Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Small Co. to Defend Pop-Up Internet Ads

D-Squared, run by two college students, was told last month by the FTC to stop using the Windows Messenger feature to promote its products which are designed to turn off the Messenger feature. The Messenger feature was implemented for use by system administrators to send messages, in the form of pop-ups, to users, but has been highjacked recently by spammers. D-Squared was using the Messenger feature to promote a $29.95 product that would turn off the feature, a process that can be done by the user at no cost. Calling this extortion, the FTC barred D-Squared's practices.

Calling their use of the Messenger feature "no more harmful than roadway speed bumps or television commercials," D-Squared will take the unusual step of going against the FTC order and is in the process of developing its defense.