A Law Professor, Eric Goldman’s analysis of court ruling in favour of computer users and against adword vendors like Direct Revenue says that they should use mandatory non-leaky, clickthrough agreements.


Eric Goldman, Assistant Professor of Law at Marquette University Law School, has analysed the court ruling in favour of computer users and against Direct Revenue. He says it is mandatory for adware vendors to use non-leaky, clickthrough agreements.

A law suit was filed against Direct Revenue in April: “A class action lawsuit claims that the Defendants are involved in installing
“spyware” on millions of computers without the computer owners’ consent, utilizing it to track the Internet browsing habits of the owners and then send them intrusive targeted “pop-up” ads.”

In June Direct Revenue argued that the court ought to dismiss the case because the users must have seen the End User License Agreement and clicked through to agree to it, thus effectively telling a court of law that its software is always installed with the user’s full knowledge and consent, despite numerous statements indicating otherwise by users seeking help to remove it.

In response to an argument that individual advertisements can be easily closed, so they cannot cause a legal injury, the court ruled that this “ignores the reality of computer and Internet use, and plaintiff’s allegation that part of the injury is the cumulative harm caused by the volume and frequency of the advertisements. The fact that a computer user has the ability to close each pop-up advertisement as it appears does not necessarily mitigate the damages alleged by plaintiff, which include wasted time, computer security breaches, lost productivity, and additional burdens on the computer’s memory and display capabilities.”

To read the court document click here.

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