I have recently been asked to provide an expert declaration for use in a collective challenge of software and practices of the Gator Corporation, a California firm that, among other activities, sells pop-up advertisements that cover and appear above a variety of web sites. This web page provides access to my declarations as well as selected background material about the case.
Background information about the case. The plaintiffs in this case include the Washington Post Newsweek Interactive Company, Gannett Satellite Information Network, Media West-GSI, the New York Times Company, the Boston Globe Newspaper Company, Dow Jones, Smartmoney, the Chicago Tribute Interactive, Condenet, American City Business Journals, Cleveland Live, and Knight Riddler Digital. Read the plaintiffs' Complaint (PDF) and Memorandum in Support of Preliminary Injunction (PDF) as well as the Court's Preliminary Injunction Order (PDF).
My work in the case. My expert declaration (PDF) details the method of operation of Gator client and server software, the capabilities of this software, and the results observed by end users. My supplemental declaration (PDF) and its attachments (PDF, >1MB) compare Gator's pop-up advertisements to the pop-up messages displayed by leading instant message programs.
Case status: Preliminary injunction granted orally, July 12, 2002. Case reported to be settled, terms are confidential, February 7, 2003.
Related work: My subsequent Documentation of Gator Advertisements and Targeting reports specific Gator advertisements targeted at more than 7,000 web sites. (May 2003)