The Federal Trade
Commission (FTC) has reached a short-term
agreement with a video download site accused of bombarding
users with pop-ups and demanding money to make them go away.
Digital Enterprises Inc has entered into an interim agreement with
the FTC to limit its pop-up software and to inform users what the
software will do beforehand.
The deal will apply to three Digital Enterprises video sites:
Movieland.com, Moviepass.tv and Popcorn.net.
The original FTC complaint accused Movieland.com of flooding users'
systems with pop-up windows which played minute-long audio files
and demanded that users pay a $29.95 fee to stop the notices from
appearing.
Pop-ups could not be closed or minimised and the software was
"difficult or impossible" to remove.
The agreement allows all three sites to continue to install the
pop-up software, but limits their frequency to one per hour, five
times a day, and no longer than 40 seconds in length.
Pop-ups are also required to have a button to disable the audio and
allow the notice to be covered by other browser windows.
The end-under license agreement for all three sites requires users
to 'opt out' in order to avoid the fee and pop-ups.
Users are allowed a free three-day trial of the movie-viewing
software and are required to cancel the service during that time in
order to avoid activating the billing pop-ups.
The agreement states that by not manually cancelling within three
days, users are agreeing to pay for the service.
'During the trial period you may cancel by visiting the company
homepage and clicking through the cancellation links,' the
agreement states.
'After the trial period, you must contact customer service (contact
information is on the company homepage) to cancel and pay your
outstanding balance, if any.'
After the trial period, the pop-up software is activated. The
software auto-starts and, according to the company, will continue
to run until the user has paid the $29.95 fee.
The interim agreement means that there will be no preliminary
hearing in the case, which is set to resume in January 2008.
Digital Enterprises will not have to admit to any wrongdoing over
the duration of the agreement.