While you jump up and down about how much Zango stinks, you might wish to remember the law of unintended consequences. CDA? Really? The CDA was designed to help service providers avoid being sued for filtering people it thought, in good faith, should not be posting on their services (remember Compuserv?)

Now - ANY APPLICATION that checks for updates from a server (ie. all of them) can be classified as a "service" under this 9th circuit ruling. So, no security drones, you won't be sued but get ready for all out warfare because the malware guys are going to be able to knock out anything they think, in "good faith" should be filtered and there's nothing you can do about it. If Microsoft doesn't like Mozilla, Mozilla will be filtered and the CDA stops the lawsuit. Google doesn't like Bing, good luck finding Bing - no lawsuit because Google is now a protected CDA service.

Install a piece of freeware on your desktop to clean your registry - BAM! - good luck ever downloading a competing product - they've been "filtered" and because of the CDA (and the fact that the registry cleaner is a "service" because it pings a lousy update server) there are no lawsuits available.

This ruling sucks. Zango should have won despite what you think about Zango or what you think about Kaspersky. Even the judges admit that this is a lousy law written during the stone age and should be updated quickly by the US Congress.

Your shallow take on this not so complex issue gets a FAIL because of your inability to see past good guys and bad guys.

First, I am in agreement with the decision of the court and the ruling of the appellate court.

However... It is important to remember the following:

http://www.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/06/25/07-35800.pdf

-=-

FISHER, J., Circuit Judge, concurring:

I concur with my colleagues that the plain language of the

Communications Decency Act’s “good samaritan” immunity

provision, 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2)(B), given the way Zango has

framed its appeal, compels us to affirm the district court’s

judgment that Kaspersky is immune from liability. Nonetheless,

extending immunity beyond the facts of this case could

pose serious problems if providers of blocking software were

to be given free license to unilaterally block the dissemination

of material by content providers under the literal terms of

§ 230(c)(2)(A). The risk inheres in the disjunctive language of

the statute — which permits blocking of “material that the

provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious,

filthy, excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable,

whether or not such material is constitutionally protected”

— and the unbounded catchall phrase,“otherwise

objectionable.” See § 230(c)(2)(A), (B).

-=-

I believe that this caution come in part by this foot note:

-=-

8Although Amicus National Business Coalition on E-Commerce and

Privacy takes the position that Zango’s software is not objectionable under

§ 230(c)(2)(A), as did Zango in the district court, Zango does not pursue

the issue on appeal except in reply. An amicus curiae generally cannot

raise new arguments on appeal, United States v. Gementera, 379 F.3d 596,

607-08 (9th Cir. 2004), and arguments not raised by a party in an opening

brief are waived. See Eberle v. City of Anaheim, 901 F.2d 814, 818 (9th

Cir. 1990) (“It is well established in this circuit that ‘[t]he general rule is

that appellants cannot raise a new issue for the first time in their reply

briefs.’ ”). Because Zango has not argued that the statute limits the material

a provider of an interactive computer service may properly consider

“objectionable,” that question is not before us.

-=-

One wonders if Zango did frame their appeal better if it would have made a difference. If not, it would have at least made the appellate decision more binding for future cases.

The sad face is because there's a potential loophole that could have been closed.

Hopefully to kneecap future generations of annoying, useless, intrusive companies whose idea of a business model is infiltrating someone elses machine and squatting there.

it won't work on Phorm, but I wish it would.

Either way. FOAD

Take that, bastard Zango! Yay! Way to go Amercan legal system! How do you get rid of Zango? I reformat the drive these days

Why was this case still going if Zango went out of business? Surely they would have said stuff it why should we waste money for a defunct company?

the case contenues dispite the failure of the company because there could be (and in this case are) matters of legal interpritation that need to be decided.

The solution's simple - only ever install software that you control, not software that controls you.

Greetings and salutations.

Here in America, we call it a F***king shovel....(as the joke goes - and yes...this is a VERY on-topic comment)

However, this is a good example of why the CDA is a poorly written law that got pushed through on the emotional wave of "it's for the children"...instead of some rational way of putting up appropriate roadblocks to minimize the chance of an emotionally traumatic image being dumped on a person who is not yet mature enough to deal with it. The law's language SPECIFICALLY targets pornography through most of the text, but, alas, has a really bad "and other objectionable material" clause tossed in at the end. This massive, Big Rig sized loophole is probably the basis of the lawsuit, and, really should be removed.

Actually, I think the whole CDA should be stricken from the books, and, the responsibility of dealing with the kid's exposure to sex be dumped back in the parent's lap, where it used to be and where the responsibility SHOULD be.

But that is just me.

Regards

Dave Mundt