( LL)Bean sues retailers over pop-up ads

[MaineDem]

L.L. Bean is suing four retailers in an escalation of the Freeport company's battle over pop-up ads on its Web site.

The suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in Portland, names two department store chains - Nordstrom and JC Penney - along with Atkins Nutritionals and Gevalia, a mail-order coffee company. Bean is asking the court for damages and an order barring the companies from allowing their pop-up ads to appear when Internet users access the llbean.com Web site.

Bean blames "spyware" that it says is hidden in many innocent-seeming free programs, such as one that claims to keep a computer's clock synchronized with government atomic clocks. Those programs, offered on the Internet, also track the sites a computer user visits, allowing the software to "pop up" a client's advertisements based on the interests suggested by the record.

The suit says the pop-up ads annoy and frustrate Bean's customers and allow competitors to profit off the company's trademark by making it seem that the ads are sanctioned by Bean. The company's suit contends that computer users don't understand that Bean has no control over the pop-up ads and isn't making money off them.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/local/040518bean.shtml

This could be an interesting case involving ALL pop-ups and spyware.

[displacedtexan]

1. I noticed this when I ordered flowers online...

from a local FTD florist.

A 1-800-flowers ad popped up repeatedly while I was conducting business. I alerted the local florist site. That's just rude, IMHO!

The local site had better prices, a better selection, and lower delivery charges.

[HFishbine]

2. You need this

http://download.com.com/3000-2144-10247783.html

[Supormom]

3. Thanks for the link.

[reprobate]

4. OR get the google toolbar at google.com

Not only a searchbar, but a popup blocker and autofill for online forms. Im using it on both IE6 and Avant browser.