Spitzer's New Target

[Coast2Coast]

Can anyone remember any attorney general...state or Federal...who has seemingly accomplished so much? Al Gore may have invented the internet, but apparently Spitzer is going to be the one to clean it up. You go, dude.


Spitzer Sues Intermix Over 'Spyware'

By MICHAEL GORMLEY
Associated Press Writer
Published April 28, 2005, 4:06 PM CDT


ALBANY, N.Y. -- New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer sued a major Internet marketer Thursday, blaming it for secretly installing software that delivers nuisance pop-up advertisements and can slow and crash personal computers.

Shares of the company, Intermix Media Inc., fell 83 cents, or 17 percent, to close at $3.97 on the American Stock Exchange.

Spitzer accuses Intermix of redirecting computer users to Web sites where ads get displayed, adding unnecessary toolbars to Web browsers and delivering unwanted ads that pop up on computer screens.

A six-month investigation found that the company installed a wide range of advertising software on countless personal computers nationwide, with more than 3.7 million downloads directed at New Yorkers alone, Spitzer said.

"Spyware and adware are more than an annoyance," Spitzer said. "These fraudulent programs foul machines, undermine productivity and in many cases frustrate consumers' efforts to remove them from their computers. These issues can serve to be a hindrance to the growth of e-commerce."

Christopher Lipp, senior vice president and general counsel for Intermix, denied promoting or condoning spyware, saying its toolbars and redirect applications do not collect personal information on computer users.

He added that "many of the practices being challenged were instituted under prior leadership, and Intermix has been voluntarily and proactively improving these applications and related consumer disclosure and functionality for some time."

In a separate move, CNET Networks Inc. announced it was removing nearly 600 programs from its popular Download.com service under a new ban on "adware," or software for distributing advertising. CNET already had a ban on spyware.

"Our decision to expand our ban from just spyware to all forms of bundled adware is based on user feedback," said Scott Arpajian, senior vice president of Download.com.

Citing privacy, Arpajian would not identify the programs removed, but said few were very popular. He also said he did not know whether Intermix's products was among them.

According to Spitzer, Intermix owns and operates such Web sites as mycoolscreen.com, cursorzone.com and flowgo.com, which advertised screensavers, games and other software available for download. Though those programs are free, they often carry other software for delivering ads and can interfere with normal computer use, he said.

One of the company's ad-delivery programs, "KeenValue," delivered pop-up ads while another program, "IncrediFind," redirected Web addresses to Intermix's own search engine, Spitzer said.

The ad software sometimes comes without notice, or if a user was asked permission, it was often through a vague reference in a lengthy licensing agreement that could be misleading or inaccurate, investigators said.

The programs sometimes omitted "un-install" applications and couldn't be removed by most computers' add/remove function, Spitzer said.

Spitzer's civil suit accuses Intermix of violating state General Business Law provisions against false advertising and deceptive business practices. He also accuses them of trespass under New York common law.

Spitzer, after taking on Wall Street and the insurance industry, is taking a harder look at Internet companies he believes are stunting the growth of e-commerce.

"We are looking across the industry at these practices because it really does go to the core of e-commerce," said Kenneth Dreifach, chief of Spitzer's Internet Bureau, "Increasingly, people don't feel in control."

Some repair shops blame spyware for more than half the trouble they're seeing.

"Spyware is creating tremendous problems," said Tony Thompson of Blue Coat Systems Inc., an anti-spyware vendor. Help desk technicians "are getting inundated about complaints of machines running poorly and taking a long time to boot up."

The advertisers, which include Fortune 500 companies, aren't targeted.

Dreifach said negotiations with the company didn't result in a settlement, and more cases are possible.

"One of Internet users' biggest frustrations today is unwanted software that sneaks onto computers without their owner's consent and cannot be uninstalled," Ari Schwartz, the Associate Director Center for Democracy and Technology, "The practices alleged in this case are widespread on the Internet."

 

[Phaedrus]

Can anyone remember any attorney general...state or Federal...who has seemingly accomplished so much? Al Gore may have invented the internet, but apparently Spitzer is going to be the one to clean it up. You go, dude.

This forum interface is so confusing ... I can't find the "choking on my on vomit" tag to save my life.

Al Gore invented the Internet and Eliot Spitzer is here to save us from it?

Ack. Pfpht.


