New York-based WhenU.com has sued to block Utah's anti-spyware legislation until a constitutional challenge to the law is resolved, the popup advertiser saying the law violates free speech.
WhenU.com attorneys told a Utah judge June 10 that the state's anti-spyware law addressed interstate commerce whose proper jurisdiction federal and not state. Utah argues that the state legislature has a role trying to block interruptions to online transactions.
Utah's Spyware Control Act outlaws creating or installing software that monitors Internet activity and sends information elsewhere without the computer user knowing or approving of those activities. The law was passed earlier in 2004.
WhenU has tangled in court before. Last November, a federal judge turned down Wells Fargo & Company's bid to stop WhenU from sending competitors' ads on the Wells Fargo Website. That judge held that WhenU did nothing worse than "legitimate comparative advertising" without using Wells Fargo trademarks, saying any injunction against WhenU would compromise "the integrity of the competitive process."
Wells Fargo had argued the WhenU popups could confuse people who thought they originated from Wells Fargo's site. "It's important for customers to know who they are dealing with online," the bank said after that ruling, "and we took action to eliminate this source of confusion for our customers."
