Many thanks to Will76 and HS-Trixxxia for pointing out those resources and to Pimpdogg for bringing them to my attention too off the board. I will certainly be passing them along.:thumbsup

no problem, give'em hell.

and when you see Zango tell them Will76 said hi. :winkwink:

you also should get in touch with ccbill. I know they have info that can help you are well, and I strongly suspect they are working on something too.

I know it is not much but it can't hurt and certainly can be a good grassroots effort that can be done cheaply but possibly lead to nice counter-measures... everyone that is being effected should be contacting the FTC and filing a complaint...

Will76 - I am sure you have urged that a million times but can't hurt to repeat it.

:thumbsup

You cannot stop someone from linking to you.

god damn i hate morons.

but you sure the hell can stop them from stealing your joins.

wrong thread ? :upsidedow cause that made absolutely no sense in regards to this thread.

Very interesting and kudos to the guys that are actually doing something about the problem.

Just curious as an observor, this company Zango...... who are the principles of the company, is it owned by one guy?... are they American or?? any photos of the owners around on the net to put a face on the company?

Thats a good question someone should dig up some info and post it here.

they are several guys and are in seattle

I did find a picture:








http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/gswithenbank/devil.gif

From what I understand their corporate offices are in Bellevue which is just a hop, skip, and jump from where I am in Seattle.

Before anyone suggests that I just go down there and mow them all down with an uzi forget about it. We like spending money too much on attorneys to let an opportunity like that fall to the wayside... :winkwink::1orglaugh

Your chances against zango is pretty slim, I would suspect their legall team is taking a yearly payroll of someone that ends with 6 zeroes, not to mention the $3 million fine they got by the FTC wasnt even enough for them to bother and move their operations offshore :2 cents:
They can burry you in paperwork for years if they like, so hope you catch them on a good day

Far-L, Trey you might want to check out this url.


www.cjclassaction.com

mighty interesting....

interesting link i see one of the legal teams is in Seattle. Looking at some of the recent cases these guy are dealing with some big stuff....

read this part in particular...

http://www.cjclassaction.com/Carrier...aint_Final.pdf

skip down to the part " B. Adware and Affiliate Commission theft".

It explains the process very well. However in this case it looks like a bunch of CJ affiliates are sueing CJ for allowing some of their affiliates to use "adware" and to not protect their other affiliates from being stolen from.

Sounds familar ? AFF affiliates would have an even better case. It was AFF and not their affiliates who ADMITED to using zango, which took sales away from their own affiliates.

Interesting stuff. I would definetly have your attornies read over it, and if you still looking for one Trey you might want to contact them.

Zango is mentioned but in this case they are going after CJ for allowing it, instead of Zango for doing it.

You know this whole popup issue could of been resolved with the anti spyware billed that was signed back in 2004. I read some were they were rushed for time and and didn't have a chance to discuss it.

Here is a list of some of the co-sponsors of the bill. Maybe if we can get enough
webmaster contacting these people might put a spotlight on this http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquer...8:HR02929:@@@P

You are talking to the owner of a company that took on two law suits at the same time against companies with over $100 million in assets each. Facing off for years against teams of lawyers that make those kind of numbers per year or more.

And anyone who knows me would tell you that I am not hot headed, sue happy, or a gambling man. But I am patient. And I will fight for good causes... like my companies bottom line.

I know, my comment was primary targetted towards pimpdog.
As far as I KNOW you have a trademark which they gained proffits from, they also tarnished your trademark and brand by hijacking customers and delivering content that is not your own content, making the consumer belive it is your content which obviously lower the value of your brand.
Gives you a much stronger case since you can sue for not only lost income but also estimated loss from your brand value.
In your case you should include "Zango & Advertiser(s)", Zango may not be too scared of lawsuits, but I am rather sure the advertiser(s) bidding on the words will be happy to inform who helped them suggest keywords which could place the liability on Zango. Asuming the advertiser is another john doe webmaster working from home trying to earn some easy money.
PS. hit me up on ICQ if you wanna have a small chat

Umm uh...

GOod luck with this?

You are correct - I missed that he is redirecting zango traffic - but I was generalizing about sponsors - most dont do that.
The other problem with this approach is that looking for the user-agent zango and the other three he mentioned - misses about 80% of the similar programs like simbar, funwebproducts(I didnt mean to connect them company-wise - they are just the same type of product), claria,spamblockerutility,powersearch,mywebsearch, trustyhound and hundreds more user-agents - which all do exactly the same thing.

Please dont get me wrong - if he is blocking zango traffic - Im all for it and think all sponsors should do it - take the hit to sales for a month - as it is the only way to get them to stop since it then affects their bottom line as advertisers wont want to buy the traffic

Far-L - didnt mean to generalize too much - I knew that one or two sponsors were doing something about it - but I think you will find that most dont even care one way or the other

p1mpdogg and Far-L
I have an idea that I hope will give all of us a better understanding of the reach of the problem - since you are both willing to give up a little to fix this problem - so am I. I will set you both up to get a bunch of aff traffic daily - for p1mpdogg if you have a way you can track how many of those referrals get redirected due to your detection script - then we can see just how much of an effect its really having. I will get up a list of the user-agents that are known about that have these effects on the affiliate codes and join pages - and in return (while it wont be tons of signups) you'll get some of my better spots

Id also be willing to set up a PC with most of these user-agents to see which aff codes are being replaced and with whose if you are willing to go to that position?

I dont get it. What exactly does this Zango do

You can either search on GFY - there's enough info to keep you reading for days or you can go http://www.benedelman.org/ and see it all in action, detailed to perfection.

I remember getting lots of spam mail from these fuckes a while back

what is sites?

My atty is already in the process of getting us on the exclusion list, which means he's probably doing his research right now. If you want to jump on board for this process you can send me an email and I'll forward it to him and see what he says.

Are you guys going to stop there (get put on the list) or go after them even if your url is added ?

been there done that. zango just laughs at you. my attorney did the same thing and they ddid nothing bout it

Damn... you are on the ball here... you must be an attorney or definitely paying one...

I don't use icq but if you use im then I am hgtimlake AT hotmail DOT com

Very generous and much appreciated. :thumbsup

From what I can tell, every time they've been sued they've settled for large amounts. If they don't do what I ask, then I go after them. Fuck those guys, I hate malware installing motherfuckers. No skin off my nose if they want to take it to court.

Can't live without lawyers in todays market I'm affraid, I'm not a lawyer but definately spend too much time with them...
Added you on MSN, I'm heading to WTE Prague tomorrow early morning so I'll be hard to catch during the next days including tonight, still havent considered I need to pack too :helpme

park my cheeky sig here

that is what i am hoping for. get a settlement and put me on the list. doesnt look like I can do much for anyone else besides me and my affiliates

better than nothing. If you get settlement then other companies will try for the same, sooner or later zango will have to put its foot down and stop the bleeding and try the case.

Any progress on your end ?

See sig to make a difference.

Again, see sig. These are AB rated attorney firms who aren't afraid of the big bad Zango. Damn, just look at it! :disgust

i have 2 meetings tomorrow with 2 dif attorneys. Ill know after toimorrow if i have a lawyer or not. I have all the proof i need, but im having a hell of a time finding an attorney to take the case. they are either too busy, or out of state or dont even understand what im taking about with zango and do not know anywhere in seattle to refer me to.
like i said i found that sounded like they can help me though