Along with new advertising technologies, there are legal issues that
users and abusers of pop-up ads will have to encounter. AOL and Gator.com
are just a few of the companies that were noticed on separate counts. They
both ran into some trouble abusing new pop-up ad technology and someone
confronted these companies with lawsuits.
Hampton G. Booker and Arthur Sweeney, showed up in court in February
2001, stating that AOL had violated its “Terms of Service” by using pop-up
ads. Since AOL charges their customers on an hourly quota, they argued
that pop-up ads were taking up too much of their time while using the Internet
service, provided by AOL. Eventually AOL on the other hand, argued
that when a customer has a dispute among the “Terms of Service”, it requires
plaintiffs to bring claims to Virginia. Booker and Sweeney then concluded
that “they would have to litigate individual cases in Virginia small claims
court, and to do so would be economically impractical.” [Do not have source]
Many agree with Booker and Sweeney’s argument against the fact that
pop-up ads driven by the Internet service provider takes up valuable time.
The fact that AOL customers have monthly online time quotas, and pop-up
ads are nothing rare, brings up lots of speculation about AOL’s goals.
Clearly subscribers will spend the time fighting off constant pop-up ads,
and then eventually will need to upgrade their quotas to actually get to
do better things than close windows every session.
Another recent case involving pop-up ads is Gator.com v. Interactive
Adverting Bureau (IAB) however this case has not yet reached litigation.
On August 28, 2001 Gator.com filed a lawsuit against the Interactive Advertising
Bureau (IAB), to protect its right to cover up pop-up ads directed by Web
sites. Gator designed a program called the “Companion Pop-up Banner”,
which allows Gator.com sponsored ads to automatically paste themselves
over original pop-up ads. Some critics say that this type of technology
is like putting another cover on top of a magazine. Gator states
that this type of technology is on more than 8 million computers in the
United States alone. The IAB is an internationally known company
that litigates advertising and represents major content sites that rely
on ad revenue to run their business. IAB Chief Executive Robin Webster
said in an interview, “the company's advertising is violating trademark
and intellectual property rights of its member companies. By placing ads
on other companies' Web sites without their authorization, this deceives
the consumer by visually altering the Web sites; it falsely suggests some
affiliation between the Gator ads and the host Web site, and it interferes
with the revenues of the Web sites.” In this situation it seems
that the IAB would be doing the suing, but Gator.com primarily drew the
suits to prevent the IAB from taking legal measure. Gator’s lawyers
declared that when the actual software is installed, the user knows that
it will receive advertisements based on interests, and that consumers can
easily modify the program so it will not cover up any pop-up ads directed
by Websites. Furthermore, Gator says the practice is a service for
consumers, but legal experts say that because Gator is profiting from the
sale of advertising that feeds off another Web site's advertising this
could be a tough legal case for Gator.com.
In both of these cases, the ramifications that will occur are
not as straightforward as they might seem. In the AOL case many rational
citizens will agree, that using up time with pop-up ads paid by the consumer,
is absolutely unjust. This does not only apply for AOL but for Microsoft,
or any other Internet Service Provider that provides interruptions in their
service with advertisements. Sure, the Internet is another form of
media just like the television which thrives on advertisements, but covering
up a television with new ads just like Gator does might be a little too
far fetched for legal analysts to agree with. This might be good
for consumers at the same time, only allowing them to see advertisements
that meet their preferences. Many will agree with perspectives illustrated
by both cases and pop-up ads are merely evolving to become socially acceptable,
just like abrupt television ads.