Editing Spyware (section)

====US FTC actions====
The US [[Federal Trade Commission]] has sued [[Internet marketing]] organizations under the "[[unfairness doctrine]]"<ref>See [[Federal Trade Commission v. Sperry & Hutchinson Trading Stamp Co.]]</ref> to make them stop infecting consumers' PCs with spyware. In one case, that against Seismic Entertainment Productions, the FTC accused the defendants of developing a program that seized control of PCs nationwide, infected them with spyware and other malicious software, bombarded them with a barrage of pop-up advertising for Seismic's clients, exposed the PCs to security risks, and caused them to malfunction. Seismic then offered to sell the victims an "antispyware" program to fix the computers, and stop the popups and other problems that Seismic had caused. On November 21, 2006, a settlement was entered in federal court under which a $1.75&nbsp;million judgment was imposed in one case and $1.86&nbsp;million in another, but the defendants were insolvent<ref>'' [http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/11/seismicodysseus.shtm FTC Permanently Halts Unlawful Spyware Operations] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131102062209/http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2006/11/seismicodysseus.shtm |date=November 2, 2013 }}'' (FTC press release with links to supporting documents); see also [http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/claw/FTCcrackSpyw.pdf ''FTC cracks down on spyware and PC hijacking, but not true lies''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101226184715/http://docs.law.gwu.edu/facweb/claw/FTCcrackSpyw.pdf |date=December 26, 2010 }}, Micro Law, IEEE MICRO (Jan.-Feb. 2005), also available at [https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/stamp/stamp.jsp?arnumber=1411709&isnumber=30580 IEEE Xplore] .</ref>

In a second case, brought against CyberSpy Software LLC, the [[Federal Trade Commission|FTC]] charged that CyberSpy marketed and sold "RemoteSpy" keylogger spyware to clients who would then secretly monitor unsuspecting consumers' computers. According to the FTC, Cyberspy touted RemoteSpy as a "100% undetectable" way to "Spy on Anyone. From Anywhere." The FTC has obtained a temporary order prohibiting the defendants from selling the software and disconnecting from the Internet any of their servers that collect, store, or provide access to information that this software has gathered. The case is still in its preliminary stages.  A complaint filed by the [[Electronic Privacy Information Center]] (EPIC) brought the RemoteSpy software to the FTC's attention.<ref>See [http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/11/cyberspy.shtm ''Court Orders Halt to Sale of Spyware''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101204213706/http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2008/11/cyberspy.shtm |date=December 4, 2010 }} (FTC press release November 17, 2008, with links to supporting documents).</ref>