Internet Exec Held Accountable For Adware, Spyware

Ny.Gov, Nov 18, 2005

Brad Greenspan, the founder and former CEO of Intermix Media, will pay 750,000 in penalties

For Immediate Release: October 20, 2005

Former Intermix CEO Agrees to Disgorge Profits

Attorney General Eliot Spitzer today announced an agreement with the former CEO of a leading internet marketing company responsible for secretly installing adware and spyware on millions of home computers.

Under the agreement, Brad Greenspan, the founder and former CEO of Intermix Media, will pay $750,000 in penalties and disgorgement in connection with an investigation of the conduct of his former company.

In April, Spitzer sued the Los Angeles-based Intermix alleging that it was responsible for downloading intrusive software tens of millions of times to computers nationwide, and more than three million times to New Yorkers.

The agreement between Spitzer’s office and Greenspan, an Assurance of Discontinuance, contains a factual recitation alleging that Greenspan directed Intermix’s employees to bundle adware programs with other free software programs to avoid informing consumers of their existence by disclosing Intermix’s adware programs only in a linked, inconspicuous, "End User License Agreement."

Spitzer also announced today that New York Supreme Court Judge Judith Gische had approved a consent agreement between Intermix and Spitzer’s office requiring Intermix to pay $7.5 million in penalties and disgorgement, and accept a ban on the distribution of adware programs in the future. That agreement followed the lawsuit filed in April of 2005.

Department of Law:
The State Capitol
Albany, NY