Chock one up for the good guys: Spy/Adware vendors take a hit.

Finally someone who can make a difference gets it.

A Court in Cologne, Germany has prohibited Gator/Claria (a rose by any other name...) from displaying pop-up/pop-under advertisements while surfers are viewing the web site of the Hertz/Autovermietung car rental company.

Hertz/Autovermietung argued that Gator/Claria's software constitutes unfair competition. Gator/Claria could face fines of up to $302,325 or six months in jail for each and every violation of this ruling.

"Gator's unsolicited pop-up ads constitute an unwarranted intrusion that disrupts Hertz's ability to do business with online customers," Remy Keijzer, Hertz's general manager in Germany, said in a statement. "We are gratified that the court in Cologne has recognized that Hertz and its online customers are harmed every time these ads appear, often without the full knowledge and consent of individuals who may have inadvertently installed Gator's adware, or spyware, on their home computers."

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