Oprano Adult Industry Forums - Judgment Entered Against Programmer Over Porn Pop-ups

RENO, Nev. — A federal judge has granted a default judgment against a software developer who had a hand in infecting computers with spyware and porn pop-ups.

U.S. District Court Judge Howard D. McKibben signed the permanent restraining order against Nevada-based ERG, siding with the Federal Trade Commission’s contention that the company has been deceiving customers with exploitative code.

The judgment, announced Monday, bars programmer Timothy P. Taylor from distributing spyware, adware and pop-up software and requires that he give up revenue, which amounted to less than $5,000.

Taylor ran ERG Ventures, which operated online adult site
PrivateinPublic.com, as well as Media Motor and JoystickSavers.com.
Company co-owners Robert A. Davidson, II., Elliott S. Cameron, and Garry E. Hill also were named in the original suit but litigation in their cases ended in October.

ERG and its principals failed to disclose that free software was bundled with malware, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
Once downloaded, the malware silently activated itself and installed programs that changed consumers’ home pages, tracked their Internet activity, altered browser settings, degraded computer performance and disabled antispyware and antivirus software, the FTC said.

The FTC also said ERG and Taylor used a deceptive End User License Agreement. The EULA claimed to give users the option to halt the installation of the program, but in reality installed the malware no matter what option the user selected.
Microsoft assisted in the investigation of ERG, which began two years ago, the FTC said.

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