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In a blow to consumer sanity and large web site ad sales departments, Alexandria VA District Judge Gerald Bruce Lee has ruled pop up ads to be "legal." Lee ruled in favor of WhenU, which had been sued by U-Haul last year for violating trademarks and copyrights.

"Computer users, like this trial judge, may wonder what we have done to warrant the punishment of seizure of our computer screens by pop-up advertisements for secret Web cameras, insurance, travel values and fad diets," the judge wrote in his decision.

But Lee claims users have invited these ads by downloading the software that serves them. "Ultimately, it is the computer user who controls how windows are displayed on the computer desktop."

WhenU and other similar "scumware" slime their way onto users desktops, sometimes in an underhanded way that makes the user feel there is a benefit to the download. It sounds like a good deal until the user is assaulted with an endless barrage of pop-up and pup-under windows.

To those who would say software like this can be added, deleted and controlled by the user is like saying the average Joe can fly the space shuttle. These scumware companies are clearly taking advantage of people’s difficult relationship with technology.

In response to those who claim pop ups cover content, Lee states, "the Windows environment permits a user to open multiple applications and windows at the same time, with the different windows overlapping one another. WhenU's ad is merely another window on the user's computer desktop."

Of course it's just another window, but if one advertiser decided to drape its vinyl over another advertiser's vinyl billboard, that would certainly be deemed illegal. Without sugarcoating it, that is exactly what a pop up ad is doing: stealing potential revenue from another advertiser.