One of the primary strategies that some Company’s use to rehabilitate their tarnished image is to change their name and form new divisions which are still owned and controlled by the same old Spyware parent company. This strategy sometimes works, so I think it’s important to document exactly who a Publisher/Webmaster, Network or Advertiser may decide to do business with.

The name game history
Gator is a privately held firm which was formed about six years ago. They distribute Spyware. Many folks first heard about Gator in 2002 when they were sued in federal court by a gaggle of irate publishers which included The Washington Post Co., the New York Times Co., Dow Jones & Co., Tribune Interactive, Gannett Co., Knight Ridder Digital, Condenet and American City Business Journals Inc. The essence of this suit was the assertion that Gator sells ads on their Web sites without authorization and pockets the proceeds. Gator does not share any revenue with the damaged sites. This legal procedure describes Gator this way: “Gator Corp. is essentially a parasite that free rides on the hard work and investment’ of the publishers”
This case was settled privately and as part of the settlement, Gator stopped their morally and ethically reprehensible behavior against the plaintiffs. Having said this, they continue to do this same procedure and or related tricks today under a new Corporate name.
About one year ago Gator changed their name but not their procedures to “Claria Corporation” They are still involved with the following products using the very same Spyware and theft like procedures:
GAIN Publishing®
Kazaa
ScreenScenesTM
WebSecureAlertSM
DashBarSM
Weatherscope®
Gator® eWallet
Date Manager
Precision TimeSM
SearchScout
The Claria Corporation recently saw fit to revise their EULA for Kazaa: “At 5,936 words, the license stretches to 63 on-screen pages as presented by the current Kazaa installer (bundling with Gator). (See screen-shots of the Gator license as presented in June 2004, then requiring 56 on-screen pages.)”
“Here are some notable sections of the license: “You agree that you will not use, or encourage others to use, any unauthorized means for the removal of the GAIN AdServer, or any GAIN-Supported Software from a computer.”
“Gator proceeds to list the “authorized means” for removing Gator — prominently failing to authorize use of popular tools, such as Ad-Aware, Spybot, and Web Sweeper, which millions of users count on to remove unwanted software from their PCs.”
“About four thousand words through its license, Gator demands: “Any use of a packet sniffer or other device to intercept or access communications between GP and the GAIN AdServer is strictly prohibited.” Source
Talk about CYA! While Gator/Claria appears to have the authority to create an EULA any way they wish, it’s apparent to me that the primary goal of this new EULA is not to properly inform a potential user with clear and easy to read terms but rather to confuse them and attempt to limit a consumers rights to install other properly licensed software on their Windows machine. In my 20 or more years of working with software, I have never seen such a long and confusing EULA and I have never seen another company attempt to limit my rights to purchase/license other software.
Finally, if we are to believe the PR spin of Gator/Claria that they are so squeaky clean and embrace the world with their moral high ground and legal compliance, why are they so paranoid about others folks using a sniffer to see exactly what they are doing. What are they hiding? What tricks do they plan to perform which they don’t want others discovering?
About a week ago Gator/Claria announced the formation of a new affiliate network called BehaviorLink.com and a marketing division named Vista Marketing Services. The PR releases indicate that Gator/Claria intends to spend over 100 Million dollars to purchase ROS inventory from Webmasters/Publishers and other networks. That’s a ton of money to spend and certainly believable since Gator/Gain is a darling of the VC crowd and has already received over 58 million in VC funding according to this article. Additionally, Gator/Claria continues to generate buckets of cash profits as in millions of dollars from their operations and has a huge amount of data on it’s 40 million plus users. Finally, their planed IPO and it’s infusion of cash also supports this business plan.
Please join the BehaviorLink.com Affiliate Program
NOT! You can expect to see lot’s of these pitches in the not to distant future. Networks and or Advertisers can expect a solicitation form Vista Marketing Services. A significant number of these folks won’t have a clue of exactly who they are dealing with. Trust me, I’ve observed this fact for over 6 years.
My suggestion for a response:
BehaviorLink.com (or Vista Marketing Services) is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Gator Corporation. Remember Gator? In a 2002 legal case they were described as: “Gator Corp. is essentially a parasite that free rides on the hard work and investment’ of the publishers”
They install Spyware and changed their name to Claria Corporation. Perhaps some of these products which are still distributed by Gator will jog your memory:
GAIN Publishing®
Kazaa
ScreenScenesTM
WebSecureAlertSM
DashBarSM
Weatherscope®
Gator® eWallet
Date Manager
Precision TimeSM
SearchScout
BehaviorLink.com (or Vista Marketing Services) uses a cookie to deliver what they describe as behavioral targeting across multiple member sites. They share this revenue with the members of their network. While I can certainly respect your right to do business with anyone you wish, my own view is rather easy to understand:
Regardless of the monetary reward, I don’t do business with any firm who is currently actively involved and or associated with the distribution of Spyware and or stealing revenue from other sites via pops and overlays which users of many of their products see. I consider all these actions, the Company, related parties, and all their divisions morally and ethically reprehensible.
Final thoughts
Yes I’m twisting my words a little in my suggested response. I always prefer to call them Gator since more folks remember that name and it’s distribution of Spyware and theft. I also don’t get involved in the legality of the issue since I’m not an attorney and many of the pending Spyware laws leave huge holes in them for Gator and it’s ilk to exploit. I am also very polite and civil when I engage folks in a discussion. Never resort to attacks, trolling, insults, baiting, hacking, or any other related techniques in an effort to win the argument and convince folks not to do business with Gator, Claria, Vista Marketing Services, and BehaviorLink.com.

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