Only Eliot Spitzer could make me feel sympathetic toward a spyware distributor. The latest target for the hyper-kinetic AG is (alleged) spyware distributor Intermix.
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. of Los Angeles, fell $1.01, or 21 percent, to $3.79 in midday trading 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.
I’m certainly no fan of spyware, and if Intermix relies on that particular business model, shame on them. But is it really up to Eliot Spitzer to protect the world from its own stupidity? He’s already established himself as the uber-SEC, relying on the exchanges’ physical presence in his state to go after securities law issues that are really national in scope. Now he’s taking on another national problem, one that even he admits requires a national resolution.
More than 3.7 million downloads were made to New Yorkers alone and although there is no national estimate, Spitzer seeks a nationwide resolution of the case.“When dealing with these types of online practices, effectively you’re talking about a nationwide resolution because it’s very difficult if not impossible to isolate your practices based on a state,” said Assistant Attorney General Justin Brookman.
Precisely how Spitzer believes a New York court applying New York consumer protection and tort law is to apply a nationwide resolution remains unclear.
The AG faces an uphill battle here, as he appears to concede that much of the software was installed following some form of consent, although he claims it was “vague” and included in a “lengthy” license agreement. The amount of spyware on my PC dropped to zero after I (1) started actually reading those licensing agreements and (2) installed a free program that looks for spyware. All without Eliot Spitzer’s help. Then again, Spitzer’s not a big fan of markets, even though he comes from a town built upon them.
