WhenU.com Enjoined From Competing Pop-Ups

Frisky070802 writes "The NY Times reports that a preliminary injunction has been issued against WhenU.com, a company that distributes software that performs certain tasks for users but also intercepts their website visits so that, for instance, a visitor to Expedia would see a pop-up ad for Orbitz. Now if only we could get rid of all the rest of the pop-up ads."

Comments

It just reminds me how low the internet has gotten

[Anonymous Coward]

The internet seems to become more worthless every day, as more and more of it is hijacked by spammers and other commercialization.

How can we take it back? If we can't, how can we replace it with something more resistant to these electronic malignancies?

I want instant communication with friends and colleagues all over the planet, but I don't want UCE. I want instant access to the world's knowledge on all topics, from crucial news to movie trivia, but I want it without viruses, interstitial ads, popups, spyware, and all that other crap.

By using Linux with some other specialized software, I have erected a defensive perimeter around my internet existence, so the tidal wave of garbage largely passes me by. But the walls need maintenance, and there always seems to be some new leak that needs plugging.

It's regrettable that we need to take such drastic measures, but what really worries me is that the need is increasing with time. Can you imagine the situation where 99% of your email is spam? Is there an alternative to giving up email entirely at that point?

What about CoolWebSearch?

[Tuxedo Jack]

WhenU pales in comparison to CoolWebSearch. If yo udon't know what that is, it's a Trojan that drops files on your computer that change your IE settings, slow down/crash IE/your system, and can download and execute arbitrary unsigned code, and one version (CWS.ehhtp) tracks everything you do on the Web that begins with WWW, as it changes the prefix "WWW" to "http://ehttp.cc/?". Over 23 variants of it have been documented in _five months_.

WhenU is at least installed through legal means. CWS installs through holes in the MS Java Machine.

If the courts wish to create injunctions against spyware/adware, why don't they just go against these first?

(For more information on CWS, if you're interested, check out Merijn's section on it. His CWShredder tool is quite nice.)