLL's off the machine.
Yes Francis, the world has gone crazy.
Interestingly, bonzi.com has been returning connection refused all day. This is usually one of the net's busiest sites." ;-)
So what do people do when they read this, they click it to see if its true - that was just a ploy to get us to slashdot the site wasnt it
Slashdot - The one stop shop for procrastination
I was curious, if some of you pro computer people could answer. How many of those popup ads are getting written and served up to Windows computers by Linux computers???
HenryJamesFeltus.com
I've never been fooled by the gui lookalikes, because, quite simply, they don't look like my gui.
I've never particularly liked the standard windows colour scheme, so one of the first things I do after installing is change it.
Consequently, a picture of a grey button looks very out of place on my desktop.