In an e-mail interview, Gator CEO Jeff McFadden said his company is operating within its rights.

"We have the right to display this form of advertising. Web site publishers offer consumers free content that comes with advertising, and we do something very similar. We're a software publisher that offers consumers free software applications that come with advertising," McFadden wrote.

What? If I took a broadcast television or radio signal, spliced in my own commercials, and rebroadcasted it so it reached only a segment of it's intended population, people would notice right away, the real advertisors would be pissed, and the FCC would be breathing down my neck.

How is this ad-hijacking even remotely legal?

Gator's one of the worst programs you can run across -- even upon a forced uninstall, the bastard will leave a small snippet of code on the computer that will trickle-download the remainder of the code, and install it behind the user's back. In a few hours or days, depending on the user's connection, Gator will just show up again.

What's that mandate that's being used against the person in the Atlanta school system for his installing Distributed.net on all the school's computers? While I hate that case, if the school district wins, it could effectively make these stealth and forced (without clear and explicit permission from the owner of the machine) installs illegal under US law.

Once that happens, watch these viral marketing companies fold