Washington AG Sues Web Movie Sites for Adware
Washington State has accused four companies in Southern California of violating Computer Spyware Act and Consumer Protection Act regulations in the Evergreen State. A lawsuit was filed Monday in King County Superior Court in Seattle.
“Defendents in our suit promote a movie download service through Web sites including Movieland.com that offer consumers a free three-day trial,” said in a statement Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna. “After the trial period, consumers are inundated with pop-ups that appear at least hourly and subject the consumer to a 40-second payment demand.”
A video pop-up gave viewers only two options: make a payment or close the window and be reminded later about payment. If they chose the second option they were bombarded them with the same video reminder at least once an hour, “effectively disabling” their computers until they arranged payment, according to McKenna’s office.
Some consumers paid $20 to $100 to stop the pop-ups.
Users who clicked through the pop-up to an FAQ site for the download services — variously named Movieland.com, Moviepass.tv and Popcorn.net — were told that failure to pay either the subscription or the license fee could hurt their credit rating. They were also prevented from uninstalling the download software or the adware via the Windows control panel.
The complaint names Digital Enterprises, Alchemy Communications, AccessMedia Networks and Innovative Networks, along with Digital Enterprises’ Easton A. Herd and Alchemy’s Andrew M. Garroni, both of Los Angeles.
If found guilty, the defendants could be fined $100,000 each per violation and could also be compelled to pay restitution to consumers.
