last week, a release from the company described it as a "controversial program." McFadden added at the time that "sometimes one company's groundbreaking innovation can be another's controversial tactic." The release explains that customers who obtain Gator software give permission to have Gator’s banner ads superimposed over the Web sites' ads.
Still, the complaint from the Interactive Advertising Bureau is likely to be followed by other challenges. The association does not have standing to sue Gator in court, as it is not directly affected by the new service. Its members, however, are impacted, and it's likely that they will sue Gator for misappropriating their content. "Given how Web site publishers have reacted to similar practices in the past," says Wong, the attorney at Perkins Coie whose specialty is Internet law, "I think they will be very concerned if Gator is supplanting their advertising content."
Imagine the reaction if a magazine had all its ads torn out and discovered that a competitor had pasted its own ads in their place, Wong says. "It certainly shakes up how we traditionally thought the advertising market was supposed to work."
