Editing Spyware (section)

===Civil law===
Former [[New York State Attorney General]] and former [[Governor of New York]] [[Eliot Spitzer]] has pursued spyware companies for fraudulent installation of software.<ref>{{cite press release|title=State Sues Major "Spyware" Distributor |publisher=Office of New York State Attorney General |date=April 28, 2005 |url=http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2005/apr/apr28a_05.html |access-date=September 4, 2008 |quote=Attorney General Spitzer today sued one of the nation's leading internet marketing companies, alleging that the firm was the source of "spyware" and "adware" that has been secretly installed on millions of home computers. |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090110150302/http://www.oag.state.ny.us/media_center/2005/apr/apr28a_05.html |archive-date=January 10, 2009 }}</ref> In a suit brought in 2005 by Spitzer, the California firm [[Intermix Media, Inc.]] ended up settling, by agreeing to pay US$7.5&nbsp;million and to stop distributing spyware.<ref>Gormley, Michael. {{cite news|url=https://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/cpress/20050615/ca_pr_on_tc/spitzer_spyware |title=Intermix Media Inc. says it is settling spyware lawsuit with N.Y. attorney general |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050622082027/http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=%2Fcpress%2F20050615%2Fca_pr_on_tc%2Fspitzer_spyware |archive-date=June 22, 2005 |work=[[Yahoo!]] News |date=June 15, 2005 |url-status=dead}}</ref>

The hijacking of Web advertisements has also led to litigation. In June 2002, a number of large Web publishers sued [[Claria]] for replacing advertisements, but settled out of court.

Courts have not yet had to decide whether advertisers can be held [[Legal liability|liable]] for spyware that displays their ads. In many cases, the companies whose advertisements appear in spyware pop-ups do not directly do business with the spyware firm. Rather, they have contracted with an [[advertising agency]], which in turn contracts with an online subcontractor who gets paid by the number of "impressions" or appearances of the advertisement. Some major firms such as [[Dell Computer]] and [[Mercedes-Benz]] have sacked advertising agencies that have run their ads in spyware.<ref>{{cite news |last=Gormley |first=Michael |url=https://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2005-06-25-companies-spyware_x.htm |title=Major advertisers caught in spyware net |work=USA Today |date=June 25, 2005 |access-date=September 4, 2008 |archive-date=September 20, 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080920222209/http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/computersecurity/2005-06-25-companies-spyware_x.htm |url-status=live }}</ref>