Phaedrus

 

[JinnRikki]

Al Gore invented the Internet and Eliot Spitzer is here to save us from it?

Ack. Pfpht.


Phaedrus

I know that must be a link to Gore actually saying he invented the internet, but I can't get it to work.
Here's one that works.
Oh, wait he didn't actually say he invented the internet did he?

 

[Phaedrus]

Don't know why you're pointing that thing at me; I didn't say he said it.

Also worth a look if you're in the mood to defend Gore though (from your own link)

However, validating even the lesser claim Gore intended to make is problematic. Any statement about the "creation" or "beginning" of the Internet is difficult to evaluate, because the Internet is not a homogenous entity (it's a collection of computers, networks, protocols, standards, and application programs), nor did it all spring into being at once (the components that comprise the Internet were developed in various places at different times and are continuously being modified, improved, and expanded). Despite a spirited defense of Gore's claim by Vint Cerf (often referred to as the "father of the Internet") in which he stated "that as a Senator and now as Vice President, Gore has made it a point to be as well-informed as possible on technology and issues that surround it," many of the components of today's Internet came into being well before Gore's first term in Congress began in 1977, and it's hard to find any specific action of Gore's (such as his sponsoring a Congressional bill or championing a particular piece of legislation) that one could claim helped bring the Internet into being, much less validate Gore's statement of having taken the "initiative in creating the Internet."

Phaedrus

 

[JinnRikki]

Didn't point it at you in particular. Just happens you were the last in the thread to continue the fallacy. I read it all, I'm not defending Gore, just that particular bit of nonsense that continues to be propagated.

 

[Coast2Coast]

Man Phaedrus, for a bright guy you sure don't get jokes or satire. I assumed by now that everybody knows the Al Gore joke, but apparently even the most intelligent among us don't do humor. And I had tongue firmly in cheek about Spitzer too. Apparently either I assume too much or you simply don't do humor. Sorry to interrupt you from your dour world. Carry on.

And JinnRikki...The original Gore statement in an interview on CNN is pasted below. You can spin this anyway you like. No he did not say he invented the internet...he said....."I took the initiative in creating the Internet." To me, it's a distinction without a difference. Or as they say in DC, "close enough for government work".

BLITZER: I want to get to some of the substance of domestic and international issues in a minute, but let's just wrap up a little bit of the politics right now.

Why should Democrats, looking at the Democratic nomination process, support you instead of Bill Bradley, a friend of yours, a former colleague in the Senate? What do you have to bring to this that he doesn't necessarily bring to this process?

GORE: Well, I will be offering -- I'll be offering my vision when my campaign begins. And it will be comprehensive and sweeping. And I hope that it will be compelling enough to draw people toward it. I feel that it will be.

But it will emerge from my dialogue with the American people. I've traveled to every part of this country during the last six years. During my service in the United States Congress, I took the initiative in creating the Internet. I took the initiative in moving forward a whole range of initiatives that have proven to be important to our country's economic growth and environmental protection, improvements in our educational system.

​

 

[JinnRikki]

Can anyone remember any attorney general...state or Federal...who has seemingly accomplished so much? Al Gore may have invented the internet, but apparently Spitzer is going to be the one to clean it up. You go, dude.

I'm as a rule pretty satire sensitive, but even this one went over my head. That "joke" about Al Gore got played religiously on the "liberal" media making Gore seem buffoonish when all he did was misspeak.
I'm sure glad a certain buffoon never lied....er misspoke us into a unjustified war

 

[Marco]

Nice to see them finally start to clean up and try to eliminate all the spyware and junk that companies throw at our computers.....

Usually it's some moralistic dip$hit coming down the pike with some legislation aimed at banning internet gambling or other consensual activities that people do in the privacy of thier own house....

Like I need to pay a police force to kick the door down of a guy that put $20 on the Yankees.

 

[JinnRikki]

Uh oh, what have we here.

The Webby Lifetime Achievement Award: Former Vice President Al Gore

Setting the record straight on one of recent history's most persistent political myths, The Webby Awards will present Former Vice President Al Gore with The Webby Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of the pivotal role he has played in the development of the internet over the past three decades. Vint Cerf, widely credited as one of the "fathers of the internet," will present Vice President Gore with the award.
http://www.webbyawards.com/webbys/specialwin.php

 

[eek.]

Looks like Mr Gore is entering political satire folklore history
...and that's official