Ben Edelman is putting his Harvard Law degree to good use. The renowned spyware expert has filed an epic lawsuit against Yahoo!, according to a report by the Washington Post’s Brian Krebs yesterday::
A class-action lawsuit filed Monday against Yahoo! Inc. and group of unnamed third-parties accuses the company of engaging in “syndication fraud” against advertisers who pay Yahoo to display their ads on search results and on the Web pages of partner Web sites. The suit claims that Yahoo displayed these advertisers’ online ads via spyware and adware products and on so-called “typosquatter” Web sites that capitalize on misspellings of popular trademarks or company names.
Potentially more explosive is the plaintiff’s claim that Yahoo regularly uses its relationship with adware and typosquatting sites to gin up extra revenue around earnings time, alleging that the company is conspiring to boost revenue by partnering with some of the Internet’s seamier characters.
This is an escalation of an argument Ben has been making for some time now: Spyware couldn’t exist without the support of the companies that advertise through spyware networks. On his personal site, he’s documented the connection between big-name advertisers and spyware networks and Yahoo’s relationship with those shady networks. A PDF copy of the lawsuit is here.
As Ben has shown time and again, legitimate companies try to maintain plausible deniability for their relationships with these scummy networks. But those denials just don’t stand up to close scrutiny.
I hope this lawsuit scares the bejesus out of the legitimate companies that have been turning a blind eye to their complicity in these sordid schemes. The legal system isn’t fast, but it can be inexorable.
Go get ’em, Ben.
Ed Bott 
Indeed, applause for Ben.
The advertising world is slowly waking up to understand they’ve been being “played” by distributors of CPC ads. It doesn’t stop at Yahoo, friends. Case in point: shopping comparison search is also a filthy pit ready to create problems for the industry.
Example: Nextag’s involvement with adware purveyor WhenU. Yes, that’s right — shopping comparision engines are also in on the “guess where we’re distributing your ads?” game as they look to scale clicks and share the booty with anyone who can produce them. Transparency to the advertiser? Zero.
The below entry resulted in calls from a few VP’s (i.e. PriceGrabber wanted to be sure and distance themselves from the practice) and a very irritated WhenU marketing wonk. It relates directly to the transparency issue that is biting Yahoo in the bum. It’s not limited to “traditional” search engines… it’s widespread.
What’s stoping advertisers from going after NexTag?
http://www.revenews.com/jeffmolander/archives/000768.html