Pop-Ups, While Annoying, are not Illegal says Court   1/7/2005 - 865 views, 1 Comment

No, I thought not.

Unfortunately, like loud cellphones, cigars at outdoor bistros, and over-application of cheap perfume, while they are annoying as all get-out, they are not illegal. That is the ruling of the Utah Court of Appeals in a case in which the plaintiff attempted to apply Utah’s anti-spam statute to pop-up ads.

At issue were the pop-up ads of Celebrity Cruise Lines, a cruise line which itself popped-up from Royal Carribean Cruises.

While others have filed lawsuits over pop-up ads, this is thought to be the first attempt to apply an anti-spam statute to the less-than-popular form of advertising.

However the action was doomed to failure because, as the Court said, the anti-spam statute was “limited to e-mail sent to e-mail addresses and pop-ups are not sent to e-mail addresses, pop-up ads simply do not come within the act’s definition.”

On the bright side, the law under which the lawsuit was brought was actually repealed a few months ago by the state of Utah, so while they are drafting a new anti-spam law, perhaps they will take this ruling into account.