Today: Melons, and lots of them

Two for a pound! Get em' while they're ripe!

Of course, I'm not referring to your common or garden market-stall melons - oh no. I am, in fact, referring to the fine art of the porno popup. Ah, where would we be without frantic BLAAARGHWHATSTHATMIDGETDOINGTOTHEOCTOPUS - type howls of anguish, as six thousand individual popups lurch onto your PC at the exact moment your mother walks into the room with a "lovely cup of tea dear", before breaking down into hysterics wondering where her little Jimmy went wrong?

Ben Edelman wades bravely into the fray, taking one for the team and ploughing through pornographic popup after pornographic popup. It's okay, people - he's a trained professional. Never attempt this yourself, because a controlled environment (preferably with no priests, nuns or hysterical family members) is always called for in situations like this.

But wait - why exactly was Ben checking out these ads?

Well, he wanted to show us the kind of BANTHISSICKFILTH material that springs onto your PC when being led down PC hijack redirect Lane (like Memory Lane, but filthier). Not that I ever check out online dating sites, or anything like that. Er - well, maybe in the line of duty. And my fake profiles are purely in the interest of spyware research.

ANYWAY >>>>

Direct Revenue - who promised never to spring porno pops unless from "adult sites" - pop up a whole gaggle of pictures all about teens, really happy men and something that sounds a bit like "nasal" (but probably isn't). This happens by means of a whole bunch of redirects forced onto an infected PC.

Of course, we then get into the whole stupidity-fest of exactly what constitutes an "adult site", but as Ben says:

In this example, I did not request any adult web site. Neither did I actually view any adult material (prior to the material shown by Direct Revenue): The AdultFriendFinder page at issue cannot be categorized as "adult," because it includes no sexually-explicit images. In short, on these facts, I see a strong argument that Direct Revenue violated its duties under its settlement agreement.

Three oranges for a pound, and I'll throw in a banana!

At this point, not only would I like to hail Ben for another kickass writeup - I'd like to salute his mad crazy MSPaint skills (or whatever it was that he used). Because oh God, the amount of "things and stuff" he had to blank out in some of those screenies is just terrifying. In particular, his coverage of the Look2Me/ Ad-w-a-r-e daisy chain is a lesson in blanking out ruderies. I count at least thirty edits...God, I'd have got carried away and started drawing cowboy hats on everybody.

In any case, read, digest and then waggle a vaguely accusatory finger at Direct Revenue, ZenoTechnico, AlmondNet and, er, all the others. Or something.