Judge sets precedent upholding users’ rights to block badware.
A lawsuit brought by adware-pusher
Zango
against
Kaspersky Lab
was dismissed last week, with the judge in the case finding that software could offer users the option to block anything that could be considered inappropriate or undesirable. The decision could set an important precedent for the security industry, effectively ruling that ‘greyware’ can be blocked without fear of retribution.
The same judge had earlier thrown out a similar case brought by
Zango
against
PC Tools
, which was later withdrawn by
Zango
. The
Kaspersky
case, having continued as far as a final judgement, now seems to make future attempts by spyware and adware makers to protest their innocence in court unlikely to get far.
The ruling, based on the terms of the 1996 ‘Communications Decency Act’, finds that software makers cannot be held liable for blocking access to anything which could be found objectionable, essentially placing the responsibility for the decision to block a given item on the end user. Eugene Kaspersky, CEO of
Kaspersky Lab
, said he was ‘thrilled’ with the decision.
A release on the case is at
Kaspersky
here
.
Zango
bloggers, usually the first to respond to events involving the company, have yet to discuss the result – their blog is
here
.
Posted on 07 September 2007 by
Virus Bulletin
Leave a Reply