Applications /

Judge has Gator by the tail

By Ann Harrison
Network World Peer-to-Peer Newsletter, 07/22/02

Gator, the software company that displays unauthorized pop-up advertisements with Web pages, has been ordered by a federal judge to temporarily stop serving ads.

A U.S. District Judge in Alexandria, Va., issued a preliminary injunction against the company pending the resolution of a suit filed against it by angry publishers.

Gator is being sued by 12 publishers, including The Washington Post, The New York Times and Dow Jones. The publishers allege that Gator is stealing advertising dollars from their Web pages, violating their copyrights, and loosening their control over their own content. They are seeking a permanent injunction against Gator and monetary damages for lost ad revenue.

No date has yet to be set for a trial, but it will be interesting to watch.

In a past newsletter, I noted that Gator distributes its ad software to unwitting ad viewers via P2P networks as well as online forms and password software:

www.nwfusion.com/newsletters/fileshare/2002/01418476.html

Gator should be wrestled to the ground for piggybacking their obnoxious ad software onto other programs. Who knows what else the software does aside from siphoning off ad revenue and delivering unwanted pop-ups? Gator claims it has 22 million active users on its ad network, which is used by 400 advertisers. Will the court order and attendant publicity spark a backlash against the company and encourage advertisers to flee? We'll see.

Whatever happens, this latest Gator episode could make Web users reconsider their choice of browser. One reader pointed out that Gator's pop-over tactics do not work on browsers such as Mozilla and Opera. This becomes one more argument against allowing Microsoft to bundle a lousy browser like Internet Explorer with its operating system. The reader says he has been removing Gator from his clients' operating systems for months - and I suggest that you, or your systems administrator, do the same.