Judge OKs Competitive Pop-Up Ads

Mirkon writes "A while back, U-Haul filed suit against adware giant WhenU for displaying competing advertisements to users as they browsed U-Haul's site. Friday, District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee's ruling dismissed U-Haul's suit, saying '...the fact is that the computer user consented to this detour when the user downloaded WhenU's computer software from the Internet,' and 'Alas, we computer users must endure pop-up advertising along with her ugly brother, unsolicited bulk e-mail, "spam," as a burden of using the Internet.' While the ruling was issued in the context of unfair competitive marketing, it's speculated that this will have broad implications in the fight against adware - and they aren't kind to the user. WhenU chief executive Avi Naider is unfortunately quoted as saying 'This is a victory for consumer choice -- it ultimately protects consumers' right to control what they see on their computer screens.'"

Comments

Re:This is good

[AntiOrganic]

Like, morons choose to post something like:

1. Give consumers choice
2. Discreetly install spyware on computer
3. Profit!

I am really sick of seeing these. Oh, and "I, for one, welcome our new spyware ovrlords" really isn't funny either.

Re:Die pop-ups die!

[mph]

Die pop-ups die!

Why, it's German for "The pop-ups! The!"

It's a choice...

[devphil]

between the devil we know and the devil we don't.

Okay, fine, popups are legal. That particular devil we know very well, and I gots my armor of righteousness loaded up at boot. But if popups (even competitive ones) become illegal, then who knows what the poodlefuckers will come up with next.